Carson City panel discusses risk factors of child abuse, neglect

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month nationwide and throughout Nevada. In Carson City, volunteers recently planted hundreds of blue and silver pinwheels on the front lawn of the Nevada Legislature to bring awareness to child abuse across the Silver State.

Keys to prevention are knowledge, observation, action and engagement, a panel of child welfare professionals in Carson City said. Knowing the risk factors, recognizing them, and a willingness to respond on behalf of a struggling family can help reduce the incidents of abuse and neglect in Nevada, they said.

"Substance abuse, mental health, resource issues, these kinds of things will put a family more at risk," said Molly Blanchette, MSW, LSW, social services manager at the Carson City District Office of the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services.

Jeremy Falconer, a fifth grade teacher at Mark Twain Elementary School and a licensed foster parent, said signs he observes in children who may be in crisis are chiefly behavioral changes.

"A kid that is all happy one day and everything is going great, then the next day he's sad, depressed and by himself," he said. "Those are the type of indicators I can attest to."

Social or emotional withdrawal can indicate that something at home isn't right, said Carson City Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Director Melanie McCormick.

"Look for a child that's withdrawn, that isn't smiling, that doesn't look you in the eye when you speak with them," she said. "It's those children who appear lost and unsure, who are quiet and detached, who aren't speaking up."

Other indicators of a home crisis may include children wearing clothing that's not seasonally appropriate, McCormick said, as well as those who isolate themselves by sitting alone and apart from groups, yet look over longingly at others.

If a community member sees or hears something that leads them to believe a child may be in crisis, they should place a call to Child Protective Services.

"This is a kid's life we are talking about," Blanchette said. "If there's really something going on, make the report."

Proof is not a requirement of reporting abuse or neglect situations, she said. All a person needs is reasonable cause to believe something has happened.

"The law defines that as with the facts and circumstances you have in front of you, if you think something has occurred, make the report," Blanchette said.

There is hesitation among community members, though, to report incidents to CPS for fear of being discovered as the reporting party, said Karla Delgado, Public Information Officer and Social Services Chief in the Systems Advocate Unit of the Carson City DCFS District Office.

"Even though they are making the call, everything is confidential," she said. "Everything remains anonymous."

Reports should also be as detailed as possible, Blanchette added, because the agency cannot follow up if it doesn't have essential information.

"We need to know where does the family live, who are they, what are their names, who is the child," she said. "As much as you can give us, the better."

A CPS report, though, doesn't mean the child gets removed from the home, Blanchette stressed. In-home planning may be all a family needs to get them on the right track.

"Once they are on the CPS radar, if I can create a safety plan at home with the parents, that's best," she said.

Currently, about two-thirds of Carson City children in the child welfare system have less intrusive plans than emergency foster care, Blanchette said, and that's good news for everyone because it means those options are being utilized in a majority of cases.

Blanchette said her office works proactively with other community agencies and resources in an effort to prevent child welfare crises from occurring.

"Our entire model is all about preventing the removal of kids and protecting them with the least intrusive means possible," she said. "We make referrals for families to try to give them services and prevent them from even coming on the CPS radar."

A lack of resources is a much more common cause of family crises in Nevada than the severe cases of abuse and neglect that make the news, Blanchette said.

"We do have serious cases that happen, and those are occasional," she said. "A lot of the cases we deal with are parents who are struggling to make ends meet, keep a roof over their heads, and clothes on their kids' backs."

That's where outreach efforts to at-risk families can help.

The Ron Wood Family Resource Center, Friends In Service Helping (FISH), Northern Nevada Dream Center, the Salvation Army, and Advocates to End Domestic Violence are among several local social and human service non-profits that can offer a range of resources to meet a family's immediate needs: Clothing, food, emergency shelter and counseling services, among others.

Accessing these community resources before a crisis situation occurs is the best method of prevention for families on the brink of a crisis.

"Trying to point people in the right direction to get services in place earlier is the better way to go," said Carson City Assistant District Attorney Kristin Luis. "If we have kids running away from home or committing domestic battery against their parents, we've already reached that crisis point and trying to fix that situation is a lot more difficult than it is earlier on."

She said at-risk situations can be a cyclical problem for families. Breaking that cycle is a focus of the local child welfare system and the community resources ready to lend a hand.

"If your parents didn't know how to parent, chances are you don't grow up knowing how to parent. It just continues on," Luis said. "Sometimes parents just need that extra help, someone to show them this way is not working, let's try this way. That's the difference."

But prevention is really a community-wide effort, the panelists said. For interventions to have any lasting effect, a community needs to stand behind them by changing the way families in crisis are viewed.

"I think we have this perception that if a kid is in CPS custody, that means a parent is a terrible person," Blanchette said. "When really these are just parents trying to do the best they can with what they have, and they don't have a lot. They grew up in poverty, this happened to them, nobody in their family has ever been sober before. It's all very normal for them."

Falconer agrees, adding that parents who need help with their children are usually the last to ask for it.

"The hardest thing for parents to do is to reach out and ask for help, and admit they can't do this alone," he said. "I think somehow as a community, we need to come together and be more supportive in that regard rather than punitive. That would be a huge step to make it okay to ask for help."

Luis said proactive measures will only work when the community bands together to solve problems.

"As a community, if we turn out backs on these situations, we're only weakening our community. We're not strengthening it," she said. "We need to turn around and face the situation. We need to help the kids that are in the system and help the families get back together. That's the only way we get stronger."