Countywide : State Money to Help Prevent Child Abuse
The state Office of Child Abuse Prevention has awarded an Orange County social services agency $450,000 for a program that teaches women with infants how to be better mothers.
The county branch of the Children’s Bureau of Southern California will receive $150,000 a year for three years. It was the only Orange County agency to receive one of the six state grants.
The new voluntary prevention program will be based in Fullerton. Pregnant women under the care of doctors through St. Jude Medical Center’s Care for the Poor program who are at high risk of abusing their children will be asked to participate.
They will be trained in the health and development of newborn babies and infants, said Sandy Sladen, the director of community services for the Orange County branch of the Children’s Bureau. That training, Sladen said, will help keep the women from abusing their children.
“Usually money goes toward foster care, residential treatment centers, which is dealing with the problem after the fact, once the children have been abused,” she said.
The program will also encourage the women to help each other in their parenting. Counselors will also go to the participants’ homes to help them improve their parenting skills.
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