In child abuse, neglect, prevention effort shifts thanks to Oklahoma plan approval
Community program proposed to support parents

BY JAY F. MARKS Comments 4
Published: May 23, 2009

A state board Friday approved a new plan to protect Oklahoma children from abuse and neglect.

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Read the Oklahoma's Plan for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.

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State House seeks

CompSource savings

The House on Friday approved House Bill 1755, which would allow the state-run workers’ compensation insurer to develop a three-year pilot program to find ways to save money and improve services. It’s intended the savings would come from exempting the agency from certain purchasing and acquisition requirements. The measure passed the House 61-38 and now goes to the Senate.

MICHAEL MCNUTT, CAPITOL BUREAU

Read the Oklahoma's Plan for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect

With it, officials hope to get communities more involved in creating and nurturing families.

Department of Human Services Director Howard Hendrick said reports of child abuse and neglect have dropped in the past few years due to record child support collections and more participation in programs like SoonerCare and food stamps.

He said that has obscured a larger problem: poor relationships among parents and children.

Hendrick said he is optimistic about the new plan approved Friday by the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth.

"The plan identifies an array of promising prevention programs,” he said.

State officials are required to create such a plan at least every five years, but the existing plan — which is about 2 years old — was not financially feasible, said Annette Jacobi, chief of the state Health Department’s Family Support and Prevention Service.

The new one is meant to offer cheaper alternatives for the short term.

"We don’t want to create a wish list that we can’t accomplish,” Jacobi said.

One of the strategies in the new plan is more training for people in agencies that typically aren’t involved in child welfare.

Jacobi said substance abuse counselors and similar professionals can be taught to recognize stressful situations for parents, the ones that can lead to child abuse or neglect.

The plan also suggests enlisting community support for parents in need.

Jacobi said prevention works best if parents have a network of friends and neighbors to rely on when they need help.

"These things are low-cost or no-cost ideas because we don’t have the money to do something new right now,” she said.

The plan was crafted by the Health Department with insight from parenting groups and other experts in areas that need to be addressed, Jacobi said.

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Related Topics: Culture and Lifestyle, Crime, Child Abuse, Family, Parenting

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Statistics show that 80% of children taken into DHS custody because of neglect...a lack of resources! This is from OKDHS's own website. Research also shows that children are 8 to 10 times more likely to be abused in foster care than in their own home. You can continue to listen to the media and DHS say that "children need to be removed from bad homes" but the numbers clearly show that children are better off staying out of foster care and staying with their family whenever possible. Yes, there are cases were children should be removed because of severe abuse, but DHS needs to stop taking children into custody for dirty kitchens and work to help the families learn better parenting skills. They are called the Department of Human SERVICES for a reason!

T - May 28, 2009 at 10:48 pm

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Percy, you seem to understand much about it. Could it just be that we are forgiving too much from too many. There seems to be no personal accountability, especially among certain members of society. Parents aren't responsible for their children or even themselves; they blame everyone and every thing for their own personal failings and are allowed to do so by government and society who is more than willing to bail them out. Children learn what they live and sadly that means today's children (tomorrow's society) will be a continuation of selfishness and boundless ignorance. About the only thing most children have learned over the past 4 decades is how to manipulate the system.

Phil, Yukon - May 24, 2009 at 7:38 am

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So how much does an anger management course cost? Is there a course that teaches adults how NOT to be selfish? And how about one that corrects an adult's vision so he/she doesn't think a child is just a small adult? Is there one that teaches adults that children were not placed on this earth to serve their adult needs? We could use one that also makes adults comprehend that diapers get pooped! It is not a beating, throwing or shaking offense. Good luck with this project, but I can tell you right now, without a doubt, that the reason the statistics are looking better on child abuse is because we aren't looking at child abuse. We deliberately included food stamps, sooner care and child support collections so the numbers would show how good a job DHS was doing. We can enroll more people in sooner care and enroll more in the food stamp program and even show a higher dollar amount of support collections without making a dent in actual child abuse. Remember when we were told that the existence of all these peripheral matters increased the likelihood of child abuse? The poor beleaguered adults just couldn't cope so they took it out on their babies. So we decrease the peripheral influences and what happened? Child Abuse Increased! Now they use the euphemism "poor relationships among parents and their children." It's now the "relationship" between the two unequal partners in picture. Like you expect babies to negotiate? Accommodate? Compromise? Initiate new ways of coping? Get real, people. These are career "politicians;" they know how to select, include and manipulate the numbers that make them look good. They just don't know how to do the real jobs they were "elected" to do. God Bless America's Children and Keep Them Safe. We sure haven't.

Percy F., Ardmore - May 23, 2009 at 8:44 am

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What a crock. Child support "collections" have abzero to do with abuse and neglect. Many mothers collecting far more than is necessary to completely support the child's entire costs still neglect their children because they are self-centered, not because the father wasn't penalized enough. Of course good ole Howard thinks that too much money is not enough (not to mention it gets to filtered through DHS first, before any child has a hope of seeing any benefit). The absolutely safest place for children has been proven to be in an intact family with both father and mother present; the worse: single mother. More children are abused by their mother than any other person, including men and especially fathers. Of course the propaganda uses lies, half-truth and innuendo to show how many are abused by men while ignoring the larger number abused by mothers. Don't believe it? Look it up. It's available but not as heavily promoted as is anti-father prejudice.

Phil, Yukon - May 23, 2009 at 8:37 am

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