Dear Class According to the PowerPoint presentation, children under the age of 18 represent the largest age demographic of poverty in the US (Crossom-Tower, 2013, slide 4). Child abuse and neglect are deeply intertwined with family poverty. Family poverty has its roots in homelessness, income inequality, unemployment, and a lack of governmental safety nets (Crossom-Tower, 2013, slide 4). In fact, child poverty has grown to epidemic proportions, and the government seemingly cannot respond quickly enough with programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), minimum wage increases, and State Child Health Insurance Programs -- among other remedies (Crossom-Tower, 2013, slide 9). As a child protective advocate, I would make sure …show more content…
The family dynamic is very dysfunctional, and physical abuse is a common result of the father 's drunkenness. This child should be immediately removed from this household. As a child protective advocate, I would support his immediate placement with child protective services, as this physical abuse could escalate into something far more serious than bruises. "Words Can Hurt" conveys the message that verbal and emotional abuse can leave permanent scars, just as physical abuse. These situations are highly-dysfunctional and disrupt a child 's normal development. As a child protective advocate, I realize that verbal abuse requires immediate intervention, and possible removal from the family as well. The Child Abuse & Neglect Manual is very thorough, and discusses parenting coping skills at length. According to DePanfilis (2006), many parents themselves do not have cognitive insight about their behavior and/or the normal developmental phases of childhood (DePanfilis, 2006, p. 47). This manual will be a great resource for practice, as it identifies many variables of emotional, verbal, and physical abuse. This manual taught me the difference between situational, enduring, and underlying risk factors in families where abuse and/or neglect is present (DePanfilis, 2006, p.