child abuse prevention

The Brown School’s Melissa Jonson-Reid and her team, including faculty from several disciplines across Washington University in St. Louis and Saint Louis University, has received a five-year $6,496,050 grant from the NIH to create The Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment Policy Research and Training.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that a program aimed at helping abused and neglected children and their families is improving outcomes for kids and providing children with stable home environments as their cases move through the courts.

“Maltreatment in childhood is a global issue,” says Melissa Jonson-Reid, Ph.D., a child welfare expert and a professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, in the U.S. there are about 3 million reports of abuse or neglect each year, and about 60 percent of such reports are deemed to meet states’ criteria for investigation or assessment. Jonson-Reid offers ways to get involved in protecting children from mistreatment.