COUNCIL BLUFFS — Every 45 minutes, a child in Iowa faces harm because of child abuse or neglect.
New research found that more than 12,000 Iowa children were victims of abuse or neglect in 2010, more than 230 per week, and that eight Iowa children died that year from abuse or neglect.
Law enforcement officials are always looking for new tools to fight those trends.
Council Bluffs Police Chief Ralph O'Donnell joined with other law enforcement leaders to meet with legislators at the Iowa Capitol last week and encouraged them to strengthen family support resources, including voluntary home visitation, to combat child abuse and neglect.
O'Donnell said high-quality voluntary home visiting programs can reduce child abuse and neglect by as much as 50 percent, while also saving taxpayer dollars over the long run.
While there is no pending legislation, O'Donnell said he appreciated that three area representatives — Mark Brandenburg, Greg Forristall and Mary Ann Hanusa — met with him so he could encourage the state to continue to invest in home-visit programs to help "stop the cycle" of child abuse and violence.
"I support evidence-based programs," O'Donnell said. "I've been in police work for 35 years, and I see patrolmen arresting people with the same names; it's just the next generation.
"It's a cycle that we have to stop."
O'Donnell was representing more than 150 Iowa police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and crime survivors who belong to the anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.
Law enforcement leaders said voluntary home visits for at-risk families could prevent many cases of abuse and neglect. These programs pair nurses or trained paraprofessionals with pregnant women and new parents to teach them how to meet their child's health and developmental needs.
"Besides causing terrible harm to children, child abuse and neglect also have a tremendous impact on Iowa taxpayers," O'Donnell said.
He said an analysis from the Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that a nurse-family partnership program in New York produced a net savings for taxpayers of almost $21,000 per each family served.
Iowa currently offers an array of home visiting programs and initiatives focused on improving prenatal and infant health and preventing child abuse and neglect, among other outcomes. The programs served about 15,000 at-risk families in Iowa in fiscal year 2009.
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
