This Is What Must Be Done to Combat Child Abuse in Colorado
Figures released by the Colorado state human services department revealed that there has been no decrease in the number of children in Colorado whose deaths have been caused by abuse and/or neglect in recent years.
In 2016 and 2017 that figure was 35; there were 36 such deaths in 2018. Unfortunately, those figures are an increase on the previous four years. There were only 26 in 2012; 24 in 2013; 22 in 2014; and 23 in 2015. Available data for 2019 shows 17 deaths, although this is incomplete and does not include pending cases.
Although action has been taken in recent years to improve the state’s response to this issue, more work remains to be done. This is what must be done to combat child abuse in Colorado:
Accurate Data Need to Be Collected
Under current law, investigations into the death of a child caused by abuse or neglect will only take place if the child, or a family member, had contact with child protection services during the three previous years.
However, as a joint-investigative report by the Colorado Sun and 9News revealed at the end of February, nearly half of child deaths caused by abuse or neglect (102 of 218 deaths between 2012-2019) involved individuals who had not previously been reported to child protection services. Therefore, no investigations took place to look into the causes of those deaths. This current system denies investigators, social workers, health professionals, and lawmakers the opportunities to look at what went wrong and learn from those cases to potentially prevent future deaths.
Stephanie Villafuerte, Colorado’s child protection ombudsman, said she is acutely aware of the restrictions such a system places on the ability to tackle the problem, saying: “What we’re really saying is we’re trying to actually reduce the number of child abuse deaths in our state, but we're only going to look at 50 percent of the problem. I don’t know how you look at 50 percent of the evidence and solve anything.”
To tackle this particular issue, Villafuerte announced that—as part of a review process focusing on child fatality in Colorado—every death caused by abuse or neglect would be undergoing review. But what of the other 116 children (53 percent) that were already known to authorities?
The State Should Follow Expert Recommendations
The agency in Colorado that deals with child deaths in instances of abuse and neglect is the state Department of Human Services, which oversees the Child Fatality Review Team. This team is comprised of caseworkers, pediatricians, health professionals, lawmakers and other professionals who focus on the child welfare system and look at what could have been done to prevent deaths.
The team investigates deaths, near-deaths, and incidents of child abuse if the family has been reported to the child helpline at least once in the past three years. After analyzing the details of an incident, the team can then make recommendations about how certain types of cases could be prevented in the future or how county child welfare departments could have intervened sooner.
However, this existing system has two glaring flaws: firstly, the Child Fatality Review Team is, as the name implies, only responsible for reviewing child deaths that have already occurred. While this is vital to help avert future child deaths in cases of abuse and neglect, these are not preventive measures.
Secondly, any preventive measures the Child Fatality Review Team do recommend “often go nowhere," according to the Colorado Sun’s report. Some of the recommendations the team has made in recent years include: better communication between child welfare and law enforcement, more affordable childcare in the community, and specialized child abuse training for emergency department physicians.
Everyone would agree that implementing measures that address these recommendations would make a big difference in child abuse and neglect deaths in Colorado. However, there is no agency in the state responsible for enacting such recommendations from the review team. “There is no entity responsible today for taking those recommendations, implementing them or monitoring them,” Villafuerte said. “That is the crux of our concern here.”
Public Awareness of Recent Reforms Should Be Raised
Colorado has, over the years, introduced policies and reforms to end the tragedy of child abuse deaths in the state. In 2008, the Child Welfare Action Committee was created. In 2013, sweeping reforms included a statewide child helpline and a review of caseworker workloads. However, despite the introduction of new reforms, child deaths by abuse and neglect have not decreased, as the figures from the past few years have shown.
A recent public awareness campaign has resulted in an increase in the number of calls received by the helpline. Villafuerte has said that state agencies, schools, health care departments, non-profits, and members of the public need to work collectively to help combat child abuse deaths.
“In every child fatality review that I have sat in on for literally the last 15 years, inevitably, this was also a child that went to school, it was a child who had neighbors, who also had a dentist,” Villafuerte said. “Yes, human services agencies should be held accountable. But what we really are missing is that broader review.”
The Kempe Foundation and Other Child Advocacy Organizations Should Be Consulted
Among the non-profits that work tirelessly to end child abuse and neglect deaths in Colorado is The Kempe Foundation. Since the 1960s, the Foundation has advocated for policies that protect children from abuse and neglect; supported research and the development of programs that reduce incidences and the impact of child abuse and neglect; and collaborated with state and county agencies, the community, and other non-profit organizations to raise awareness of child abuse and neglect.
There are clear, systemic issues that need to be addressed if Colorado is to, once and for all, dramatically reduce the number of child deaths caused by abuse and neglect. However, there are many effective plans just waiting to be implemented.
