http://tva.sagepub.com/content/14/2/113
Child Intoxications: What is Abuse, What is Not
Shawhanna Douglas
N.Schorpshire
5/25/13
.The article that I chose to review is Child Intoxications, What is Abuse, What is Not. When you think of child intoxications the first thing that comes to mind is alcohol. In fact upon reading this article there are may ways that a child may become intoxicated. This article written by Ricardo Jorge Dinis-Oliveira and Teresa Magalhães intent is to evaluate child intoxication on a wider range and explore the difference between abuse, neglect and a clear mistake relating to child intoxications.
To achieve their goals, the authors researched various articles written in four different languages articles written in the National Library of Medicine’s Pub Med MedLine database and the Web of Knowledge This was done in order to have different examples surrounding children’s unintentional or intentional exposure to intoxicants. The authors searched for common items usually involved in the poisenings, and also suggested different measures to reduced children poisonings. How did the authours obtain other research? The authors also gathered statistics to evaluate the issue. These statistics represent mainly published case reports and reviews and but do not reflect the total number of cases including unrecognized intentional poisonings. Statistics on toxic exposures in children less than 19-year-old are available on the website: www.aapcc.org.
As social workers we have an obligation to our clients to provide them with the best help and service. I believe that we have an even greater obligation to the minors that cross our path because they are not of legal age to leave a bad situation or sometimes cant/wont speak up for themselves.
Identifying Value, Ethics and Boundaries
When a social worker receives a case that deals with child intoxication the first things that they must do is not automatically place blame in their mind or assume that the parent/caregivers action was intentional or neglectful. This may be a hard thing to do. We must understand that there may be other issues that have lead up to this situation happening that the parent may not have control over themselves for example, the parent may have a mental condition that prevents them from thinking clearly such as Caregiver psychopathology. Examples include pediatric condition falsification (PCF), Mu¨nchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP), and a closely related factitious disorder by proxy
(FDBP; Paschall, 2005).
A social worker (no matter what their personal feelings and ethics are) must not judge the parent caregiver , but be ready to help the parent as well. We must create boundaries with ourselves by first setting our parental instincts to the side. The majority of social workers are parents so a case regarding something of this extent may bother us as parents. We have to act as social workers and not as a parent. This will help us to help the child, and family as a whole. There are instances where the abuse is intentional. Recent studies show an average of 160 malicious poisonings per year reported to poison control centers (Yin, 2010). We must also understand that things may not be the way that it seems at the onset of things. A child may have come in contact with an intoxicant but may be at an age where they are developmentally able to open and consume the item themselves without the parent knowing. For children between 13 and 19 years of age, XB exposures are usually intentional, either as recreational
abuse or as suicide attempt.( Children Intoxications: What is Abuse and
What is Not Abuse Ricardo Jorge Dinis-Oliveira1, and Teresa Magalhaes).
No matter what social workers must respond in a professional manor when It comes to child intoxication. We must do our best to assess the case and get all information needed to help the client. It will be helpful to look at research discussing the topic, this will help with coming up with a solution. When dealing with child intoxication there is a fine line between abuse, neglect and a simple mistake. “Only the dose determines that a thing is not a poison and the right dose differentiates poison from a remedy’’
(Deichmann, Henschler, Holmsted, & Keil, 1986). This basically states that the right dose of something is simply considered a remedy, too much of a dose can/will be considered abuse.
We must be clear-headed and get the facts so that a parent will not suffer a consequence due to a mistake. As in any other case we will face dilemmas. A parent may ask us not to contact the police when, clearly we know that there are signs of abuse and neglect. We must always do the right thing even if we have a bond with the client(s). This article broadened my understanding of child intoxication on many levels. I learned that the intoxications do not just have to be alcohol or due to neglect. Table1 page 121 of this article points out Neglectful and Nonneglectful Unintentional Intoxications and Intentional Intoxications in Children and Reported History. This and other tables in this article may help a social worker to understand how some accidents do happen but also how some things may be intentional.
This assignment was very helpful to me. I will say that because of my “ personal ethics and values” I would have instantly judged a parent if I had a child intoxication case. Again, I’ve learned to be open and to use research sometimes. I will review the articles of these classmates: Henna Shaw, Dominique Montgomery and Rochelle Jones.
Reference
www.aapcc.org
FDBP; Paschall, 2005
Yin, 2010
Children Intoxications: What is Abuse and What is Not Abuse Ricardo Jorge Dinis Oliveira1, and Teresa Magalhaes
Deichmann, Henschler, Holmsted, & Keil, 1986
Shawhanna Douglas
N.Schorpshire
5/25/13
.The article that I chose to review is Child Intoxications, What is Abuse, What is Not. When you think of child intoxications the first thing that comes to mind is alcohol. In fact upon reading this article there are may ways that a child may become intoxicated. This article written by Ricardo Jorge Dinis-Oliveira and Teresa Magalhães intent is to evaluate child intoxication on a wider range and explore the difference between abuse, neglect and a clear mistake relating to child intoxications.
To achieve their goals, the authors researched various articles written in four different languages articles written in the National Library of Medicine’s Pub Med MedLine database and the Web of Knowledge This was done in order to have different examples surrounding children’s unintentional or intentional exposure to intoxicants. The authors searched for common items usually involved in the poisenings, and also suggested different measures to reduced children poisonings. How did the authours obtain other research? The authors also gathered statistics to evaluate the issue. These statistics represent mainly published case reports and reviews and but do not reflect the total number of cases including unrecognized intentional poisonings. Statistics on toxic exposures in children less than 19-year-old are available on the website: www.aapcc.org.
As social workers we have an obligation to our clients to provide them with the best help and service. I believe that we have an even greater obligation to the minors that cross our path because they are not of legal age to leave a bad situation or sometimes cant/wont speak up for themselves.
Identifying Value, Ethics and Boundaries
When a social worker receives a case that deals with child intoxication the first things that they must do is not automatically place blame in their mind or assume that the parent/caregivers action was intentional or neglectful. This may be a hard thing to do. We must understand that there may be other issues that have lead up to this situation happening that the parent may not have control over themselves for example, the parent may have a mental condition that prevents them from thinking clearly such as Caregiver psychopathology. Examples include pediatric condition falsification (PCF), Mu¨nchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP), and a closely related factitious disorder by proxy
(FDBP; Paschall, 2005).
A social worker (no matter what their personal feelings and ethics are) must not judge the parent caregiver , but be ready to help the parent as well. We must create boundaries with ourselves by first setting our parental instincts to the side. The majority of social workers are parents so a case regarding something of this extent may bother us as parents. We have to act as social workers and not as a parent. This will help us to help the child, and family as a whole. There are instances where the abuse is intentional. Recent studies show an average of 160 malicious poisonings per year reported to poison control centers (Yin, 2010). We must also understand that things may not be the way that it seems at the onset of things. A child may have come in contact with an intoxicant but may be at an age where they are developmentally able to open and consume the item themselves without the parent knowing. For children between 13 and 19 years of age, XB exposures are usually intentional, either as recreational
abuse or as suicide attempt.( Children Intoxications: What is Abuse and
What is Not Abuse Ricardo Jorge Dinis-Oliveira1, and Teresa Magalhaes).
No matter what social workers must respond in a professional manor when It comes to child intoxication. We must do our best to assess the case and get all information needed to help the client. It will be helpful to look at research discussing the topic, this will help with coming up with a solution. When dealing with child intoxication there is a fine line between abuse, neglect and a simple mistake. “Only the dose determines that a thing is not a poison and the right dose differentiates poison from a remedy’’
(Deichmann, Henschler, Holmsted, & Keil, 1986). This basically states that the right dose of something is simply considered a remedy, too much of a dose can/will be considered abuse.
We must be clear-headed and get the facts so that a parent will not suffer a consequence due to a mistake. As in any other case we will face dilemmas. A parent may ask us not to contact the police when, clearly we know that there are signs of abuse and neglect. We must always do the right thing even if we have a bond with the client(s). This article broadened my understanding of child intoxication on many levels. I learned that the intoxications do not just have to be alcohol or due to neglect. Table1 page 121 of this article points out Neglectful and Nonneglectful Unintentional Intoxications and Intentional Intoxications in Children and Reported History. This and other tables in this article may help a social worker to understand how some accidents do happen but also how some things may be intentional.
This assignment was very helpful to me. I will say that because of my “ personal ethics and values” I would have instantly judged a parent if I had a child intoxication case. Again, I’ve learned to be open and to use research sometimes. I will review the articles of these classmates: Henna Shaw, Dominique Montgomery and Rochelle Jones.
Reference
www.aapcc.org
FDBP; Paschall, 2005
Yin, 2010
Children Intoxications: What is Abuse and What is Not Abuse Ricardo Jorge Dinis Oliveira1, and Teresa Magalhaes
Deichmann, Henschler, Holmsted, & Keil, 1986