HCA 430 Assessment of Community-Level Barriers on Abused Children Assignment

Assessment of Community-Level Barriers

For the second written assignment of the course, you will continue in the design of your proposed model program by demonstrating your understanding of your selected population’s challenges, which negatively impact this group’s health and well-being. Based on this week’s research, conduct an assessment of the barriers, limitations, and other distinguishing features, as they exist within your community. Your paper, at a minimum, must contain the following elements: 

a.  A description of at least three critical barriers that impact the health and well-being of a chosen group; one must be a micro-level (individual) barrier that is financial, one must be a macro-level (community/state) barrier that relates to access and funding for care, and  the third barrier may be one of your choosing.

b.  An analysis of the regulatory, legal, ethical, and accreditation requirements/issues that relate to these barriers (you are required to use outside sources, such as those found in the Ashford University Library, to address this section in sufficient detail).

c.  Identify and describe at least one proposed solution for each barrier. Your solution for the micro barrier must include an analysis of various potential funding options (both independent and integrated). Your solution for the macro barrier must include an analysis of financing resources for health care.

Your assignment should be a minimum of  three- to- four pages in length (excluding title and reference pages), and should include a minimum of three scholarly sources cited according to APA guidelines as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. Please note: All assignments in this course are progressive; therefore you should use the same population selected in your Week Two assignment

Here is Last Week’s Assignment to build off of:

In my vulnerable population summary and proposed program paper, I will focus on abused individuals.  I will cover the statistics and facts of this group, along with the social, economical, and political factors that affect this group. Furthermore, I will wrap up with a proposed program for my community of Rapides Parish to aid in the prevention of sexual abuse on children.

The largest impact on abused individuals directly correlates with age and gender; being children (the youngest), elders (the oldest), and women.  Starting with the children statistics in accordance with the 2006 report from the Abuse Victim Hotline: boys and girls are equally abused, 80% of abuse is by a parent or guardian, children under the age of four account for 75% of all child abuse deaths, neglect occurs more frequently than abuse and is equally damaging and deadly, 30% of child fatalities are due to neglect, 1,500 abused children receive intensive mental health services annually.  In 2005, 30,000 children were reported abused just in Colorado; and out of that number 9,000 cases for proven guilty: 21% suffered physical abuse, 46.6% neglect, 1.4% medical neglect, 11.5% sexual abuse, 5% psychological maltreatment, and 18% of unknown abuse (Abused Victim Hotline, 2007).  Our next vulnerably abused group is the elderly.  According to a 2004 study, self neglect accounts for approximately 38% of elder abuse; 20% is caregiver neglect and 15% due to financial exploitation (Abuse Victim Hotline, 2007).  What I truly found sad about this group was that 33% of abusers were actually the victim’s adult children and 22% of cases were other family members of the elderly victim (Abuse Victim Hotline, 2007).  And the last breakdown of the highly abused group is women.  Annually approximately 1,200 women are killed and 503,485 are stalked by an intimate partner; and of the women between 15-19 murdered each year, 30% are their husband or boyfriend (Abuse Victim Hotline, 2007).  While conducting my research I came across this fact that really hit me hard: “One in three women across the globe has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused during her lifetime” (Abuse Victim Hotline, 2007).  That fact is jaw dropping to me, but then on the other hand the whole reason this group really interest me is because I was abused at the age of 22. So this fact proves to me that one, I am not alone; and two, that this group needs to be supported due to this pandemic.

  After revealing the statistics of the three most highly abused individuals, I want to turn my focus on the children.  Children are our future; they are our leaders of tomorrow.  It is up to us to prevent the abuse, also known as maltreatment, of these innocent beings.  The impact that abuse has on children is forever lasting.  So for starters, let me define child abuse and all that it entails; so that we are all on the same page.  Child abuse includes any type of maltreatment or harm inflicted upon children and young people in interactions between adults, which include neglect; physical abuse and non-accidental injury; emotional abuse; sexual abuse; bullying and domestic violence (Lazenbatt, 2010).  Evidence states that the experience of maltreatment can have major long-term effects on all aspects of a child’s health, growth, intellectual development, mental well-being, and that it can impair their functioning as adults. A wide range of many complex social and economic problems, with an increased likelihood of mental disorders, health problems, education failure and unemployment, substance addiction, crime and delinquency, homelessness and an intergenerational cycle of abuse and neglect (Lazenbatt, 2010).  All of this being said; let me explain in more detail the affects of the social, economic, and political factors for and against maltreated children.

  The factors of social and economic go hand-in-hand, in my opinion, when reviewing the affects of abused children.  Childhood abuse impacts several long-term socioeconomic outcomes that affect their well-being as an adult.  Maltreated children are more likely to complete less schooling, experience victimization again in adulthood, and have physical and/or mental health problems that interfere with their job (Zielinski, 2005).  Later problems resulting from earlier victimization include impaired physical and mental health, substance abuse, criminality and incarceration, and teen pregnancy (Zielinski, 2005).  These problems could severely limit your ability to work and contribute to society and the economy.  Not to mention, in their adult lives they would be a burden on society.  The maltreatment victims’ increased likelihood for being unemployed would result in greater reliance on state unemployment insurance and lost economic productivity; and with their higher risk for falling below the poverty line would further indicate lost income and sales tax revenue, as well as increased reliance on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other welfare programs such as Food Stamps and WIC (Zielinski, 2005).

  On the political factor affecting maltreated children, simply put, we need more compassionate and truly dedicated support from high status leadership.  Children and youth issues are much more likely to gain political attention when office seekers believe that they can gain public approval by supporting pro-children policies.  According to Tennyson Center for Children in Colorado, since 2004 one of Tennyson’s strategic partners in making kids a nonpartisan, national political priority has been Every Child Matters Education Fund, a non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization focused on making the needs of children and youth a national political priority and promoting the adoption of smart policies for children, youth and families (Tennyson Center for Children, 2014).  Our political leaders have to truly recognize the trauma, the special needs, and the barriers that maltreated children must overcome to avoid homelessness, criminal behavior, and the continued cycle of abuse; thus making an all around better political, social, and economical world. 

  Moving into a proposed plan for my community, I did some research to see what resources were in my community.  After reviewing all of the child abuse programs locally, I noticed there were not any programs offered for parents or adults to help prevent sexual abuse against children.  So, I want to propose a prevention plan for the adults in my community to aid them in diminishing our community’s childhood sexual abuse.  I want to focus on prevention through education and communication.  These type programs acknowledge that educating children or potential victims alone cannot prevent the perpetration of child sexual abuse; but true primary prevention of child sexual abuse calls for the prevention of perpetration and a societal investment (NSVRC, 2011). 

Justification for this type program could come from a few pieces of research and evaluations.  For example, the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is a decade-long and ongoing study created to explore the childhood origins of our society’s health and social problems; the ACE Study calls for a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to prevention and intervention of childhood abuse and neglect (NSVRC, 2011).  A great example is an evaluation done by Child Assault Prevention Project after a parent educational workshop in 2002 that used lecture techniques linking community resources and communication exercises between children and parents; the main topics were child sexual abuse myths, signs of abuse, and how to react appropriately to abuse with a duration of two hours.  The evaluation found that for parents it increased prevention knowledge, more able to suggest appropriate interventions, more able to suggest appropriate interventions, ore likely to encourage children to use prevention strategies, more likely to seek out agencies for help, increased knowledge about how to emotionally support children; and for the children with involved parents it showed an increase in prevention skills (NSVRC, 2011).

A program I would like to offer would be like a school-based program that the children receive from school, but it would include the parent’s and/or guardian’s of the children.  This would include education, orientation, role playing, and family games that would encourage closeness, openness, and good communication.  Also, I would like to offer stand-alone parent education programs that involve the community on prevention, along with integrating home-visitation programs for those families who are high-risk for abuse.  This will conclude my vulnerable population summary and proposed program paper.

References

Abuse Victim Hotline (2007). Abuse Statistics. 2006. Abuse Victim Hotline. Retrieved from http://www.avhotline.org/abuse/statistics/#national

Lazenbatt, Ann (2010). The impact of abuse and neglect on the health and mental health of children and young people. National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.February 2010. Retrieved from http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/briefings/impact_of_abuse_on_health_pdf_wdf73369.pdf

Zielinski, David PhD. (2005). Long-term Socioeconomic Impact of Child Abuse and Neglect: Implications for Policy. Cornell University. Retrieved from http://familyimpactseminars.org/s_nmfis02c03.pdf

Tennyson Center for Children (2014). Educate and Advocate, We Make Children a Priority. Colorado Christian Home. Retrieved from http://www.childabuse.org/educateadvocate

National Sexual Violence Resource Center, NSVRC (2011). Programs for Adults. Child Sexual Abuse Prevention.Retrieved from http://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/Publications_NSVRC_Guide_Child-Sexual-Abuse-Prevention-programs-for-adults.pdf

 

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