History
A Pioneer in Identifying and Treating Abuse
Work at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center was pivotal in helping the medical community nationwide come to grips with child abuse, a problem it had avoided for years. In the 1950s and '60s, most doctors were reluctant even to suspect child abuse, much less pursue it with the child's caretaker or report it to authorities.
Frederic N. Silverman, MD, the first full-time director of the Division of Roentgenology at Cincinnati Children's, co-authored a landmark 1962 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association that identified "battered child syndrome." The article showed the link between bruises to the skull and fractures of the long bones as clues in child abuse and how diagnostic X-rays could detect abuse.
As a result of the publicity, all but one state in the United States enacted mandatory reporting laws for child abuse within four years. The laws protected physicians from civil suits that might follow their diagnosis and reporting of battered children.
By 1975, Cincinnati Children's formed the Child Abuse Team, composed of physicians, social workers, nurses and representatives from public and private child-protection agencies. The number of cases handled by the team has increased dramatically since it was founded, as has the team's role. The team assesses more than 2,300 cases of physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect each year. Today, families, social service and law enforcement agencies, health care professionals, family advocates, educators and others throughout the tristate turn to the child abuse team for treatment, support and consultation.
The Child Abuse Team received Center of Excellence Awards from the State of Ohio in 1995 and 1996, which enabled the team to offer much-needed educational programs to health care professionals in surrounding communities.
In October 2000, Cincinnati Children's opened the Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children. Initiated by a grant from the Mayerson Foundation, the center brings together all the resources at Cincinnati Children's dedicated to preventing and treating child abuse into one center.
For more information about the Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children, call 513-636-SAFE. If you suspect a child within the Greater Cincinnati area is being abused, please contact the child's physician or call 513-241-KIDS. Physicians are required by state laws to report suspected physical abuse or neglect to the legally mandated agency in their community.
