Online Program

Oral

Child maltreatment is a significant public health problem, affecting more than one out of every ten children in the U.S. at some point during their lifetime. Children who experience intensive and prolonged stress (including child maltreatment) are at increased risk for disrupted brain development, compromised functioning of the nervous and immune systems, poor health, exposure to violence across the life course, and premature death. Given the significant magnitude and health burden of child maltreatment, CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention has identified Essentials for Childhood as the strategic direction for the primary prevention of child maltreatment. This session explores the Essentials for Childhood framework, promoting safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments as primary prevention of child maltreatment as well as the development of health across the life course. One of the major challenges facing the child maltreatment prevention field is that there are hundreds of prevention interventions being utilized by practitioners across the country, yet few are evidence-based and the majority focus exclusively on changing individual behavior rather than also incorporating the broader social and economic contexts in which children are being raised. These contexts are themselves shaped by a wider set of forces including economic and social policies, and politics. Community and societal-level prevention strategies may increase the opportunity for safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for all children and their families.

Session Objectives: To describe child maltreatment as a public health problem that can be addressed through primary prevention. To describe Essentials for Childhood, CDC’s framework for child maltreatment prevention, including its major goal areas and examples of its implementation in states and communities. To explain the social and economic contexts that increase the opportunity for safe, stable and nurturing relationships and environments and health across the life course.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH) , Masters Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES)