1.9 Future Directions

In the last section (1.8), we discussed how it is one’s duty to report suspected child abuse or neglect. Following the steps provided, YOU can take action as it is your responsibility to report suspected child abuse or neglect. We can move forward by ensuring that educators in school systems teach all individuals how to spot signs of child abuse. Those who work with children on a regular basis (doctors, teachers, etc.) should take required classes and be re-educated on the subject on a regular basis. Parents should take seminars to learn how to recognize the indicators of child maltreatment, as there are several types (emotional, neglect, physical, and sexual) that most people are unaware of or unsure about. It is also important to consider better studies and reports of child maltreatment on the onset of disorders and differentiating between different disorders through whole systems research. Moreover, in this section, we will discuss how future observations of child maltreatment can help bring forward more reliable data by comparing and contrasting the evidence-based model (EBM) and the whole systems research (WSR) model. The goal is to hold studies that are long-term rather than short-term to observe the different onsets of different disorders and how we as a society can help.

Evidence-based vs Whole Systems Research Model

Differentiating Age With Mental Health Disorders

In past studies, there is much neglect in observing long-term data and witnessing mental health disorders at different age intervals. Primarily focusing on teens to early twenties does not account for most disorders that may occur at different ages. For instance, panic disorder and major depression can occur on average between the ages of 25 to 30 years of age (Kisley et al., 2020). Mood disorders can vary between 29 and 43 years of age and anxiety disorders can occur between 24 and 50 years of age (Kisley et al., 2020). Thus, carrying out long-term studies that observe an individual at different stages of their life can help future studies understand the range of certain mental health disorders. More research should be analyzed on different types of disorders and their onset as these are still questions unanswered due to the lack of long-term studies conducted. Also, separating these types of disorders from each other is very important as they are different in characteristics and, as mentioned, occur at different age intervals in one’s life.

Differentiating Between Different Child Maltreatment Disorders

In Kisley et al.’s study, the authors made sure to account for and differentiate between the different types of child maltreatment (emotional, neglect, physical and sexual) (2020). Kisley et al. discovered in prior cohort research that the long-term impacts of certain forms of child maltreatment may have larger effects on anxiety, particularly PTSD (2018). Thus, for future studies differentiating and separating types of child maltreatment is beneficial as different types of child maltreatment have stronger associations with different disorders. As mentioned in Section 1.5, anxiety has a higher association with neglect, depression has a higher association with physical abuse and PTSD has a higher association with sexual abuse. In future studies, including MRI scans could demonstrate if there is a strong correlation with certain regions of the brain that undergo particular child maltreatment. This is a question that would spark further studies on how certain mental health disorders obtained from child maltreatment are specific to different brain regions.

Attrition: An Important Limitation

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Attrition is also a recurring issue in many studies and is an unresolved problem, especially in longitudinal and long-term studies. To understand attrition better, more studies should be determining why people choose to drop out of long-term studies. Attrition can be for many reasons (work, scheduling, commitments, etc.) which can be adjusted through online interventions or questionnaires, but in child maltreatment cases it may be a sensitive subject that most people may not feel comfortable informing others about. There are two issues at hand. The first is the lack of conclusive data, which might lead to the test being invalid. The second is that it is probable that the patients who were supposed to be followed up on aren’t getting the treatment they require. That is why it is important to stop the stigma around child maltreatment and inform others on how to recognize child abuse (Refer to Section 1.8).

Resources

There are several options accessible to you that can help you choose the mental health facility that accommodates you or someone you may know. There are also resources that are here to inform you of the signs of child maltreatment and where you can seek help.

Mental Health Resources in the Greater Toronto Area:

CAMH

Mental Health at UofT (For students who attend the University of Toronto)

Distress Centres of Greater Toronto

Gerstein Crisis Centre

Toronto PFlag

Child Maltreatment Resources in the Greater Toronto Area:

Children’s Aid Society of Toronto

Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto

Native Child and Family Services of Toronto

Jewish Family and Child Service of Greater Toronto

Toronto Police Services

For More information on Child Maltreatment in Canada please refer to:

Government of Canada: Child Maltreatment