Successful treatment of abusive parents and their children requires accurate and comprehensive diagnosis, the well-coordinated combinations of innovative treatment modalities, and special skills and qualities in the therapist. Unless all three of these critical factors are present, the long-term management of child abuse within a particular family will be less than optimal. TOday, I will address the first two factors: that is, diagnosis and treatment modalities, rather briefly, for these topics will be more thoroughly discussed by others of you later in this conference. Instead, I will concentrate on the special skills and qualities of the therapist and also some of the very personal problems that the therapist must face when dealing with these families. Once a country or community gets past its denial that child abuse and neglect could occur among its people (for it is always someone else's problem), the diagnosis of child abuse is not exceedingly difficult to make. If a multidisciplinary team thoroughly evaluates a family and their total situation, they will know what is wrong. What to do with the family is a more serious dilemma most places. Innovative treatment programs for parents ind children have been found to be successful whether the family be in Denver, Colorado; rural Iowa; London, or Amsterdam. It has been demonstrated that abusive parents can benefit from casework services, lay therapy, individual psychotherapy, marital counseling, visiting nurse services, group treatment (including self-help groups), parent counseling, and crisis hotlines. Abused children can benefit from specialized pediatric services, therapeutic day care and playschool programs, individual and group psychotherapy and crisis nurseries. The family can be treated as a unit with family therapy, residential family therapy, or interventions directed at parentchild interactions. These modalities are most successful when utilized in combinations.
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Jan 1, 1979
Chris Goddard 
