Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect (SCAN) for Schools Webinar (New Jersey Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics)

@Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz posted:

This makes my stomach hurt. What are the protocols for reporting? We have a HUGE problem of creating toxic stress for families experiencing poverty by over-reporting suspected abuse. My experience has been teachers are mandated to turn it in if there is even a hint of possible abuse/neglect. 
Something must change. Families need our help. Not policing. Are there times there is simply no other option but to remove children?

Absolutely. BUT more often than not it is poverty and NOT neglect/abuse...

Please tell me this event is speaking to the new way of doing child welfare which wraps around a family instead of just making welfare calls and pulling kids from the home...

i sympathize with your emotional state Rebecca but------ 

I feel it most important to #PutKids1st always. 

There are many cases where parents are abusive to their kids deliberately.   

I understand poverty and the limitations that go along and I also have met many parents who have such severe mental illness and personality distortions that they purposely harm their kids and get pleasure from this. 

We would get much farther I believe if we analyzed and understood how the infant develops a personality in context of relationship with the other (first the mother) as opposed to the limited information that can be gained from ACEs.  The ACEs information doesn't shine a light on the ultimate etiology - which is how who we are is developed in the context of our earliest relationships for better or for worse.    

Can we love properly?  Are we possessed of empathy?  Can we take perspective?   Do we Mentalize?    Do we gain pleasure and feel powerful by creating pain and terror in a small child?   Who we are is determined by the quality of our earliest relationships for better or for worse.  

The Narcissist has no boundaries and has no empathy and many have no problem using the child as an object for personal gratification.  The same is true of the Psychopath and for many Borderlines.   

@Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz posted:

This makes my stomach hurt. What are the protocols for reporting? We have a HUGE problem of creating toxic stress for families experiencing poverty by over-reporting suspected abuse. My experience has been teachers are mandated to turn it in if there is even a hint of possible abuse/neglect. 
Something must change. Families need our help. Not policing. Are there times there is simply no other option but to remove children?

Absolutely. BUT more often than not it is poverty and NOT neglect/abuse...

Please tell me this event is speaking to the new way of doing child welfare which wraps around a family instead of just making welfare calls and pulling kids from the home...

We agree; our hope is that by providing this education to school staff they will be able to better support and strengthen families! This webinar provides an overview about what abuse/neglect is, to ensure that school staff understand these definitions under NJ law. In New Jersey, everyone (not just school staff) is a mandated reporter and are required by law to report any suspected child abuse and neglect. That being said, we are also well versed at talking first about how to help families. We do not believe that just because a family is in poverty they are being neglectful. We emphasize how all school staff can help families. We also discuss topics such as bullying, explain ACEs and review the ACEs study, social determinants of health. Staff from New Jersey's child protection and child welfare agency also join us to describe the process that happens after a report is made, and the efforts that they undertake to keep families together and help children thrive.

This makes my stomach hurt. What are the protocols for reporting? We have a HUGE problem of creating toxic stress for families experiencing poverty by over-reporting suspected abuse. My experience has been teachers are mandated to turn it in if there is even a hint of possible abuse/neglect. 
Something must change. Families need our help. Not policing. Are there times there is simply no other option but to remove children?

Absolutely. BUT more often than not it is poverty and NOT neglect/abuse...

Please tell me this event is speaking to the new way of doing child welfare which wraps around a family instead of just making welfare calls and pulling kids from the home...