State continues to fail its youth, group contends

Dear Editor:

Once again Louisiana finds itself on the wrong side of the spectrum when it comes to nurturing our children. The recent report released in the 2009 Kids Count data book assembled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation ranks Louisiana 49th out of 50 states, a position we have held for the past 10 years.

Although various attempts to improve how we service our children’s needs have been made, they have not been enough to see an overwhelming improvement. Therefore, the question at hand is what do we need to be doing as individuals, as a community and as a state to ensure that our children have the best possible childhoods – enabling them to grow up to be productive and healthy adults?

Research shows that the toxic stress children experience when exposed to extreme and sustained stress like child abuse and neglect can be devastating to a child’s development.

The toxic stress damages the developing brain and adversely affects an individual’s learning and behavior, as well as increases susceptibility to physical and mental illness. By preventing abuse and neglect we are ensuring that our children are safe, healthy and have the opportunity to grow into productive members of society.

Prevent Child Abuse (PCA) Louisiana strives to change the way Louisiana thinks about prevention.

Too often, when asked what is the best way to prevent child abuse and neglect, the response is simply to report our suspicions to child welfare officials. We need to understand that reporting suspected abuse is not prevention- but intervention, getting involved after abuse has occurred.

Prevention, among other things, includes the education of parents and caregivers about child development, instilling the protective factors (social connections, parental knowledge of child development, parental resilience, parent-child attachment and concrete support for parents) into evidence-based programming, as well as the development of collaborations between service providers who support families. All of these efforts are true prevention – working to prevent abuse from occurring in the first place.

As a nation, we spend an estimated $104 billion a year on services that are required as a result of child maltreatment, such as foster care, criminal justice and special education. We can invest in children now, avoid paying later, and we can be the agents of change who move Louisiana from 49th to a place that proves we value happy, healthy children.

PCA Louisiana encourages parents, partners and the community to call our KIDLINE at 1-800-CHILDREN (244-5373). This statewide telephone service provides crisis intervention, support, parenting information and referrals. For additional information about PCA Louisiana’s programs and services, please visit www.pcal.org.

Anna Fogle,

Prevent Child Abuse Louisiana