April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. This month recognizes the importance of families, people and organizations working together to prevent child abuse and neglect. In 2022, Allen County Children Services investigated more than 900 reports of abuse and neglect.
The number of investigations continues to increase each year. This is partially due to the impact the opiate epidemic continues to have on families. We also continue to see an increase in the number of children we are servicing with complex mental health and behavioral needs.
We cannot emphasize enough the reliance on our community to ensure the safety and well-being of our children. Child welfare agencies have faced significant challenges throughout Ohio and across the nation.
These challenges for our youth include a treatment and placement crisis. Approximately 40 percent of counties in Ohio have had a child sleep overnight in their children services’ office due to a lack of placement options available. We are fortunate that has not been the case in Allen County.
One of the reasons this has not occurred here is due to the dedication of our numerous community partners working hard each day to provide the necessary services for our youth to ensure they can remain with family in our community.
As required by the recent passage of House Bill 4, this year we will ask our community partners to sign a memorandum of understanding outlining the responsibilities of each agency when responding to reports of child abuse and neglect. Some of these entities include law enforcement, the county prosecutor, juvenile court and the children’s advocacy center.
The purpose of the agreement, when feasible, is to conduct only one interview of a child who is the subject of a report of abuse or neglect. Allen County is fortunate to have a Child Advocacy Center located on Lima Memorial Health System’s campus. The CAC provides services that help promote healing for child sexual assault victims as well as providing a neutral and friendly site for interviews with law enforcement and children services caseworkers. Last year, our local CAC served close to 150 victims.
By recognizing that child abuse is a multifaceted community problem, and no single agency or individual has the necessary knowledge and skills alone, we can work towards the shared goal of preventing abuse and neglect in our community. When abuse and neglect does happen, we can ensure that, together, we can provide help, support and protection to our children.
Everyone in our community can play a role. If you see something, say something. A simple phone call can save a child’s life. Abuse or neglect can be reported to our agency at 419-227-8590. After hours, please call the Allen County Sheriff’s Office for our on-call caseworker to respond.
Community members also can help us raise awareness this month by wearing blue on April 12, as part of “Wear Blue” day across the state to raise awareness for the prevention of child abuse. You also can send your photos of your group or you as an individual to us at [email protected] for us to post on social media and automatically be entered into our Wear Blue contest with the winners chosen based on creativity.
Thank you to all in our community who play a role in protecting children this month and throughout the year.
Sarah Newland is executive director of Allen County Children Services. Her column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Lima News editorial board or AIM Media, owner of The Lima News.
