NCJ Number
112441
Date Published
1987
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study examined the medical charts of 150 consecutive psychiatric admissions of multihandicapped children to the John Merck Program from January 1985 and June 1986 to determine the extent and characteristics of abuse and neglect.
Abstract
The John Merck Program consists of a psychiatric inpatient unit for multihandicapped children and adolescents living in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Study subjects were selected because of severe psychiatric and medical problems which placed them at increased risk for abuse and neglect. Retrospective analysis of medical charts was used to document occurrence of maltreatment; describe characteristics of abuse and neglect; and compare maltreated and nonmaltreated multihandicapped children with regard to type of disability, behavior problems, and psychiatric diagnoses. Results indicated that 39 percent of the sample experienced warranted suspicion of maltreatment, followed by neglect and sexual abuse. Maltreated multihandicapped patients admitted to the psychiatric unit were less likely to receive diagnoses of organic brain syndrome or profound mental retardation than nonmaltreated multihandicapped counterparts on the same unit. Moreover, data indicated that less severely impaired patients were more likely to be maltreated than were the more severely impaired. Particularly striking was the severity of maltreatment in this multihandicapped sample and the relatively high percentage (40 percent) of sexually abused patients who were assaulted by multiple perpetrators. Tables, chart, and 10 references. (Author abstract modified)