When someone harms your child, it can be difficult to know what to do. Abuse can happen anywhere, and come from any source: an adult, another child, an otherwise trusted family member or friend. Abuse is not limited to certain demographics, it can happen in any income bracket, any geographical location, any time.
If your child is being or has been abused, what should you do?
1. Remove Your Child From the Situation
Removing your child from the place where the abuse is occurring is a key first step. At times, this is easier said than done, such as when the abuse is occurring at school or at home. Ensuring your child’s safety and working toward a solution where they can not be abused is the first of several steps you should take after you have talked to your child or have seen the warning signs of abuse.
2. Take Care of Your Child’s Needs
Your child may require medical intervention, depending on the extent of the abuse. If medical attention is necessary, you should obtain it right away. Proper care and treatment immediately after an injury occurs often makes the difference between a temporary injury and a permanent one.
Whether the abuse is a one-time event, or has been ongoing, counseling may be needed in order to help your child process the trauma that they have experienced. Licensed professionals are the best resource to help your child work through what happened and process it in a healthy way. Seeking counseling for yourself or other family members may also be a wise course of action.
Helping everyone impacted by the situation process what has happened and work together to rebuild in a healthy way is a very important step in the healing process.
3. Report the Abuse
If your child has been abused, report it to the appropriate authority as soon as you have all information that will be helpful in identifying the abuser. This may be an advocate such as Child Protective Services, the school nurse, or a specialist organization. If you are not sure who to contact, the police can typically provide you with the appropriate information in order to make a report.
Trusted authorities will assist you with the appropriate reporting process during a traumatic event.
4. Contact a Legal Advisor
If you suspect that you will need to take legal action against the abuser, or decide that you would like to pursue legal action against them, you may want to get an attorney involved. A brain injury in children resulting from abuse, for example, may result in the need for a lawsuit to be filed in order to address their future medical needs and in order to prevent the abuser from being around or harming other children.
Abuse is an uncomfortable topic, and one that we hope you never have to discuss with your children. In the event that you do, these four points are things that you should keep in mind in order to protect your child and appropriately handle the next steps in getting the abusive situation resolved.