Media Campaign Proposal: Addressing Child Abuse in Public Health

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This report is a public health media campaign proposal aimed at addressing the issue of child abuse. It begins with an introduction to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the role of the Media Program Department in health communication. The report defines child abuse, categorizes its forms, and identifies risk factors such as family crisis, unhealthy relationships, and lack of support. It highlights the public health impact of child abuse, including its emotional, physical, and sexual consequences, and the racial/ethnic disparities associated with it. The report discusses preventive measures like teaching children their rights, promoting positive parenting skills, and implementing school programs. It also explores communication strategies, including the use of social media and mass media, to reach the target population. The campaign proposes mandatory parenting classes and teacher training to identify and address child abuse. Ethical guidelines for data collection and the importance of confidentiality are also emphasized. The report concludes by stressing the effectiveness of media campaigns and the importance of upholding ethical principles when addressing child abuse.
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Running head: CHILD ABUSE . 1
Public Health Media Campaign Proposal
Name
Institution of Affiliation
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CHILD ABUSE . 2
Introduction.
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention will be my proposed organization. The
functions of the organization are; to develop and apply disease preventive and control
mechanisms, undertaking activities geared towards health promotion and take part in carrying
out health and environmental duties that are aimed at improving the community health (CDC,
2013). My role within the institution will be helping in planning, implementing and evaluating
the different forms of health communication and functions which positively impact health
results. The department which should carry out media campaigns for the organization is the
Media Program Department. The mistreatment of children is a public health epidemic that is
affecting a large number of minors and it is causing long term impact on them. The main cause
of mistreatment of children and abuse is associated with a family crisis, unhealthy relationship
and lack of support. Some of the tactics that assist in preventing children's mistreatment and
abuse are; teaching children their rights, helping to develop positive parenting skills, promoting
programs in schools that assist keeping children safe and reporting in abuse to the state children
department.
Public Health Issue
Child abuse or mistreatment is defined as any form of activity that could lead to any
emotional or physical harm, sexual abuse, or death (Cort, Cerulli, and He, 2010). Child abuse has
been found to affect millions of children across all the states and has been associated with
different health complications in children. Child abuse is categorized into four categories that
are; sexual harassment, physical harm, negligence, and psychological mistreatment.
Children who are living in an environment that is characterized with domestic violence,
alcohol and substance abuse by parents, low illiteracy levels of parents, urban residence, poverty
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CHILD ABUSE . 3
within the families and families size of 3-6 children are the most prone to child maltreatment
(Antai, Braithwaite, Clerk, 2016). Other factors that also contribute to child abuse include; step
guardians, single parenting and psychological stress of parenting.
Everyone within the community must be conversant about this community health issue.
The public should be aware of child abuse and its signs and how to handle such cases if they do
occur within the community.
The disparity that is common to child abuse is racial or ethnic disproportionate. As per
(Cort, Cerulli, and He, 2010) study show that Americans of African Origin children were the
most subjected to this kind of exploitation (child abuse) than any other child of different origin
such as Indian, Russian or even Spanish.
There are only two processor programs (universal and indicated programs) that have been
supported by research evidence that shows effectiveness in reducing the above disparities of
child abuse. Universal strategies are public based. It is objective is to educate the entire
community, guardians and any interested parties about child abuse scope and its effects (Merrick
and Latzman, 2014). Some of the examples for this program are class-based lessons on child
abuse in schools and parenting lessons for parents.
Communications.
More than 1850 children died in the USA in 2015 due to mistreatment and abuse
according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2018).
Measures and programs are developed to assist in educating families and the entire public on this
public health epidemic. The preventive mechanism is very crucial here because there is a need to
stop child abuse in its entirety. It’s costing the USA 123 billion dollars each year (CDC, 2018).
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CHILD ABUSE . 4
Oral and written methods of communication are effective ways to share information with
the State Department of Children’s Services, schools, department of Health and Human Services
and the Board of Education. We would like to share ideas with the relevant state departments
concerned about child welfare on how they could implement new policies and steps that give
knowledge and training about child abuse. Give recommendations such as; families that are often
involved in child abuse it should be mandatory for parents to undergo parenting classes. These
classes should be provided free by the state. School boards should ensure teachers get training on
to handle and identify signs of child abuse. Guidance counselors in school should do more to
ensure children get more information about their rights and need to speak up in case they are
maltreated. We will majorly use social media platforms and mass media to reach this information
to the community. This because our target population often uses this type of media, this is
children and parents. Opposed to using newspapers which children rarely read (Chang, Chang,
Chang, & Feng, 2019).
We can’t guarantee all these preventive mechanisms proposed in this paper will stop
child abuse. Our objective proposes more prevention measures that might help in reducing this
public health issue.
When collecting information and data from the public we will be guided by ethical
guidelines. We will ensure that only accurate and correct data is used that is in the public domain
and does not contain information that discriminates a certain group of the population. It will also
of importance to ensure that the public knows the laws of the state which mandates them to
report where they reside.
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CHILD ABUSE . 5
Conclusion.
There are preventive measures against child abuse that are research-evidence based.
According to the State Department on children welfare CDA, visitation services have been
proofed to be effective in reducing child abuse (2018). I am quite sure this media campaign will
reduce the number of minors who are victims of child abuse. Utilizing the power of social media
and mass media would assist in a great way to reach a larger population as the target population
use mostly these type of media.
It should also be stressed that legal ethical issues are very important when researching
child abuse. Ethical principles such as beneficence, informed consent, confidentiality, and
integrity should be upheld. This because one is handling very sensitive information about a
minor.
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CHILD ABUSE . 6
References
Antai, D., Braithwaite, P., Clerk, G. (2016). Social determinants of child abuse: evidence of
factors associated with maternal abuse from the Egypt demographic and health survey.
Chang, Y., Chang, Y., Chang, H., & Feng, J. (2019). Effects of academic performance on the
relationship between child maltreatment and deviant behavior: A national study in
Taiwan. Child Abuse & Neglect, 98, 104224.
CDC. (2013). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved
CDC. (2018). Child Abuse and Neglect: Prevention Strategies. Retrieved from
Cort, N. A., Cerulli, C., & He, H. (2010). Investigating Health Disparities and
Disproportionality in Child Maltreatment Reporting. Journal of Public Health
Management and Practice, 16(4), 329-336.
Merrick, M.T. and Latzman, N.E. (2014). Child Maltreatment: A Public Health Overview and
Prevention Considerations.
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