Morning Edition; Dr. Amanda Dickerson

Dr. Amanda Dickerson is a pediatrician at Freeman's Children's Clinic in Joplin. She's bunk recently highlighting that April is national abuse in neglect month. According to Dr. Dickerson, she's usually not the first person to notice abuse or neglect on a child. Commonly it's a teacher. And that was an issue in 2020 when many schools including those in Southwest Missouri closed due to the pandemic. One of the issues is that during this COVID pandemic schools were closed since our largest mandated reporter base was not looking up for our children. It's difficult to determine how many cases of abuse went unreported during the months-long school closures. But according to analysis from the national conference for a community injustice, instances of domestic violence in the US increased by 8.1 percent last year. Dickerson advances can be challenging despite abuse and neglect depending on the child's age. She says in a baby, look for poor weight gain. While for little kids say 4 to 9 years old, look for bruising on their neck, torso and face. By the time kids are teenagers, markers on how to spot abuse change. In a teenager, you may see withdrawal from

social groups or a child who was previously outstanding in academics that's now slipping. You may see personality changes. Another indicator is that life just seems on for the child. She cautions filing a report with the police or state officials if you see just one of those changes or markers of abuse. Dickerson says a trip to your pediatrician, regardless of the child's age, may be a good way to figure out what's going on. You know, we may be able to help you sort of get to the bottom of that, whether it be depression or anxiety or potential abuse, a situation or substance abuse or some other thing or maybe the family is just financially limited because of constraints related to the pandemic. If a pediatrician like Dr. Dickerson at Freeman notices abuse or neglect and reports it, the next stop for the child and their family members could be Children's Center in Chaplin. Vicki Dudley is the executive director of the Nonprofit Child Advocacy Center. The organization provides a safe, friendly environment for the treatment and investigation of child abuse throughout Southwest Missouri. We are nationally accredited to work with law enforcement, children's division,

juvenile office, our prosecutor's office, to help with the investigation of child abuse. The Children's Center was founded in 1996, opening its chocolate location the following year. Since then, the Nonprofit has opened three additional locations in Manette, Nevada, and Butler. Vicki says that once there is a reported incidence of child abuse made, the state's Children's Divisions will accompany the family to the Children's Center, where they will meet their advocate. Our advocate greets the family. They explain the process to them. What's going to happen next? And then the advocate helps them with paperwork, helps them with to link up to community resources. The staff of the Children's Center assists the family in the next steps in what could be an undetermined path. Vicki says the center has specially trained forensic interviewers on hand to speak with young victims. And brings the child back to our interview room. And that's a child-friendly room where the interview is recorded and observed in a separate location by law enforcement and children's division.

The interview is recorded at the Children's Center and then sent to the prosecutor's office and logged in as evidence. Vicki says the center also provides mental school exams. So say there's allegations of physical abuse and there's obvious harm done to the child. A trained nurse practitioner who has very specialized training to look for signs and symptoms of abuse does a head-to-toe exam. Children's Center also provides exams for sexual abuse. They provide all these services to children and families at no cost. The same goes for the non-profit Children's Haven in Joplin. The two operations are not affiliated with each other except to be there in times of need for Southwest Missouri Children and Families. Stephanie Thesis is the director of Children's Haven. Children's Haven provides crisis care so overnight care when a family is experiencing some sort of heightened stress and their Children's Zero all the way through 17 that we serve.

The center operates 24 hours a day 365 days a year. As a place for children to stay when parents or a parent have no other safe place to house them. Whether that's to escape sexual or physical abuse or something else. Knowing that you're getting a notice that utilities are getting ready to be shut off can be overwhelming and finding out that you're about to lose your employment can be overwhelming being a single parent and taking finals and in college can be overwhelming. The center also takes kids to school and picks them up provides help with their homework. The non-profit also includes meals and snacks. Children's Havens works to protect children, prevent child abuse and neglect, reduce family stress, and ultimately keep families together according to their mission statement. Stephanie says that while Children's Haven is located in Joplin, all Children of Southwest Missouri can stay at the center. So we're completely free to families. We don't charge families anything for our services. We don't want there to be any barriers to somebody accessing us when it's the middle of the night and

and they feel that they don't have many choices and are overwhelmed and if you suspect child abuse or neglect in Missouri call 1-800-392-3738 available 24 hours a day seven days a week. Or search for the Children's Division of the Missouri Department of Health to follow report online. For KRPS, I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierro in Web City.