Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month Published April 8, 2014 By Anne Owen, Family Advocacy Program Family Advocacy Clinic MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- My name is Anne Owen and I'm an advocate in the Family Advocacy Program at Minot Air Force Base. The month of April represents many different things to people. Taxes, spring cleaning, blizzards in North Dakota and for me, the end of Shamrock shake month at McDonalds. In terms of theme months, many great causes are associated with the month of April--Sexual Assault Awareness, it's the Month of the Military Child, and it is also Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month. According to statistics on the website www.childwelfare.gov, millions of children are suffering from a hidden epidemic of child abuse and neglect. It's a shocking number, but did you know that every year approximately 3.3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States involving nearly 6 million children and that a report can include multiple children? The site also states that the United States has the worst record of the industrialized nations - losing five children every day due to abuse-related deaths. While the above speaks mostly to the national problem of abuse and neglect, unfortunately our military children are not immune to this suffering. Multiple studies, including ones by Helfer and Kempe and reported by Capt. John A Shwed in a report titled "The Military Environment and Child Abuse" suggest increased risk factors for military children, which are ones that we see here in Minot every day as part of our high tempo operations and location. Issues at our base stem from isolation from extended family, involuntary relocation, financial hardships, stress, long work hours, and lengthy absences due to temporary duty changes and deployments. As far as military children and their safety on our base, I can attest to the fact that our numbers are getting much better; however, Minot AFB still has the highest rate of substantiated cases of child maltreatment in Air Force Global Strike Command. Let me share with you an example of what we commonly see here by describing an event that occurred on our base. A mother has a toddler and she and the child both lay down on the couch to take a nap. When she wakes up, she realizes that her child is not there. Seeing the front door open and her toddler nowhere in sight, Jane did what most people would do and called the Security Forces Squadron immediately to help find her child. They did so, and everyone was safe and sound. But then it happened--she got the call from the Family Advocacy Program. Even though everything turned out ok in Jane's case, it still was referred to Family Advocacy for neglect, as is the requirement. The mother's head started to spin as she asked herself Family Advocacy? Aren't they the bad guys? The answer to her question is no. Family Advocacy is not here to take away members children; we support healthy families and are here to help. We want your families to succeed as much as you do. The reality of this case was that it did not get substantiated as neglect. Most of our child maltreatment cases here at Minot AFB deal with neglect, and a vast majority are cases just like this one; however, there are cases of physical, sexual and emotional abuse rounding out the rest of the substantiated cases. Even just being exposed to parental violence or arguing has numerous short and long-term impacts on children and can be substantiated as emotional abuse. This is why I urge residents to do their best to help us combat this issue. Neighbors, look out for each other and each other's children. One team, one fight.