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Secondary Prevention: Serving Families at Risk

NCJ Number
158186
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 19 Issue: 11 Dated: (November 1995) Pages: 1337-1347
Author(s)
U Thyen; R Thiessen; M Heinsohn-Krug
Date Published
1995
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article describes the program of the Child Protection Center in Lubeck, Germany, that focuses on a nonpunitive, self-help approach designed to provide secondary prevention of child abuse by serving families at risk.
Abstract
For both practical and ethical reasons, general screening programs to identify vulnerable children and families cannot be recommended. Traditional welfare and health care agencies have encountered difficulties in reaching out to population groups believed to be at higher risk for child maltreatment. The system of care or services often contributes to isolation, defensiveness, and noncompliance of families. The concept for the Lubeck Child Protection Center is a nonpunitive, self-help approach that reaches out to families and encourages them to determine their own needs. The program includes a significant guarantee not to involve law enforcement agencies or to initiate court proceedings without the families' consent. More than half the families seen in the Center over a 2-year period were self-reported; almost one-fifth of all families received help to prevent violence against children before child abuse or neglect had yet occurred. The analysis concludes that nonpunitive concepts that avoid labeling and stigmatizing and offer free, easily accessible, family- oriented services will help prevent child maltreatment. Figures and 33 references (Author abstract modified)