Child Abuse Prevention

Child Abuse Prevention

Shantisha Brown

SC 541

Summer 2012

University of West Alabama

Abstract

This article presents a developmentally supported implementation of Family Systems Therapy for school-age children and their families. Relevant developmental characteristics of children are described. Suggestions for working with parents, child-oriented interventions, and a case example are presented. Family Systems therapy was developed as a model combining intrapsychic and systems concepts to assist clients in becoming aware of and embracing their inner lives (Schwartz, 1995). Although Schwartz (1995) mentions the potential benefits of the model for use with children in therapy, neither a rationale nor child-tailored interventions are suggested in his writing. Children have emerging inner lives (Stern, 1985; Watson, 1990), but they have fewer ways than adults to define and explore them (Lane & Schwartz, 1987). In general, interventions for children in family therapy are not prominent. The purpose of this article is to present developmental underpinnings that support the use of the Family System therapy model with school-age children and playful means of implementing the model with this age group. The integration of a family therapy model, developmental principles, and play-oriented techniques is an example of playful family therapy (Wark, 1998), an approach for including children in family therapy sessions.

Keywords: Family System Therapy, Child Abuse, Intervention.

Child Abuse Prevention

Child abuse prevention is one of the major discussions that are going on today. This is also one topic that most people have a hard time trying to find a solution for. How do we as a society come together to protect our children being abused? To begin, we have to first understand what child abuse is and the causes behind it. Child abuse is any harm done to a child whether it is sexual, physical, verbal and/or neglect. According to national data, every year an average of 3.3 million children have been reported abused in the United States and 8,158 has been reported in the state of Mississippi in 2010. This is outrageous. These numbers does not include the unreported children that are being abuse. It is completely surprising to know that one of the causes is due to the child's parents. Either the child's father or mother is the source behind the abuse. The parents can fall into an addicted situation such drugs or alcohols, these children will not be able to receive suitable cares to grow up as usual. The child will be beaten or neglected without any regret (Schwartz, 1995). Based on the report from the Department of Health and Human Services, in 2006, approximately 82.4% abused child cases were made by at least one of the child's parents ( MDHS 2010). It is time that we do a better job at protecting of children.

I propose a program that will help with the prevention of child abuse. The program will work with the family to find ways of disciplining and coping mechanisms that will help parents and the children to prevent the abuse from taking place. This program will start with children that are middle school age whose family is under poverty condition and is face with serious problems in finance. The program will offer a minimum education of coping skills that will hopefully be used in developing healthier family relationships through using the Family System Therapy. The Family System Therapy focus on communication patterns within the family both verbal and nonverbal. Since a lot of physical and verbal abuse is because of the lack of communication skills this framework is a starting point.

Summary of "Family System Therapy"

The family systems framework is the assumption that families and their patterns of communication and interaction profoundly affect human beings. The overall goals in structural family therapy are the restructure of the family and the creation of an effective family hierarchy with parents in charge, functioning more cohesively. These families are stimulated to strengthen boundaries that will allow them to differentiate the individual members, and to reconnect families to set up new boundaries that will allow them to become closer and strengthen the family relationships. The concept is the development of an independent self with the ability to recognize the difference between emotion and thinking and to react well to stress and crisis situations. People are overly controlled by their emotions and are typically not able to respond well or rationally in stressful situations. These include child abuse, domestic violence, substance abuse, and juvenile behavior problems, just to name a few.

Examples of "Family System Therapy"

The process of Family System therapy that includes children is conducted in the following way. From the beginning of therapy to termination, the therapist works through a checklist of steps that interface with the developmental capacity of each child. Repetition of steps could be necessary, and the checklist is not as useful if it is viewed as having a strict temporal sequence. However, therapy is typically initiated by a meeting with parents or other caregivers alone as described above. During the second typical step, the therapist holds one or more sessions focusing each session on the child and leads the child in an awareness of his/her inner life using direct education, playful activities, and/or stories and books. Emotional experiences are an excellent and developmentally appropriate means of accessing children's inner lives, so the therapist assists in the identification of emotions and acknowledges and validates them. The therapist will later use the Family System Therapy language in relation to the emotions.

Benefits of "Family System Therapy"

Family systems therapy interventions can be used with a variety of children's presenting concerns. They are beneficial for addressing secrets of sexual abuse by acknowledging the part that "smothers" awareness of abuse and by embracing parts that both hate and love the offender. The model is useful for children who must deal with an adult caregiver's alcoholism by eliciting the part of the child that is confused by the adult's behavior as well as useful as a therapeutic adjunct for the adult abuser. Because of various emotions associated with grief, Family System therapy interventions can be beneficial for children who