Building an effective child maltreatment surveillance system in North Carolina.
نویسندگان
چکیده
n public health, the first step in assessment of a health or social problem is enumeration of the population affected and the impact of the problem. Estimated rates of child physical abuse in North Carolina range from 0.5 to 36 per 1,000 children, a 70-fold difference. Such disparate estimates of abuse rates challenge policy makers to establish policies and systems for prevention. A child maltreatment surveillance system is needed in North Carolina that will provide for continuous and systematic data to identify the magnitude and the impact of child abuse and neglect. This will inform the allocation of resources and public health action, and it will require leadership and responsibility within state government. In this commentary, we review the current approaches to child maltreatment surveillance, options for surveillance, and promising new practices. A public health-based child maltreatment surveillance system must rely on coordinated efforts and a variety of data sources from multiple sectors: social services, public health, law enforcement, and academic research. One of the challenges of developing a surveillance system lies in the definition of child maltreatment. Currently, this differs widely among agencies and care providers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Violence Prevention has made establishing uniform definitions of child abuse and neglect a priority for moving forward with surveillance, research, and prevention. A position statement with uniform definitions of various types of maltreatment will be forthcoming from the CDC. North Carolina’s Division of Public Health needs to begin the work of designing a child maltreatment surveillance system with elements that are aligned with our child maltreatment laws, yet are consistent with national definitions and data elements.
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- North Carolina medical journal
دوره 66 5 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2005