To stop child abuse, tackle adult substance abuse

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, an occasion for launching public awareness campaigns that will hopefully enhance local efforts to prevent child abuse, abandonment and neglect. As the leader of ChildNet, the lead agency responsible for managing the foster care systems in Broward and Palm Beach counties, I am delighted to report that such efforts in both counties are currently both substantial and effective. The rates at which local children are being removed from their homes and placed into foster care because of substantiated abuse, abandonment and neglect are currently as low as they have been in a decade. This is not some byproduct of the pandemic, but rather the result of great collaboration and great work by nearly all the local funders and providers of child welfare, family support and behavioral health services in both counties.

Still, while child abuse has decreased locally, it certainly has not disappeared. During the last state fiscal year, 1,375 Broward and Palm Beach children were removed from their homes following the investigation and substantiation of a report of child abuse. We can, and must, substantially reduce that number, but to do so requires more than simply increasing awareness.

To end child abuse, we must recognize how complex and challenging abusive situations can be. We must acknowledge that most cases of local child abuse are symptoms of especially daunting adult, and societal, problems — predominantly substance abuse and domestic violence. Of those 1,375 local children removed last year, their parents’ substance abuse was listed as a reason for their removal in more than half the cases. For 27% of them, their exposure to domestic violence was cited as a reason. This year’s trends are eerily similar. Through the first six months of the current state fiscal year, there have been 640 removals, and adult substance abuse was cited as a cause in 51%, while domestic violence was cited in 23% of them.

Continuing to reduce local child abuse, therefore, demands the expanded funding and use of interventions that have recently demonstrated success with these adult challenges, such as medicated assisted treatment and peer support. It will require abandoning traditional but ineffective approaches and experimenting with new, innovative approaches. It will require expansion of community supports and resources, including housing and employment, to strengthen families and guard against relapse and recidivism. We have done a lot and done it well. We need to do more and do it better. Our children, our families and our communities need and deserve no less.

By Larry Rein