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Promote Awareness: Examining child abuse

Life is not easy. There are ups and downs, good times and bad. Sometimes it seems that the bad times far outnumber the good. There are challenges that can be managed, obstacles that can’t be negotiated. There are changes to cope with. Many times the changes are not for the best, or so it seems to be at the time. Adults react, taking out their frustrations and rage on the people around them, usually those who are thought of as too weak to fight back, particularly children.

Child abuse is any of a number of harmful behaviors used on children. Basically, child abuse is psychologically damaging:

Emotional neglect and abuse.

Failure to thrive.

Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

Neglect.

Pedophilia.

Physical abuse.

Sexual abuse

Emotional neglect is when children don’t get enough attention, the one-on-one interaction between them and the adults who love them. The attention they need is the bonding between them and the parents or guardians that nurtures the parent-child relationship, encourages both the child and the parent, keeps the lines of communication active, working and playing together in support of each other and the family.

Children who fail to reach their genetic potential are said to “fail to thrive.” When possible medical causes are ruled out, neglect may be suspected. Is the child being properly fed? Is the child neglected emotionally? Does the child receive proper medical care when needed?

Maunchausen by proxy syndrome is when a parent or guardian invents a health condition for their child. They make the child sick because it gains them attention with medical professionals. They invent symptoms that subject their healthy children to medical tests they do not need. And when the child is away from them, there is nothing wrong.

Parenting requires a lot from parents, patience being at the top of the list. How many times can a 3-year-old ask, “Why?” How many times can a teenager question parental authority? How many times can a parent STOP Count to 10. Try again?

Children need discipline, and they need to feel loved, no matter what they do. They need values. They need rules to live by in their life skills toolboxes. They need to understand their boundaries how to live within them, how to set them, and why they are necessary. And from parents and guardians they learn how or how not to have balance in their lives. But they do not need abuse. Abuse is damaging physically, emotionally and mentally.

April is Child Abuse Awareness Month. April 13 is Wear Blue to Work Day in Columbiana County. You are encouraged to wear blue to work to promote awareness of child abuse.

Family Recovery Center promotes the well being of individuals, families and communities with education, prevention and treatment programs for substance abuse and related behavioral issues. For more information about child abuse, Child Abuse Awareness Month or the agency’s programs, contact FRC at 964 N. Market St., Lisbon; phone, 330-424-1468; or e-mail, info@familyrecovery.org.

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