Preventing Child Abuse With Respite Care

Although it is the wish of most delivering physicians to believe that the little babies they help bring into the world will go home to good, loving homes where parents are welcoming of them, the...

Although it is the wish of most delivering physicians to believe that the little babies they help bring into the world will go home to good, loving homes where parents are welcoming of them, the reality is frequently quite different. Especially in poverty stricken areas of the country where unwed teens or young mothers in abusive relationships are having children, the odds of child abuse and neglect occurring are great.

Preventing child abuse with respite care is a program option that seeks to ease those who have barely made it out of childhood themselves into the role of parenthood. Under this program, respite care is provided to parents and other family caregivers who might find that the sudden demands placed on them by and infant is too great to make an immediate adjustment. While initially the response was less than favorable, parents quickly cam to understand that their utilization of this program was not met with criticalness or judgment but instead the simple understanding that a parent needed a break.

As children were placed temporarily in the care of qualified individuals who would look after them while the parents had a chance to just get away for a bit, the incidents of child abuse, neglect, and also harm that could come to the little ones at the hands of unskilled babysitters has been greatly reduced. In some cases the respite care program was expanded to also include families who had already experienced the incidents of abuse or even neglect and so, in addition to anger management techniques and parenting classes, parents have the option of just taking a night off.

Federally funded, this respite program is known as crisis nursery care and it specifies that any one family may benefit from it up to 30 days per calendar year. The care is available on a 24 hour basis and there are only a few exceptions of program participants who will not welcome a child at any hour of the day or night. It is important to point out that this form of respite care does not only apply to newborns or infants but that various programs around the country admit children all the way up to their 18th birthday. Social workers and hospital case managers will have the resources to refer a family to a respite care program that is age appropriate for the children in their household.

Sometimes respite care in this environment is also coupled with other services that may be less apparent than parenting classes; there is family counseling and also employment assistance. In some cases it is help with home economics that will put a family back on the right track. When substance abuse by the parents is suspected or has been validated, then help with these narcotics problems is also provided while respite care is ongoing. The goal is to keep the families intact by removing the external influences that would otherwise tear them apart and place the children at the risk of abuse or neglect.

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