Every 40 seconds a child is abused in the U.S.

“Children are our greatest natural resource. Every child has the right to grow up and reach his or her greatest potential.” Claire R. Reeves
President/Founder/Chief Executive Officer, Mothers Against Sexual Abuse, MASA

I started my recovery from incest 24 years ago. Step-by-step I’ve revealed my pain and shame. It’s taken me 24 years to speak out in public to total strangers about my life experience. The pain and shame of being sexually abused, not believed, and the power and control of my father—my abuser contributed to my silence.

My silence was a burden I never asked for, I never deserved. It is this burden that abusers count on. When members of our society turn their heads, miss the signs, and live in ignorance, abusers are allowed to continue their perpetration of sexual abuse unchecked. Instead of holding perpetrators accountable, innocent children suffer in silence. Those innocent children grow up to be part of the 39 million adults in this country alone who carry the burden of being abused as children.

Those 39 million adults are impacted with

· Mental health issues

· Physical health issues

· Economic issues

· Relationship issues

· Criminal issues

· Employment issues

· Social issues

· Substance abuse issues

· Family violence issues

· Multigenerational transmission of abuse

· Education issues

Child abuse impacts everyone and crosses the entire fabric of society. Child abuse is a major social problem that requires a much stronger approach to prevention. An approach we must place at the head of the agenda for turning our society around and saving children from torture, soul murder, and neglect.

As a society, we have developed numerous programs to address child abuse. These are programs and services to intervene with perpetrators and treat victims. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.

Prevention programs attempt to educate the public about the impacts and effects of child abuse. However, they struggle for funding and their resources are spread too thin.

Recently, our governor called on the people of our state to increase exercise and reduce obesity in our state. He referred to obesity and the physical health effects reaching epidemic proportions in this country. I agree we have an extremely serious problem with obesity. However, Felliti & Anda, et. al., (1998) found that adults would stop weight loss programs when they started to feel unprotected with their weight loss. These researchers assessed the patients in the program to find out why they stopped losing weight.

What they discovered may astound you. Of the 17,337, patients assessed they discovered the following per cent for each category experienced a history of the following adverse childhood events (ACE)

ACE Category* Per cent

Abuse

Emotional Abuse 10.6

Physical Abuse 28.3

Sexual Abuse 20.7

Neglect

Emotional Neglect1 14.8

Physical Neglect1 9.9

Household Dysfunction

Mother Treated Violently 12.7

Household Substance Abuse 26.9

Household Mental Illness 19.4

Parental Separation or Divorce 23.3

Incarcerated Household Member 4.7

These ACE factors pointed to the following chronic health problems in the study group

alcoholism and alcohol abuse chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) depression fetal death health-related quality of life illicit drug use ischemic heart disease (IHD)

liver disease risk for intimate partner violence multiple sexual partners sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) smoking suicide attempts unintended pregnancies

The long-term impacts of child abuse are in our faces daily. They affect us economically, socially, physically, and across all areas of life. Stereotypically, we put all child abuse victims in “at-risk”, low-income families even when research does not bear this out. For example, my father was a children’s dentist. I attended college and eventually received a doctorate. I married and had a family. I, also, contributed to the divorce rate twice and married three times. My third husband is a keeper…

Am I unusual? No. I treated many middle income and above sexual abuse survivors as a professional counselor. I talk with men and women daily who never felt safe to reveal the sexual abuse in their childhood until they were in their 30s, 40s, or even later. They never saw their abusers brought to justice either criminally or civilly. Many have little or no contact with their nuclear family. They end up creating their family with their spouse, children, and safe friends.

So, I ask you today…

How much longer are you willing to put child abuse on the back burner?

What does it take for our society to address the multitude of impacts of child abuse on our citizens?

I ask you to stand with me today and say now, now is the time to bring child abuse to the front burner of our state and national agenda.

Debra Wingfield, Ed.D., edutrainer, speaker, author

Transformational Journaling for Recovering Souls: 15 Guided Techniques to Recreate your Life

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