Everyone pays for abuse, neglect
Mary Ann Murphy is chairwoman of the Washington Council for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect and executive director of Partners with Families and Children: Spokane, a program sponsored by Deaconess and Sacred Heart medical centers for children who are abused, neglected, endangered by drugs or exposed to violence.
She participated in an online chat Thursday afternoon at The Spokesman-Review. Here is an edited transcript of the chat. To read more, go to spokesmanreview.com/ourkids/chats.
Q: What are some of the ways we know that child abuse winds up taking a larger social and economic toll, beyond the individual victims?
Murphy: There’s a really fascinating study done at Kaiser-Permanente that examined the health histories of 13,000 people and identified “adverse childhood experiences,” such as growing up in a household where there was child abuse and neglect, violence, substance abuse, mental illness, imprisonment, or loss of a parent. They then tracked the health histories for these people and found that those who had more than four of these experiences were much more likely to pick up addictive behavior or became obese, and to deal with disease, disability or early death. And of course there’s a cost associated with each one of those health conditions.
Q: What are some of the ways that child abuse affects the school system and criminal justice system?
Murphy: We know that children who grow up in chaotic and unpredictable environments have to use all of their energy just to concentrate on their own survival. Clearly, many of these children then need remedial programs. Then the great big numbers involving return on investment show up when you prevent involvement in the criminal justice system. A year in prison costs more than a year in most colleges – $16,000 to $20,000 at the low end. That would pay for a lot of early intervention.
Q: In the research of the economic benefits of early intervention, what are the one or two key elements that make a difference?
Murphy: Programs that are successful in engaging families and getting parents involved in their children’s education show the greatest effect over time. For example, Head Start offers stimulating learning activities for the children, but most of the effects on the individual children are washed out by third grade. However, you can still tell a Head Start kid at high school graduation because the program’s effectiveness in involving parents has lasted throughout their school career.
Q: When we talk about early intervention in families, how early is early enough?
Murphy: Before that twinkle in the eye, is what I’d say. I really support programs teaching students in high school about parenting and child care. But here’s good news about humans: It’s never too late. We’re coming to appreciate the wondrous things occurring in the developing child, from the earliest days. But humans don’t lose the ability to learn or adapt later in life.
Q: How large a part of the overall problem is neglect? How difficult is it to discover and respond to, compared to physical abuse?
Murphy: Neglect is growing. Sixty to 80 percent of referrals to Child Protective Services are for neglect. Neglect occurs when children are not getting the food, clothing, shelter, medical care or supervision they need to grow and prosper. The question is whether, as a society, we are neglecting certain families, especially families living in poverty. So when we, in society, fail to provide universal health care and access to economic resources, are we not complicit in the resulting inadequate care for children?