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Pediatric Congress 2019 Current Pediatric Research | ISSN: 0971-9032 | Volume 23
Page 14
July 25-26, 2019 | Amsterdam, Netherlands
OF EXCELLENCE
IN INTERNATIONAL
MEETINGS
YEARS
International Conference on
PEDIATRICS AND NEONATOLOGY
USING GROUP ORIENTED PEDIATRICWELL
CARE TO BUILD AND CAPITALIZE ON STRONG
COMMUNITIES FOR CHILDREN
D erived from the recommendations of the US Advisory Board on Child Abuse
and Neglect for a neighbourhood based child protection system, strong com-
munities for children is a community wide approach to primary prevention of
childmaltreatment. It relies on outreach workers tomobilize communities so that
every child and every parent know that, if they have reason to celebrate, worry
or grieve, someone will notice and someone will care. The strategy focuses on
the development of a natural social support in primary community institutions
(e.g., civic clubs; fire stations and places of worship). In the largest trial (A multi-
year quasi-experiment comparing neighbourhoods matched at the block group
level), strong communities was implemented in an area of mixed population
density, wealth, race and ethnicity and a population of about 125,000 residents
in northwest South Carolina; comparisons were with communities in Central
South Carolina. More than 500 organizations and more than 6,000 individual
volunteers participated. Compared to the unserved communities across time in
a multi-method design, communities engaged in strong communities showed
decreases in substantiated cases of child maltreatment, hospital admissions of
children because of injuries perhaps related to maltreatment, self-described child
neglect and parental stress. Increases were observed in perceived safety to, from
and at elementary schools, elementary schools= receptiveness to parents, home
safety practices, social support and collective efficacy. Positive changes in chil-
dren’s safety were observed in both high and low-resource communities but par-
ticipating low-resource communities showed greater mobilization, accompanied
by increases in neighbourly assistance, perceived household safety and observed
positive parenting. The South Carolina initiative relied, roughly speaking, on one
outreach worker per town. Efforts are currently underway to demonstrate even
more cost-effective and sustainable implementation through: reliance on univer-
sity students as volunteer outreach workers and use of pediatric group well visits
as the foundations for social support both in the health care system itself and in
other primary community institutions. The latter approach will be described in
detail with attention to preliminary findings showing positive effects on health
care for young children and their families.
Gary B Melton, Curr Pediatr Res 2019, Volume 23
Gary B Melton is Professor of Pediatrics and of
community and behavioural health at the Uni-
versity of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
in the Kempe Center for the Prevention and
Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect. Current-
ly he is also Visiting Professor of Psychology and
Education at the University of Virginia and Ad-
junct Professor of Youth, family and community
studies at Clemson University. He is the author
or editor of approximately 375 publications; he
is Editor-in-Chief of International Journal on Child
Maltreatment: Research, Policy, and Practice, Se-
nior Editor of American Journal of Orthopsychiatry
and past Co-Editor of Child Abuse & Neglect. He is
the only four-time recipient of distinguished con-
tributions awards from the American Psycholog-
ical Association. He has also received awards for
distinguished contributions to research and pub-
lic service from two APA divisions, the American
Psychological Foundation, Prevent Child Abuse
America and Psi Chi.
Gary B Melton
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, USA
BIOGRAPHY