Question

Scenario

Mary Ann, a thirty-two-year-old woman, lives in Clinton, Connecticut with her son, Tony, who is eight-years-old, and her boyfriend Jack. Mary Ann also takes care of her mother, Elma, who is elderly and lives with them in their home. Because Jack has trouble holding a job and rarely is employed for more than a few weeks at a time, Mary Ann works as a waitress during the day and as a bartender at night. It is common for her to be gone to work from 5:00 am to midnight. When Mary Ann is home, Jack is generally a decent fellow. He helps around the house, runs the occasional errand and watches a lot of TV.

However, when Mary Ann is at work, Jack behaves quite differently. He drinks most of the time and sits in front of the TV watching baseball. He doesn't care much for Tony or Elma, and he refuses to cook them food so they eat what they can find around the house. As a result, both are very thin and slightly malnourished. When Jack drinks a little too much and his favorite baseball team loses, he gets very angry. Dealing with an eight-year-old boy is the last thing he wants to do, so he sometimes locks Tony in the hall closet to punish him for misbehaving. On a several occasions, Jack has hit Tony when he is angry and Tony regularly has bruises on his arms and legs from the rough way that Jack handles him. Mary Ann notices the bruises, but Jack always explains that Tony is a boy and boys play rough, so the bruises are just from sports or kidding around. On a few occasions, Jack has also hit Elma, but he explains these marks to Mary Ann by saying that Elma is just old and ran into a wall or tripped and fell. He also regularly steals money from Elma’s purse, but Elma can never remember how much money she had so she never tells Mary Ann.

            Tony’s teacher, Miss McKay, has her suspicions that Tony is being abused, but Tony denies that there are any problems at home because he is afraid that his mom will get into trouble. Although Miss McKay is concerned, she decides that Tony is a good kid and she will believe him that there are no problems at home. When Tony is sent to the school nurse because he seems to have gotten very thin, the nurse gives him a cookie and tells him to eat all his meals like a good boy, then sends him back to class with a smile.

            One day, Elma is walking Tony to school, when she trips on a curb and falls down. A neighbor hurries out to help her up, and he notices the bruises on both Elma and Tony. He also notices that they both seem thin and pale. The neighbor asks Elma if everything is okay and Elma tells him about Jack. The neighbor then calls the police and reports the situation.  

Questions  

1) a) Identify any abusive situations in this home.

b) What type of abuse did occur or is occurring?

c) Who is responsible for the abuse?

2) a) Identify who, if anyone, had a responsibility to report an abusive situation in this case.

b) Did the individual(s) you identified in “2 a” meet that responsibility?

c) What information needed to be reported?

d) To whom should this information have been reported?

Answer 1

1)a)The abusive situation in the home are

• Jack being jobless has a tendency of drinking and looses his cool with anger and starts beating the children and the elders rather helping them out

b.It is a form of domestic violence or domestic abuse or domestic assault on children,parents ir elderly population. This is a form of physical abuse done to the child and elder. For child it is better termed to be "Child abuse" causing injury and bruise to them.Also the child was not provided meals and closing the child in hall closet.

c.Jack is responsible for the abuse

2)a)Tony's teacher Miss McKay Inc when she observed bruises onnthe child should have reported

The nurse who examined the child is her duty to report this after collaborating with the teacher and management for confirmation of child  abuse to the concerned department.

The mother could have been judgemental in case of her child and taken action

Elma could have reported this to her daughter and taken steps to prevent this.

b.No they haven't met their responsibility in saving the child from abuse especially the nurse (who from a medical background should have thoroughly assessed and tikedjout the cause fir the bruises and for malnutrition )

c)The injury caused to the two children and mother should be informed

d)It should be reported to the National domestic violence hotline or domestic violence specialists available locally or state wide.

National Center for Child Abuse and Neglect or National Commission For the Prevention of Child Abuse are the place to be reported to rajpke actiins immediately and prevent any further harm yo the children.