Over 30 Ozarks organizations and government agencies meet to discuss child abuse and neglect prevention

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - It’s not an easy topic to discuss. Still, on Thursday at the Greene County Office of Emergency Management, a group that’s been meeting for about a decade now got together to share their thoughts on a problem they deal with every day.

They’re called the Child Abuse and Neglect Collaborative, made up of over 30 organizations and government agencies, and they asked state and county officials to join them at the meeting for an update on topics concerning child abuse and neglect.

“Our community hit a spike during COVID, and over the past few years, we have been working very hard to get our numbers back down,” CASA Executive Director Laura Farmer told the crowd. “Unfortunately, even though we have seen a decrease in the number of children entering foster care, we are still above the state average.”

Katiina Dull, the Executive Director of the Child Advocacy Center, presented national, state, and county statistics that showed the extent of the problem.

“Child abuse and neglect represents a wide range of victimizations,” she pointed out. “It lives in the shadows, and we need to keep shining a light on it. The CDC estimated that 1-in-7 children experienced maltreatment in 2021. That’s pretty shocking. Maltreatment encompasses everything from neglect to the most heinous kinds of victimization we see. Neglect means failing to meet the basic needs of a child, like food, clothing, and shelter, but can also include educational and medical neglect. When it comes to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, rates in Missouri are far more prevalent than they are nationally.”

Those rates are:

Physical abuse- Missouri 30 percent U.S. 16 percent

Sexual abuse- Missouri 32 percent U.S. 10 percent

Emotional Abuse- Missouri 14 percent U.S. 6 percent

In Greene County, the children’s division substantiated 91 child victims of physical abuse in 2022, which was seven percent of all cases in the state.

In Greene County, the children’s division substantiated 75 child victims of sexual abuse in 2022, which was five percent of all cases in the state.

Nationally, 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys have likely been victims of sexual abuse. Some 93 percent knew their perpetrator, with 34 percent being family members and 59 percent being an acquaintance. Some 34 percent of those sexual abuse victims were under 12 years old.

Jessica Bendure, the Senior Director for Youth Services at Burrell Behavioral Health, offered up more concerning statistics concerning the mental health of today’s young people.

“We serve thousands of children, but there are so many more who need help,” she explained. “Mental disorders among children are a substantial public health concern. By the time they are 18 years old, about 50 percent of them have had a mental disorder at some point in their lives. That’s a huge number and something we really need to focus on.”

The lack of resources, though, was brought up several times in the meeting.

“Today, I asked the question of how many of our child abuse and neglect agencies have a waiting list,” Farmer said. “And the majority raised their hands. We have over 650 children in foster care due to child abuse and neglect. At CASA, we are only able to serve about 50 percent of our children.”

“We’re fighting for resources, and we’re fighting to maintain funding,” Dull added. “And we’re fighting to remain competitive in a quickly changing labor market. There were times recently when you could make more working in a McDonald’s than you could at some of these social service agencies. And we don’t want the people who work for us to also need the services that we’re offering because we can’t afford to pay them a livable wage.”

Judge Andy Hosmer addressed the crowd about some of the things he’s noticed in his years of handling juvenile cases.

“I make decisions that turn out to be wrong all the time,” he said. “But I urge all of you to remember that when you’re doing these programs, you may be wrong. There’s a study that looked at looked at kids who went into foster care and those who didn’t. And the outcomes were striking and horrible, as the studies showed that bringing similarly-situated kids into foster care was worse for those kids. So, I think we have to work a lot more effectively keeping kids out of foster care. And I think you also have to remember that most of these parents were victims of abuse themselves. We’re not dealing with bad people, but we’re dealing with people with really difficult life circumstances. I have been married 22 years, have four children, and we struggle every day.”

Hosmer also told the group it was important to “walk the tracks” and see what parents and children are dealing with as they try to go through the system and get the help they need.

“You give them a referral for housing, and they keep having to come back again and again,” Hosmer said. “We don’t have it. Come back tomorrow. Or drug treatment or counseling. You go and say you need mental healthcare, and they say, ‘Yes, come in?’ No, what they say is, ‘O.K., six months from now, we’ll get you in.’ Makes no sense. And you have to look at the parents. Do they have transportation? We think everybody has a car, but they don’t. They spend four hours to get nothing, and then we wonder why they’re frustrated and given up.”

Those attending the conference understood those criticisms because it is a part of why they’re meeting.

“Once we understand the issues at hand and take note of the gaps that exist in the community, we can address those gaps with innovative programs that are making a difference,” Farmer said. “It’s a complicated issue, but I do think our community has come a long way, which is good. Because when we ignore it and leave it in the shadows, it becomes worse. And ultimately, what we all want is a community that is free from child abuse and neglect as well as family violence.”

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