The Relationship Between Abuse and Harm

You are required to develop an assessment plan for a 7 year old child who you suspect is being neglected. It has been alleged that her parents leave her at home when they go out at night. She exhibits signs of malnourishment and developmental delay.

1. List 5 people or groups you would seek information from to contribute to your assessment plan.
2. List 4 signs/ indicators of neglect in the child and 5 signs/indicators in the parents.
3. What is the legal definition of abuse?
4. What key factors need to be considered when determining the likelihood and probability of cumulative harm occurring? 
5. During the assessment you interview the parents and they tell you the child has a fast metabolism and was always “a bit slow”. Can you categorically state that the child is being neglected in this example?
6. The five people or groups who could contribute in the development of the assessment plan are as follows:

• A pediatrician who conducts a physical examination of the child
• A speech pathologist who tests the receptive and expressive abilities  of the child
• A psychologist who analyses the level of cognitive functioning
• An occupational therapist to test the motor skills in the child  such as jumping, throwing, drawing
• The parents of the child who spend maximum  time with the children

1.  The four signs of neglect in the child are as follows:

• The child being underweight for his /her age group
• Poor  hygiene standards
• Longing for or seeking adult affection
• The child showing violent behaviour such as head banging

The five signs of neglect depicted by the parents are:

• Leaving the child alone without much supervision
• Unable to provide psychological nurturing
• Levies the pressure of unrealistic expectations on the child
• Unable to comprehend the requirements of the child
• Abuse is an act which hampers the virtue of trust within a relationship and is often initiated by someone close to the person.

1. Abuse is a breach of trust within a relationship where the human rights of an individual are breached. In most of the cases, the abuse is inflicted upon an individual by someone close or known.
2.  The factors which results in the likelihood and probability of cumulative harm occurring are as follows:

• Past history of abuses within the child’ s family
• The nature of seriousness of the harm has been escalated manifold times
• Presence of alcoholic parents or the ones addicted to drug abuse
• History of avoidance of statutory child protection  Act by the family

1. No. In that case the child has to refer to a general physician or more specifically a paediatrician who would conduct a full health check up of the child to identify the existing problem.

Child has disclosed to you that they are being abused by an uncle on a regular basis. The accusation has been substantiated and an intervention plan has been put in place. As the child’s parents were not provided with the opportunity to take part in the decision making process they have now made a complaint. Please elaborate on the steps for making a formal complaint linked to policies and procedures 

1. What is the best way to handle the complaint?

A: one of the possible methods to handle complaints is to be transparent about the effect of these changes or the interventions and the impact of these on the future life of the child and their respective families. As mentioned by Moore et al. (2015), the clients need to be provided with sufficient opportunity to rise a question regarding a particular intervention policy or approaches and their query should be satisfactorily answered.

The complaints could be redressed in a number of ways such as –

• Designing a problem oriented framework
• Defining the problem
• Generation of alternate solutions for the redressal  of the problem situation
• Inculcation of the family members of the child within the decision making process
• Trial  and verification of the solution before implementation
• Constant monitoring of the application of the solutions

What is the process to resolve a complaint?

A: The process of resolving the complaint of the client could be divided into step wise procedure as follows:

Use of open question to comprehend the level of client’s understanding – asking the client to paraphrase the information in his own words- asking the client’s to summarize the entire situation- provision of justified explanation to the clients.List the 7 (seven) steps to referral and discuss how strong communication processes are imperative to the referral process.tHESE steps begin with ‘identify presenting issue’, ‘determine need for referral’ etc.

A: The seven steps to referral are as follows:

• Recording and filing the complaint about the specific issue faced by the child and his family
• Investigation of the complaint a maintaining the  confidentiality norms
• Providing clear information to the client regrading the a particular step /measure which had been implemented
• Recording the outcome of the implementation of a particular  plan
• Acting on the implemented actions
• Following up with the client to ensure successful delivery of child support and care
• Referring the client in case of insufficient results being obtained

Communication serves as a very important aspect in facilitating the process of referral.  In this context, communication with a child often becomes difficult for the purpose of trust and safety issues. As commented by Lonne & Gillespie (2014), a child feels the safest within the company of his/her parents. Therefore, escalating the issues faced by them to an unknown person may be difficult.  Additionally, the communication could face a number of hindrances over here such as language and cultural differences. The difference between the cultural beliefs could also result in gaps or loopholes within the child care and services.

Additionally, providing detailed information regarding the intervention plan and explanation with sufficient empathy regrading particular intervention policies can be helpful. As mentioned by Cossar  et al.(2014), inculcation of the client in the decision making process along with highlighting the policies and the procedures most effectively can be useful.

Outline the measures that are taken to ensure information is kept in confidence and in line with organisation policy as swell as legislation.

For the confidential record keeping of the details shared by the children and their respective families a number of policies and procedures need to be incorporated. Some of these policies help in safe sharing of information across the network. For example, the privacy Act (1988) can help in the prevention and safe sharing of the valuable information. Additionally, the information to be shared needs to be consented with the family members of the child as per the policy of informed decision making (Fernandez & Atwool, 2013).

References

Cossar, J., Brandon, M., & Jordan, P. (2016). ‘You’ve got to trust her and she’s got to trust you’: children’s views on participation in the child protection system. Child & Family Social Work, 21(1), 103-112.

Fernandez, E., & Atwool, N. (2013). Child protection and out of home care: Policy, practice, and research connections Australia and New Zealand. Psychosocial Intervention, 22(3), 175-184.

Lonne, B., & Gillespie, K. (2014). How do Australian print media representations of child abuse and neglect inform the public and system reform?. Child abuse & neglect, 38(5), 837-850.

Moore, S. E., Scott, J. G., Ferrari, A. J., Mills, R., Dunne, M. P., Erskine, H. E., … & McCarthy, M. (2015). Burden attributable to child maltreatment in Australia. Child abuse & neglect, 48, 208-220.

Schmied, V., Homer, C., Fowler, C., Psaila, K., Barclay, L., Wilson, I., … & Kruske, S. (2015). Implementing a national approach to universal child and family health services in Australia: professionals’ views of the challenges and opportunities. Health & social care in the community, 23(2), 159-170.