Services for child maltreatment: Challenges for research and practice

With the shrinking funds for child welfare allocated primarily to investiga tion and foster care, prevention and treatment services for child maltreatm ent (CM) are increasingly nonexistent, inaccessible, or inappropriate. Prio r research on help-seeking and service utilization has given scant attentio n to maltreating and at-risk families, who pose special challenges for serv ice delivery for several reasons: maltreating families often do not recogni ze the development of problems in the parenting relationship; even if probl ems are recognized, the stigma associated with child maltreatment makes fam ilies reluctant to seek help; and service providers and client families oft en have different beliefs about what services are needed. A review of the l iterature on help-seeking and service utilization among populations at risk , in light of the social context of child maltreatment, suggests that resea rch to identify specific parental concerns is needed in order to link preve ntion and treatment services to other services devised to meet clients' per ceived needs. In addition, longitudinal research is needed to focus on the effects of social networks on the use of formal services and on the links b etween utilization of formal and informal services.