Re: re unrelated males in household

[Cheryl Soehl <csoehl@xxxxxxxx>]

>As to the issue of unrelated males in households where there is 
>child maltreatment and child fatality, what about the question of 
>domestic abuse to the child's mother occurring before harm to the 
>child(ren) occurs? If we take the unrelated male in the household 
>AND the issue of adult domestic violence together, could we perhaps 
>find a risk marker/factor long before the child is harmed?
>
>Annelies Hagemeister
>University of Minnesota
>School of Social Work

The statistics on child maltreatment already point to abuse of the 
mother as a risk factor for child abuse.  The problem is that 
identifying abused moms as markers for child abuse/lethality usually 
results in punishing the moms for being victims. Removing children 
from the care of their mothers because the mother is abused does not, 
in itself, solve the problem of risk to children -- especially not 
when many foster care providers are also single women or mothers who 
may have non-related adult males visiting in their households.

Knowing a risk factor and making substantive changes in communities 
to reduce risks to children are two different things.  In my 
experience (13 years of work with battered women/6 years as guardian 
ad litem) using removal and/or the threat of removal alone does not 
provide significant opportunity for change in the mothers.  Providing 
comprehensive services to mothers and engaging them in support 
groups, employment and training opportunities, and giving them 
independent life skills does give them leverage to make needed 
changes in the relationships they have.

Cheryl
-- 
Cheryl Soehl, MRC
Certified Rehabilitation Counselor