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The Risk and Prevention of Maltreatment of Children with Disabilities
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Series: Bulletins for Professionals |
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Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
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| Year Published: 2001 |
Conclusion
Children with disabilities are more at risk of abuse and neglect than children without disabilities. The factors that place these children at higher risk include factors that place all children at risk of maltreatment in addition to other risk factors that are more directly related to disabilities. These include:
- Societal attitudes about disabilities
- Peoples' reactions to, and interactions with, children with disabilities (including family members and non-family caregivers)
- Factors that relate to the disability itself
- Program policies and procedures governing the care of children by others.
Primary prevention efforts can improve conditions for all families that have children with disabilities and secondary prevention programs can target children and families who are at high risk of maltreatment. Prevention strategies can attempt to improve:
- Societal attitudes
- Federal policies
- Family dynamics
- Children's knowledge and safety skills
- Programs' policies and procedures.
To justify more funding for prevention programs, including services for children and families and training for professionals, further research is needed to understand the scope and nature of the problem. Better documentation of disabilities in the Child Protective Services system would assist in this process. Current prevention programming should be evaluated to determine its effectiveness. Finally, as Sobsey (1994) states, "… before this problem can be successfully managed, society must adopt attitudes that allow all of its members to see the problem, recognize that it must be addressed, and believe that meaningful change is possible" (p. 304).
This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare Information Gateway.