MA- Abuse: ‘Almost an epidemic’

3-31-2009 Massachusetts:

Economy likely tied to caregivers’ stress

As the economy worsens, straining some parents to the breaking point, child abuse in the Hub has soared, statistics show.

From Jan. 1 to March 1, the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office had 256 child abuse cases, more than double the 105 it handled during the same period in 2008.

“This is, if not unprecedented, then very rare. And there at least appears to be a correlation between the economic downturn and the sharp increase in the number of cases,” said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the office.

“The financial strain on a young family could very well raise the tension in a household,” he said.

The increase has been enough of a concern that the chief of the office’s child-protection unit and Dr. Alice Newton, the medical director of the Child Protection Program at Children’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, have conferred to see if there is anything they can do together to influence public policy and better protect children.

“It feels like there’s almost an epidemic going on,” Newton said Friday.

The perpetrators the two hospitals have seen so far this year include parents, grandparents and babysitters, Newton said. And the victims have included younger babies with more severe injuries, such as a 3-week-old with a broken arm and multiple rib fractures.

Newton cites another instance in which a father shook his baby, causing a serious brain injury.

In that case, both parents were educated, employed and had no known history of drug abuse or domestic violence, she said. But the father was at risk of losing his job and the family’s utilities were about to be shut off, she said.

“It just shows that no family is immune,” Newton said. “The increase in stressors is making more and more parents vulnerable.”

Since December, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating’s office has investigated eight such cases, nearly three times the number it typically sees in a year.

A surprising number also have confessed to the abuse - something chronically abusive parents typically do not do, Newton said.

In one case, a father who had lost his job admitted stepping on his infant, fracturing several of the child’s ribs.

“You have families where one or both parents are suddenly finding themselves unemployed. And if they’re not already unemployed, they’re worried about becoming unemployed,” said John Reid, director of Childhelp, a nonprofit whose 24-hour hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD) has seen a 10 percent rise in calls nationally. “Instead of raising a hand to a child, parents need to reach out for help,” he said.

Frustrated?

•Never shake a baby! It can lead to serious brain injury, long-term disability or death.

•Put the baby down in a safe place and leave the room.

•Call the Parental Stress Line at 1-800- 632-8188 for support.

Source: The statewide Shaken Baby Prevention Coalition ..News Source.. by Marie Szaniszlo