Platform of Prevention of child abuse neglect and animail abuse

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Child abuse
Although caring for children may be fun and rewarding, it can also be a stressful experience and not easy to undertake. Sometimes, a child may not get the amount of care that he or she needs and the family may require some help from one of the family members, a friend or the community. However, a child may be subjected to harm in any neighborhood or family. This is not something that many would gladly talk about, but there is a likelihood that abuse can happen to any child who attends the local school or plays in the local sports team. Child abuse is not a problem that is encountered in a particular social group or area since people from different social classes, religions, races and geographical areas can meet this issue. Under the child protection Act 1999, harm has been described as any detrimental effect of a significant nature on the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of the child (Merrick & Latzman, 6). Damage is said to be significant if the adverse impact on the toddler’s well-being is severe or substantial, more than transitory and should be demonstrable in the toddler’s behavior, presentation or functioning.
Therefore child abuse can be summed as all forms of emotional and physical mistreatment, sexual assault, neglect, or any kind of child exploitation that is likely to cause potential harm to the development of the child, his or her health, dignity or survival in the context of a relationship of responsibility, power or trust.

The four types of child abuse are physical abuse, which occurs in a child when he or she has encountered or is likely to encounter non-accidental physical injury or trauma. Physical abuse may not leave a visible injury to the child, but the act itself is liable to cause a traumatic condition of the child (Al-Mahroos et al. 665-679). On the other hand, sexual abuse is experienced when a stronger human uses his or her power to involve a child in any kind of sexual activity, which can be emotional, physical or verbal. Emotional abuse is experienced when the emotional, intellectual, social and cognitive development of a child is threatened or impaired. Norman, et al. (2012) indicate that domestic violence is the biggest contributor of child abuse and negligent treatment. There is clear evidence that a child living in a household that experiences domestic violence will not have their childhood needs met, including the need for protection and care of their parents. A child that witnesses his or her parents engage in violence is likely to be affected emotionally, and the child’s development may also be affected. This can also have an impact on their self-image, their ability to respond to other people and form relationships during their adulthood stage. Experiencing domestic violence denies a toddler the sense of safety and security, they also learn that violence is the solution in any misunderstanding and this may make them develop the signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (Merrick & Latzman, 13). Moreover, negligent treatment when essential requirements of a child are not met, and the child’s development and health status are affected.
There exists lots of uncertainty around the severity and frequency estimates of child abuse around the world. Moreover, much violence against children usually remains hidden and remains unreported due to stigma, fear and the societal acceptance that this type of abuse exists. Most of the child abuse incidences are perpetrated by the parental guardians of the child or the genetic parents, and poverty, drug abuse, low levels of education, violence between family members, mental illness and a parent having been abused as a child are some of the factors that make parents abuse their children.
There is a growing acknowledgment that different types of interpersonal violence have a significant impact on the public health. In children, the consequences associated with child abuse vary widely. A child may be subjected to physical injuries, and death may occur as a direct consequence if the effects are extreme (Norman, et al. 9). However, empirical evidence points out that in most non-fatal cases, a direct physical abuse is likely to cause less morbidity to a toddler as compared to the long-term effect of the injury to his or her emotional, cognitive and neurological development and his or her overall health status. Child abuse is considered a prominent public health problem in the society, yet the lack of proper comprehension of the serious lifelong effects and its costs and burden on the society has impeded investment in the prevention programs and policies. For one to respond effectively to the issue, a WHO report on prevention of child abuse point out that the society should expand the scientific evidence base for the impacts, consequences, and prevention of child abuse (Al-Mahroos et al. 665-679). A child exposed to physical and emotional abuse and neglect is likely to be exposed to a broad range of behavioral and psychological issues such as anxiety, drug addiction, depression, and suicidal characteristics, and increased exposure to HIV (Norman, et al. 14).
Prevention
Prevention is the best platform for fixing the child abuse menace. Prevention enables the society to avoid the incident from occurring completely, rather than waiting for the incident to happen so that the society can act. This paper aims to provide different prevention platforms that can be used is controlling this menace.
As a public health problem, Merrick and Latzman (2014) suggest that child abuse should be handled basing on a multi-faceted approach to its prevention. There is a great significance to ensure that the prevention efforts of child abuse target risk and protective factors at all the levels of social ecology, which includes the personal, relationship, societal and community levels. Most of the prevention programs are likely to fall into a single area of a continuum, based on the aim of interest: selected, universal or indicative prevention. The authors points out that the first step that the society should take in helping the neglected and abused children is acquiring knowledge on how to identify the signs and symptoms of child abuse and negligent treatment. Having a single sign does not justify the presence of child maltreatment in a family, but when the society takes a closer look at the situation in the household, there may be repeated signs or a combination of symptoms that may justify the presence of child abuse. The federal regulations have laid the groundwork for the laws on child abuse by establishing a set of acts or characteristics that are used in defining child abuse and negligent treatment (Calhoun et al. 10).
With the current levels of child abuse still high in the modern society, this vice requires increased investment in the treatment and preventive strategies. At the moment, there is a paucity of evidence-based interventions to curb the child abuse menace (Fortson et al. 15-27). More research is required to enable the identification of programs that will aid in reducing the prevalence of child abuse, thereby attenuating the significant risk factors for future health complications. Implementation of evidence-based systemic interventions, which promote family functioning and the parenting strategies are likely to be abstemious and efficient as compared to the attempts to tackle the wide-ranging deleterious health results during the adulthood stage, which arise from child abuse in the early stages of life.
There exists a broad range of protective factors that have been identified to be assisting in the promotion of resilience in young boys and girls exposed to afflictions. Some of the ways to reduce the risk of adverse effects of exposure to trauma include self-control, safe neighborhoods and schools, secure relations with the available caregivers, and possessing problem-solving skills (Al-Mahroos et al. 665-679). Despite the vast knowledge in this field, there is still a challenge to translate the child abuse research projects into interventions at a level of population that may help reduce the vulnerability of young boys and girls exposed to abuse by their parents or guardians.
Although a child may not be responsible for the harm inflicted upon him or her, some individual characters have repeatedly been found to alleviate the risks of being abused by another person. Such characteristics in children include possession of special needs and a younger age less than four years. On the other hand, parental characteristics that may promote child abuse include a poor understanding of the parenting skills and child development, young age, low income, many dependent children, drug abuse, mental illness and transient care providers in the home. In this case, the society should adopt an evidence-based systemic intervention that may help in promoting family functioning, and the parenting strategies are likely to be more economical and practical. Delphine, Daigneault, and Martine (2013) suggest that introducing a family preservation service may be designed to keep a family together and prevent the family from placing the children in substitute care. This move usually targets the families that have already experienced child abuse, and some forms of therapy are applied, and more efficient services like the temporary rent subsidies are offered to the affected family.
Avellar and Supplee (2013) argue that home visitation programs are some of the primary prevention strategies that may help in reducing child abuse within any given society. During the home visits, services such as support, information, and other various services are offered to the people. There exist various models for home visitations that have been developed and implemented by different communities. Some models provide home visits to all families, regardless of the risks associated with the model, whereas other models focus on particular families that are at risk for child abuse, such as the young families, single or adolescent parents that live in areas that poverty prevails (Avellar & Supplee, S90-S99). The underlying goal of this prevention strategy is to reduce the rates of child violations by providing education and support to the young or new parents. Studies indicate that home visitation improves child-parent attachment, safety in the home and enables the parent to understand child development. To ensure effectiveness of the program, the user should target young parents due to the stress and unique challenges that they face as a young couple.
Conclusion
Ill-treatment and neglect have a broad range of severe consequences for young boys and girls. Research indicates that there are specific types of violations that seem to be closely related to some of the severe outcomes as compared to other abuses; for example, physical abuse is highly linked to aggressive and violent characteristics in a child. However, a child that is subjected to multiple and chronic types of violations is exposed to the risk of severe damage and consequences, both in the short-run and in the long-run. In this case, people from all regions, ethnic groups, and social classes should come together against child abuse to prevent it from destroying the generation.

Works Cited
Merrick, Melissa T., and Natasha E. Latzman. “Child maltreatment: a public health overview and prevention considerations.” Online J Issues Nurs 9.1 (2014).
Norman, Rosana E., et al. “The long-term health consequences of child physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” PLoS Med 9.11 (2012): e1001349.
Collin-Vézina, Delphine, Isabelle Daigneault, and Martine Hébert. “Lessons learned from child sexual abuse research: prevalence, outcomes, and preventive strategies.” Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health7.1 (2013): 1.
Avellar, Sarah A., and Lauren H. Supplee. “Effectiveness of home visiting in improving child health and reducing child maltreatment.” Pediatrics132.Supplement 2 (2013): S90-S99.
Topor, David R., et al. “Parent involvement and student academic performance: A multiple mediational analysis.” Journal of prevention & intervention in the community 38.3 (2010): 183-197.
Calhoun, Stacy, et al. “Improving the outcomes of children affected by parental substance abuse: A review of randomized controlled trials.” Substance abuse and rehabilitation 6 (2015): 15.
Fortson, B. L., et al. “Preventing child abuse and neglect: A technical package for policy, norm, and programmatic activities.” (2016).
Al-Mahroos, Fadheela, et al. “Child Abuse and Neglect.” Textbook of Clinical Pediatrics. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2012. 665-679.