4295.0: Tuesday, October 23, 2001 - Board 2

Abstract #22380

Child Abuse/Neglect is a Public Health Issue

Michael Durfee, MD and Sandra Guine, LCSW. LA County Department of Health Services, LA County Department of Health Services, 600 S Commonwealth, Los Angeles, CA 90005, 213/6396444, durfee@ican-ncfr.org

The Los Angeles County, Department of Health Services, Child Abuse Prevention Program, CAPP, has existed for 21 years, the largest such program in the nation. Components include: 1) a directory of teams, 2) case management guidelines, 3) data for surveillance and quality control 4) training and technical assistance, 5) special programs

The web posted Directory, includes hospital and clinic teams, WIC programs, Fire EMT, STD, Child Protective Services. County guidelines will be updated by 60+ authors as state standards.

The data/surveillance system ran from 1981 to 1992 with 6,000 copies of child abuse/neglect reports a year from health professionals,. The system was stopped because of legal concerns. Data begins again following clarifying legislation with neonates reported for risk factors identified after prenatal substance abuse. CAPP Software allows individual facilities to report, study and share information by computer. The CAPP data system has been the cornerstone of the program providing demographic profiles and system accountability.

Training and technical assistance is shared with all professions. Research include tracking children under age 12 with gonorrhea, a national study of HIV and child sexual abuse and tracking high risk families using Public Health Nurses.

Multiagency child death review and CAPP data focus primarily on infants and toddlers as do most prevention programs. Infant toddler programs have been augmented by a new perinatal program to track and serve an estimated 10% of women in jail who are pregnant with multiple risk factors.

Child abuse/neglect is a public health issue.

See www.lapublichealth.org/mch/capp/cappdesc.htm

Learning Objectives: Describe a countywide public private public health based child abuse/neglect prevention program Describe the use of child abuse data in a public health system to address high risk pregnancies. Describe what you might add to your local public health program to address child abuse

Keywords: Violence Prevention, Children

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.

The 129th Annual Meeting of APHA