Some of the state’s unsung heroes are here in North Texas this week to talk about preventing child abuse.
The annual Partners in Prevention Conference will draw approximately 1,000 professionals from across Texas to Arlington for a frank conversation about what is working in the effort to reduce the rate of child abuse in the state.
The theme for the 2018 conference is "Teaming Up for Texas Families," according to materials published by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) and is meant to be “Texas’ rallying cry and full-court press for reducing child abuse, enhancing school readiness, improving social-emotional and physical health and strengthening communities.”
Texas has led the nation in the number of children who have died as a result of child abuse for each of the past seven years, according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services. In 2017, 172 children in the state died in connection to abuse or neglect, according to the DFPS, which was down from 217 deaths in 2016.
A highlight of the conference will be the first-ever report from the Texas Child Abuse Prevention Task Force. According to a DFPS spokesperson, the Task Force was created by the 85th Texas Legislature “to develop new ways to expand prevention services- like creating ‘community tool kits’ that will empower cities to get involved in prevention at the neighborhood level.”
The full report and its recommendations will be released Wednesday, but one of the highlights will be the preliminary success of the Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) division of DFPS to enroll at-risk families in preventative education classes that aim to stave off abuse.
In 2017, PEI served more than 65,000 children and their families in Texas through programs designed to “improve parenting skills, strengthen family relationships and build resiliency,” a DFPS spokesperson noted. To date, over 98 percent of them did not abuse or neglect their children.
"When we think about child abuse in general the very first thing we think about are those really sad and tragic stories that we hear about after it has already occurred,” said Marissa Gonzales of DFPS. “And, really, the idea of prevention and early intervention is to reach these children when they’re very young, to reach these families who may need the services, before any of that ever happens."
