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1991.12.06 :  Child Abuse

Contact:  HHS Press Office (202) 245-6343
Bill McPherrin (202) 245-2760
December 6, 1991

       HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., today challenged
national religious, social services, criminal justice, education
and corporate leaders to join the Department of Health and Human
Services in a concerted effort to end child maltreatment in the
United States.
       "In recent years, experts have declared the child abuse
and neglect problem an epidemic," Secretary Sullivan told those
attending today's National Meeting on Child Abuse and Neglect. 
"Cases have overflowed our hospitals, foster care homes, social
worker case loads and court dockets."
       Dr. Sullivan has created an initiative for the Department
of Health and Human Services to raise public awareness and
improve services available to children who are abused or
neglected and their families.  The effort includes cooperative
actions to be taken jointly by HHS and other federal departments
to increase the coordination of related programs, and national
and regional meetings to set "Best Practices" for dealing with
the problem from a broad-based approach.
       Secretary Sullivan's message was echoed by former Miss
America, Marilyn Van Derbur Atler, an advocate for the safety of
sexually violated children.  Van Derbur Atler was presented the
Secretary's Award for Outstanding Public Service for her efforts
to raise public awareness of the emotional, physical and sexual
abuse of children.  Earlier this year, Van Derbur Atler announced
she was a survivor of incest and committed herself to a campaign
to end the sexual violation of children.
       "As Marilyn's story dramatically illustrates, abuse and
neglect cause long-lasting emotional damage," Sullivan said. 
"Her story also dramatically illustrates the bright hope of
intervention and recovery.  Each of us can help to end the
maltreatment of our nation's children and each of us can help to
heal the wounds of children who are already suffering."
       An estimated 2.4 million cases of suspected child abuse,
child sexual abuse and child neglect are reported to child
protective agencies each year, and more than three children die
each day in the United States from abuse and neglect.  Studies of
adults show that 15 percent to 38 percent of women and 10 percent
of men report sexual victimization experiences during childhood
and adolescence.
       Abused and neglected children frequently suffer drops in
IQ and an increase in learning disabilities, depression and drug
abuse.  The effects are often pervasive -- mental, physical and
social in nature.  Suicide, violence, delinquency, drug and
alcohol abuse and other forms of self-destructive behavior are
frequently related to abuse in childhood.
       The Department of Health and Human Services has taken the
following steps to reduce the incidence of abuse and neglect:
              Recognizes that it is not enough to treat the
               results of child abuse and neglect, instead the
               root causes and societal trends leading to abuse
               must be addressed;

              Issued more than $59 million in FY 1991 in grants
               to states and organizations for research,
               demonstration projects in prevention, intervention
               and treatment programs through the National Center
               on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN);

              Coordinates 31 federal programs for prevention and
               treatment of child abuse and neglect -- half in
               Health and Human Services and the others in eight
               federal departments and the Office of Personnel
               Management -- through the Inter-Agency Task Force
               on Child Abuse and Neglect; and

              Improves coordination of programs to provide more
               extensive services to families, increased funding
               for research, increased public awareness of child
               abuse and neglect and improved collection of child
               welfare and child health data.


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