The June 1 opinion piece "The crisis of abused children" was a powerful article alerting readers to the horrors some children face in their own homes. As Dr. Seema Jilani pointed out, poverty is often the best predictor of child abuse.
Through my career as a pediatrician and professor of pediatrics and as a board member for Prevent Child Abuse N.C., I've also seen the tragedies and abuse correlated to families mired in poverty. Through a nationally recognized nurse home visitation program called Nurse-Family Partnership, in several counties, including Wake, we are beginning to mitigate the risk of abuse for children in poverty. NFP nurses provide first-time, low-income mothers with the education and tools to provide a healthy, nurturing environment that combats the circumstances that often trigger abuse.
I am encouraged by what I've seen from NFP. Through randomized, controlled trials, the program has delivered outstanding outcomes that include a 48 percent reduction in child abuse and neglect and a 67 percent reduction in behavioral and intellectual problems in children age 6.
