Children Will Be The Real Victims Of Budget Cuts

No matter how many years I’ve practiced pediatrics, I always feel a sinking sensation when I must treat an abused or neglected child.

It is not easy to care for a child with broken bones, cigarette burns, or a child who has been raped or molested.

I’ve come to learn that the problems of child abuse and neglect are complex and the solutions have to be varied.

As a physician, I volunteer on the Child Protection Team and boards of non-profit, child-serving agencies. Each of us can contribute to the solutions and our entire community must be mobilized to help families and children thrive.

But I’m feeling that same sinking sensation as I read about legislative budget decisions eliminating vital programs for over 8,000 children and families in Spokane.

Apparently, that’s part of the problem: These programs were funded in only four counties in the state so many legislators from other districts don’t understand the way our community has embraced these efforts and stretched those state dollars with volunteer work and donations.

The Legislature wants local community networks to set local priorities for responsive services to children and families.

But the networks they propose are just getting organized and are at least a year away from developing comprehensive plans. They forget that a local advisory committee of citizen volunteers chose Spokane’s Continuum of Care programs seven years ago.

We dare not risk losing these vital resources while we wait for creation of a local network.

Continuum of Care programs in Spokane include:

Deaconess Regional Center for Child Abuse and Neglect, coordinating all services to abused and neglected children and their families.

Family Resource Specialists, serving children in Spokane and Central Valley school districts to intervene before Child Protective Services is needed.

Volunteers of America Alexandria’s House, a transitional home for pregnant and parenting teens and their babies.

Spokane Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Center, in its Early Intervention Project provides a parent aide to support and encourage families at risk of child abuse and neglect.

Martin Luther King Center provides a homebased parent outreach program designed to support and assist families in crisis and to provide case management services for those involved with Child Protective Services.

The Continuum of Care programs, which exist only in Spokane, Snohomish, south King and Lewis counties, are eliminated in both the House and Senate versions of the budget.

The Senate budget is even worse for Spokane because it also eliminates funds for the Volunteers of America’s Crosswalk which, for the past 10 years, has offered outreach, shelter, meals, counseling, education and tender loving care to homeless youth. Crosswalk’s goal is to help young people leave the streets by re-uniting families, finding safe placements, providing survival necessities and teaching selfsufficiency. I was shocked last year to see the number of youth served by Crosswalk jump to 1,900. As a community, we need to do still more, not less, for these troubled young people and their families.

Finally, a program cut important to me and my colleagues is the Training on Recognition and Diagnosis of Sexual Abuse offered to medical professionals by Harborview Sexual Assault Center.

Many doctors did not have this training in medical school or residency. This state-of-the-art training is nationally recognized as an innovative and successful means to prevent and treat sexual assault. We want to be accurate when we diagnose this heinous crime and up-to-date education is essential.

Legislators need to hear from their constituents about the importance of having these thoughtful responses available for our children and families.

MEMO: David Moershel is a pediatrician practicing in the Spokane Valley. He has served on the boards of SCAN and the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery.