County supports child abuse prevention month

Union County Board of Supervisors on April 1 showed support for April being child abuse prevention month.

Kristie Nixon, Christien Sherrod and Brittany Marshall met with the supervisors to inform them of the details of the issue and related statistics in Union County.

Child abuse includes failure to provide adequate food, shelter, clothing or other needs for a child’s well health and well being; physical injuries; sexual abuse; present of an illegal drug in a child’s body; allowing a convicted sex offender, who is not the child’s biological parent or caretaker’s spouse access to the child; mental abuse or sex trafficking. A child is considered anyone younger than 18.

Possible symptoms of a child victim of abuse include poor performance in school; unhealthy relationships; attempted suicide; attention deficits; depression; violet behavior; obesity; alcoholism; drug use and cigarette addiction.

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services provides child abuse data. For Union County, statistics are through 2022. There were 173 reports of abuse in 2022, down from 250 in 2021.

According to the data, in Union County 30% of children younger than 5 were abused. That number was 45% in 2017.

During fiscal year 2022, 62% of substantiated child abuse cases were denial fo care; 10% was exposure to dangerous substance; 9% was physical abuse and 1% was sexual abuse. Fiscal year 2022 was from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022. Of those cases that year, 31% were 5 years of age or younger; 25% were between 6 and 10 and 45% were older than 11.

Of all substantiated child abuse or neglect in Iowa in fiscal year 2022, 59% was denial of critical care; 19% was exposure to dangerous substances; 9% was presence of illegal drugs in the child’s body; 7% was physical; 4%, sexual; 2%, other causes. Fiscal year 2022 began July 1, 2021, and ended June 30, 2022.

In other supervisor news...

Supervisors approved a one-year agreement for Union County to join Heart of Iowa mental health region. The region has offices in Audubon, Adel and Guthrie Center. Supervisors emphasized the need for county residents to continue to have services available in Union County.