Child Abuse and Public Health: Good News, Bad News

The "Public Health Methodology" with study of populations, use of rates, case tracking and surveillance provide useful tools for child abuse prevention and intervention. Examples of public health contributions include: 1) a study of infants and the NCANDS, National Data on Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, 2) Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Investigation with the National Associaion of Medical Examiners, 3) support for home visitor programs, and 4) work with the American Academy of Pediatrics on definitions. Other possible actions to be discussed include the 1) use of birth data to find incestuous pregnancy, 2) use of STD and HIV data to locate infections from sexual abuse and 3) matching infant homicide data across professions and jurisdictions. Problems to note include a resistance to reporting child abuse and separations of public health data system from intervention that may include sanctions. Public health action may only address prevention and avoid any role with intervention. Public Health Nursing will be noted as one group in public health that is involved with intervention. t will be presented as a legitimate topic for public health.