Diane Abatemarco, PhD, MSW¹, Anna Samedova, MPH², Steven Kairys, MD, MPH³, Tammy Piazza Hurley⁴, and Jennifer Steffes, MSW⁴. (1) UMDNJ - School of Public Health, 683 Hoes Lane West, #311, Piscataway, NJ 08854, (732) 235 - 9754, abatemdj@umdnj.edu, (2) UMDNJ School of Public Health, 335 George Street, Suite 2200, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-2688, (3) Department of Pediatrics, Jersey Shore Medical Center, Route 33, Neptune, NJ 07754, (4) American Academy of Pediatrics, 141 Northwest Point Blvd., Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

Child abuse and neglect is a common, yet underrecognized public health problem that affects millions of American children each year. Children under the age of 3 account for nearly 30 percent of victims.

The general pediatrician is in a prime position to play a much expanded role in the primary and secondary prevention of child abuse and neglect. Anticipatory guidance is a regular part of pediatric care providing the context for teaching child abuse and neglect/ violence prevention, parenting skills and identifying and supporting vulnerable families.

The “Practicing Safety” project represents a collective commitment of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the UMDNJ-School of Public Health, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The overall goal of the “Practicing Safety” project is to decrease child abuse and neglect by increasing screening through anticipatory guidance provided by pediatric practices to parents of children ages 0-3. A total of six pediatric practices in New Jersey have been selected to participate in the study.

This first phase of the project will improve adherence to new processes of care using the Multimethod Assessment Process (MAP). MAP facilitates understanding the practice as a complex system of competing demands and helps to keep the focus of change at the practice level. Phase two is the Reflective Adaptive Process (RAP) implementation. Each practice will individualize the educational components based on its culture and the actual process at each site will vary.

This is a demonstration project with a detailed evaluation methodology that will give ample process feedback, improved outcomes of prevention, early detection, use of community services, parental knowledge and behavioral changes.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to

Understand the magnitude of child abuse and neglect among children ages 0-
• Describe an innovative pediatric office based child/abuse neglect prevention program. Describe how understanding a pediatric practice and facilitating practice change can be used in an intervention to prevent child abuse and neglect. Recognize the role of the general pediatrician in prevention of child abuse and neglect.

Keywords: Child Health, Violence Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: grant