What Are the Various Ways of Preventing Child Abuse and Maintaining the Family Unit?

Most of the families are being faced with the problem of child abuse and being neglected globally. The child protection services are being faced with the challenges of maintaining the family unit and as well as protecting the child from neglect and child abuse. This has been contributed by the factor of them being under-resourced. There are various family-centered interventions that can assist in dealing with these problems such as cognitive behavioral therapy, home visiting, group therapies and intensive family prevention services (O'Reilly, Wilkes, Luck, & Jackson, 2009).

Family support services are one of the ways that can help deal with issues of child abuse and also help in maintaining a family. They help families to cope with the normal stress that is associated with the role of parenting and also help parents to be in a position of preventing any form of child abuse and neglect. Cognitive behavioral therapy involves the situation whereby the childrens and parenting behaviors are modified through learning, educating and encouraging of positive relations between the child and the parent. Through the intervention of cognitive-behavioral the families are as well taught the art of rewarding positive behaviors that their children show, learning various non-punitive punishment techniques and as well as keeping the charts of both negative and positive child behavior. Home visiting intervention involves where the individuals visit the affected children and parents in their homes and provide them with the relevant information, support, training and as well as perform a variety of activities together as a family. The group therapy helps parents whose children have been neglected and abused with parenting education and the skills that they are required to have to help their children. The intensive family preservation services help prevent the removal of a child from his/her marital home or away from his/her family due to lack of protection of the child in the hands of the family or maltreatment issues through giving of home-based counseling, and anger management techniques (O'Reilly, Wilkes, Luck, & Jackson, 2009) .

Parents should pay more emphasis on solving problems that occur in the family rather than an understanding of the origin of the problem which results in the adverse interaction between them and their children. Families should be encouraged to learn the skills of solving their problems. Family intervention programs can also play a significant role in enlarging and enhancing of social networks and family relationships as a means of having a supportive circle and a safety net (Berry & McLean, 2014, p).

The multi-systematic therapy is also another means which can help deal with issues related to child abuse and as well as preserve a family unit. This model focuses on preventing and reducing criminal and delinquent behaviors that different teenagers have. Therapists who are highly trained work jointly with the adolescent to help reduce and end the negative relationships and as well as learn various problem-solving techniques which will help them engage in positive activities. It will help reduce the criminal and delinquent behavior (Berry & McLean, 2014).

Parents should be educated on the negative impact that substance abuse has on their parenting roles. Substance abuse leads to the parenting failing to meet his/her parenting responsibilities. Substance abuse causes child maltreatment. Parents should be counseled on substance abuse abstinence. It will assist them to have excellent family management skills (Gruber & Fleetwood, 2004).

In conclusion, services should be implemented to assist substance-abusing parents to recover their roles and responsibilities within the family. Various interventions should be undertaken to help reduce and prevent child abuse with families such as home visiting, cognitive behavioral techniques, and different family-centered interventions.

References

Berry, M., & McLean, S. (2014). Family preservation. Child Welfare for the Twenty-first Century. Doi: 10.7312/mall15180-014

Gruber, K. J., & Fleetwood, T. W.(2004). In-Home Continuing Care Services for Substance Use Affected Families. Substance Use & Misuse, 39(9), 1379-1403. Doi: 10.1081/ja-120039395

O'Reilly, R., Wilkes, L., Luck, L., & Jackson, D.(2009). The efficacy of family support and family preservation services on reducing child abuse and neglect: what the literature reveals. Journal of Child Health Care, 14(1), 82-94. Doi: 10.1177/1367493509347114