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Hello and welcome to Eye on Ocean County. I'm Laura Jones. Our guests this half hour is Rush Russell.
He is the Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey. And it's good to have you here!
Rush Russell: Good afternoon.
I want to give our audience a little perspective, when you say "child abuse" that can mean
a lot of things. Tell me what it is that your organization
is aimed at helping. Rush Russell: Our mission is to prevent child abuse
before it ever happens and so our mission really is one about a positive message about
helping families get off to a healthy start to raise happy, safe...
carefree... have for children have a carefree childhood.
Laura Jones: You're talking about preventing child abuse and helping parents.
You think about an abuser, and a stereotypical abuser is either someone who has been abused before
or perhaps somebody who is a low income,
poor person, you know, that doesn't have the means. Who are the...?
Rush Russell: Child abuse can happen anywhere — and neglect, as well. And the common denominator
related to child abuse is probably stress.
Sometimes the lack of information about healthy child development. Certainly,
not having sufficient income can be a stressor,
not having other role models. A single parent, for example, doesn't
have the education to understand healthy child development. So a child is crying,
what do you do? And children may cry for a while and that's normal behavior. If you understand
that you may react differently... maybe nutrition issues, it may be
warmth or being too cool. So, understanding some of those issues can
calm a situation and prevent something as horrible as child abuse. Laura Jones: But child abuse is something
that cuts across all social,
all economic levels I would imagine. Rush Russell: Absolutely, absolutely. It does tend to — it increases in terms
of stress factors so parents that are facing more stress are more likely.
That's why most of our programs do focus on communities where
there's fewer resources, there's fewer supports for parents
and most of our programs focus on educating parents so they better understand;
how to navigate stress, how to understand discipline, how to understand health care and nutrition,
positive childhood development.
Laura Jones: How do you find those parents, because if parents don't know how to deal with their own children
how are they even going to know to reach out to an organization
like yours? Or they might be afraid to think,
"They're immediately going to think I'm an abuser and turn me in."
Rush Russell: For the most part, referrals come from hospitals and the prenatal care provider.
They may identify a family and think, "Okay, because of their situation, because of the understanding
where they come from
that they may need some extra support." So, they simply refer them to us and we offer our services
so somebody may meet with them and explain. Here's, here's, for example, a home visiting program:
somebody'll come into your home that is
helpful, supportive and helps you understand healthy child development
maybe once a week for a couple of years. Now, a lot of new parents say
"This sounds terrific. This sounds like it could really be a help." And it's a voluntary program.
And we find that most parents, when they learn about what the program really is, it's a positive...
You know, trying to help them get off to a good start...
are, you know, receptive. Laura Jones: You know, it's interesting that just made a light-bulb go off in my head.
I had my middle child was in the NICU for four days — and, luckily, he's perfectly fine...
but a social worker came and they started speaking to me there and I was curious,
you know, why is this social worker talking to me? My husband and I are, you know,
are fortunate enough to have the means,
but perhaps they were trying to figure out if we needed additional resources because of
just the circumstances of being
in that intensive care unit. Rush Russell: You're in a stressful situation and they look at your situation and say, you know,
"What kind of help do you have?"
And again that's another way that we provide help.
We also work with teen parents. And, you know, teen parents, you know, thirteen, fourteen
fifteen, sixteen years old
you know, may not have an understanding of what healthy parenting is. They may not come from
backgrounds where there's healthy parenting role models there.
And we know they're especially at risk for child abuse. And so,
and we have programs in thirteen high schools across the state to work with teen parents
that provides them high quality childcare, but also links them with intensive parenting workshops
as part of their school day
to help them get off to that good start. Laura Jones: Well, what about in the earlier school years in the elementary
school? Are there programs that you work with in the schools to help
average parents, parents like myself, who you know sometimes I just have days that I just
have to walk out because I've got three kids and maybe I'm there by myself with them and they're
five and under, and I feel like I'm just going to lose it sometimes.
Rush Russell: One of the programs that we have is called the Parent Information and Resource Center, or PIRC,
and you can go to our website, get information about PIRC... and it offers
tools and ideas for both schools and for parents on things that they can do
to, first of all, to become more involved in your child's education. The reason why
that's so important is that we know the kids whose parents are more involved do better
in school. And the studies are dramatic on that.
So, there's things that you can do to get involved to partner with your school and that's everything from
attend that teachers conference — and sometimes we don't have time to go to that — but meet the teachers.
Once they get to know you, if there is an issue they're seeing something in your child, you can have that
you know, face-to-face communication. Once they know who you are that you know who they are that can really help.
There's a variety of ways that parents can get involved;
reading and sitting with their children, understanding what the homework is,
understanding what the expectations of the school may be,
building the self-esteem of a child in school 'cause it's a pressured environment for them.
Laura Jones: More and more, absolutely. Rush Russell: More and more. So, being supportive of helping them do better in school
but playing a role. "What is your homework tonight? Is there some way I can help? Can we read information
together? What are other resources that we could bring to the table?"
And the school can also play a role. Laura Jones: And what about, I was going to say, single parents in particular,
they've got to have a difficult time because as perhaps by the time they get home if they're in an after-school
program maybe they've already finished their homework and,
you know, they just want to get the kids fed and to bed. And then, you know, so they can
deal with paying the bills or perhaps, you know, doing something
else that they have to do to make ends meet.
Rush Russell: That is one of big challenges, especially for those single parents.
You know, we're working on innovative ways to engage those parents and one way is
that we've created resource centers in a lot of the schools where there's a computer so they
may want to come to the resource center to learn about other community services and there's a computer there
where they can, you know, find information about other services that may be helpful.
We help schools and parents organize events at the school that may be around a meal.
The George Mitchell Elementary School here in Ocean County had an event last year called
"Breakfast and Books". And I think three hundred parents attended
where they had served a breakfast and they read books together with their children to help
engage the parents, you know, in building those early literacy skills 'cause that's the building
block for future academic success and it's another way that parents can be involved.
Laura Jones: Right and really
ten, fifteen minutes... it makes a huge difference if you're able to read to a child at a younger age
to begin to build those building blocks. Rush Russell: Yeah. Starting Early.
Very early. Picture books, music,
getting down on the floor and reading and singing songs and doing it together.
Laura Jones: You've got to get on their level. Rush Russell: Get on their level and fathers need to be involved, as well, doing
the exact same thing... and again the studies show that building those early literacy skills, you know,
not only helps prevent child abuse, but these are skills that help children succeed
in school. If they get off to that positive start there's more and more studies showing that investments
in kindergarten and preschool
are some of the very best investments that help children succeed over their entire life in terms of
getting good jobs, higher-paying jobs, graduating, going on to college, etc. Laura Jones: But it's all about
building in that good foundation. You're trying to get to the parents at the early stages. Is there a definition for what
child abuse is? I mean, I'm sure it can be physical, it could be emotional.
How do you know if someone is being abused? If you are a neighbor or perhaps there's someone in your child's
class that you're, you know, concerned about or what if you're just a parent wondering, "Am I yelling
too much? Am I, you know, too *** my kids?" Rush Russell: There's a definition of child
abuse in terms of physical child abuse that is basically causing injury to a child as a result of...
if you think you may be spanking a child but if you're causing an injury,
visible or otherwise, injury to a child... that's a form of child abuse and that's a crime.
There's emotional child abuse which is withholding emotional support from a child or,
you know, health care support or nutrition support that can cause serious harm.
So, in terms of not providing proper nutrition or meals, clothing, shelter,
or withholding emotional support in terms of...
and yelling... and all those types of things, emotional - can be emotional abuse.
It has to rise to a fairly serious level where a child's really experiencing emotional damage
and that can be documented.
So, there are thresholds for those... and, again, our work is to
help parents understand how to prevent that from happening so they don't get into the situation
where they're... you know, time outs can work. If you're in a situation where
you know, a parent, children can push your buttons in ways that push you
beyond where you think... you don't know what to do.
And programs that we offer for parents can help them understand, you know... first of all, this is normal,
take a deep breath. You know, there's other tools you can use besides...
You know, you think of about, you know, I'm working with somebody and I become impatient and
they're not doing what I want them to do. Would I ever, ever think of striking...? Laura Jones: Right.
Rush Russell: Yet - but we think spanking is okay.
Now would you ever think of hitting a coworker? Laura Jones: Of course Not.
Rush Russell: You might want to, but you would never do it. And then the impact,
the studies have shown, the impact in terms of spanking
in some ways although the child is not fully developed they're starting to form attitudes about being
hit, in terms of their behavior, in terms of their cognitive ability. And there's
also the line around spanking where somebody is frustrated and,
you know, beyond the breaking point. So, what may intended to be "Oh, I'm just spanking
a child" — in some ways that used to be accepted —
well, if I'm a little bit angry, that spanking becomes
a welt or an injury and something. So, the line, again a lot of child abuse cases
are associated with spanking. And there are other ways. There are more positive ways that parents
can handle those situations.
And again, what Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey provides is tools and information to help parents navigate
the stress of parenting because it is, can be the most stressful job.
Laura Jones: To take a cue from my director, we're going to take a time-out ourselves right now.
But we want you to stay with us. Rush Russell is our guest. He is the Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey.
Stay with us.