This week at work I was assigned a case and the allegations were that a 6 year old had bruises on her arm and that her bottom is always red. Well I went out to see the child and the bruises were gone. The little girl has down syndrome and speech is very limited. The child resides in the home with relatives that have guardianship over her. Child was taken from mom years ago and biological mom keeps the child every other week end. When I went to visit biological mom she had a lot to say. I was made aware of concerns that the mom had. Mom showed me a video of the child humping two baby dolls. I was very disturbed by the video. I felt that the child has seen someone having sexual intercourse at home or tv. My third guess would be that someone was grinding and humping on the child. The video was very detailed and the little girl was humping as if she knew what she doing and to get gratification. Now my question to myself and supervisor was that I know that down syndrome kids explore and tend to have higher sexual desire than other kid but this child is 6 years old. My decision is to see if the child has been exposed sexually and examined by a medical doctor. I do not think that I could close my case without a medical examiner.
The conflict comes in because the biological mom feels that her child has been touched inappropriately and that she may have been exposed in sexual activities. The caretakers of the child feels as if the biological mom is causing problems because she wants her child back and will not stop making accusations against them.
My intake on things is that if the medical examine comes back and say that the child has been touched and her hymen is gone, I would move the child and not allow the child to be in either home.
Wow, Lavonda. The world we live in makes me sick.
ReplyDeleteThis is quite a conflict, and first, I want to wish you luck with this as I know this has to be on your mind constantly.
Second, I think you are doing the right think by having her examined by a medical practitioner. Although awful, this will determine that whether or not sexual abuse is occurring, which can then result in the removal of her home(s). However, if the medical examiner determines that there has not been and sexual abuse (*that he can observe), this will put you right back to where you were. I would say that if possible, there needs to be some sort of surveillance added to each of these homes in order to learn more about the goings-on of the homes.
Lavonda, I truly wish you the best with this situation. I know that you will fight for the best for this child even though it may not be easy. Keep us updated if you need our assistance with anything.
Take care.
Lavonda,
ReplyDeleteThat is a very tough situation. I've worked with children who have been physically or sexually abused and it breaks my heart to hear these things. Do you pick up on any nonverbal cues from either of the mothers involved? Do you get an impression that either mom is lying?
Lavonda,
ReplyDeleteBeing a former social worker I agree with your decision to have the child medically examined. Something is not quite right here. if there is recent evidence of abuse the child should be removed. However, my experience tells me that sometimes children who were abused very young begin sexually acting out later. I would carefully examine why the child was removed from the mother's care. Was there previous abuse? If the case history indicates previous concerns for abuse then the child may need counseling instead of being removed from the current home.
I had a similar case with a child and mother who did not have custody of her child. The child had been abused around age three and verbalized it at the time but the perpetrator could not be determined. She was removed from her mother's care due to failing to protect her child. At age 9 she began acting out. There was no evidence of recent abuse. She was referred for counseling and remained with her guardians.
I know how difficult it can be to determine what is going on when the child has limited verbal skills and can not tell you. A full case history is helpful when making those decisions.
I know you will consider all the information as you make decisions on where to go from here.
Meredith