What's New

Web-Based Training on the Identification and Reporting of Child Abuse and Maltreatment for Mandated Reporters

The NYSPCC now offers training on identifying and report child abuse and maltreatment in a convenient web-based format. You may take this course to satisfy this component of the New York State professional licensing process. All course materials are on-line and downloadable for off-line study. Registration for the course, and electronic payment of the $30.00 course fee, gives the registrant access to an on-line test based on the contents of the course materials. Upon successful completion of the test, participants will receive a Certificate of Completion which they may submit, along with other required documentation, for their New York State licensure. To register or for more information about the web-based training, please click the link below.

http://www.nyspcc.org/nyspcc/exam/

ANNUAL REPORT

Please click here to view The NYSPCC's 2008 Annual Report.

RESEARCH

In 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed The NYSPCC's Executive Director, Mary L. Pulido, Ph.D., to the New York City Child Fatality Review Team (CFRT). The CFRT was established to review all preventable deaths among New York City children ages one to 12 and to make recommendations for expanding the City's child safety efforts. The CFRT's first year of service concluded with a report on how to keep children safe from traffic accidents and while traveling.

Please click here to view the 2007 findings and recommendations of the CFRT.

In May 2008, the CFRT released the second annual assessment of children's fatalities in New York City. It found that – after motor vehicle accidents – the second-leading cause of death, and the number one threat in our homes, is fire. From 2001 through 2006, 95 New Yorkers died in residential fires, and tragically, more than two-thirds of those deaths were children age 12 and under. The deaths of every one of those 66 children produced untold pain and heartbreak – and tragically, more than three-quarters of them could easily have been prevented. About a quarter of these fires started from children playing with matches and lighters – often in their own bedrooms. And nearly half of the deaths resulted from careless adult behavior such as leaving burning candles unattended, overloading electrical outlets, or failing to extinguish cigarettes.

Please click here to view the 2008 findings and recommendations of the CFRT.

In June 2009, the CFRT released the third annual report of children's fatalities in New York City. This report focuses on fatal unintentional injuries sustained in the home. The findings of the CFRT show that fatal injuries vary by age, gender, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Deaths are highest among younger children, boys, non-Hispanic Black children, and children from lower income neighborhoods. Fires, falls and asphyxia are the leading causes of unintentional child deaths in the home. Fatal childhood injuries sustained in the home can be avoided when the events leading up to injury are foreseen. While many policies and efforts proven to reduce the burden of child injury are in place, further gains are needed. This report outlines additional steps to educated caregivers, implement home safety interventions, and advance research on risk and protective factors associated with unintentional injuries among New York City children.

Please click here to view the 2009 findings and recommendations of the CFRT.

The 2010 report from the CFRT finds that the rate of child injury deaths has been stable for the past eight years. Though the City has many policies in place to reduce child injuries, the report offers practical steps that could help reduce them further. The NYC Health Department and other City agencies are implementing numerous policies and programs to decrease child injury deaths such as the New York City Poison Control Center, the Window Fall Prevention Program, the Newborn Home Visiting Program, and the Nurse Family Partnership. For more information on these and other City initiatives, call 311 or visit health.nyc.gov.

Please click here to view the 2010 findings and recommendations of the CFRT.

THE NYSPCC IN THE MEDIA

In April 2007, The NYSPCC's supervised visitation program, Positive Parenting Plus (PP+), was prominently featured in an article in The New York Times, "In Custody Fights, a Hurdle for the Poor." The article detailed the complex issues facing families who need access to supervised visitation services and cited The NYSPCC's PP+ program as "among the best in the city." Please click here to view article.

Following the publication of The New York Times article, Mary L. Pulido, Ph.D., The NYSPCC's Executive Director, wrote an article for ParentGuide News, a monthly publication serving the New York metropolitan area that targets the information, needs and interests of parents who have children under the age of 12. Her article, "Parent Alert – Steps to take if you think a child is being abused," appeared in the July issue. Please click here to view article.

In 2008, Dr. Pulido and Stephen P. Forrester, Esq., The NYSPCC's Assistant Executive Director, were interviewed by Leslie Kaufman of The New York Times for an article focusing on the vagueness of the definition of corporal punishment in New York State. The article entitled, "Murder Case Tests Limits on Parents' Right to Hit" appeared on January 20th. They provided insight into the issue and explained that The NYSPCC does not condone corporal punishment; we teach our parents non-physical alternatives of discipline as corporal punishment can easily escalate into more abusive behaviors.

Dr. Pulido published an article on The NYSPCC's crisis debriefing model entitled, "Crisis Debriefing for CPS: Restoring Resiliency Response," which appeared in the national newsmagazine Social Work Today. The article includes a review of the literature, why it is essential to debrief child protective workers, trauma teams, and those who work with domestic violence cases, etc., describes the protocol and the feedback that The NYSPCC's clinicians have received back from participants in the sessions. Please click here to view article.

THE NYSPCC CONTINUES TO LECTURE NATIONALLY ON CHILD WELFARE ISSUES

The NYSPCC continues to lecture nationally on child welfare issues. In 2009, The NYSPCC trained approximately 600 professionals at national and state conferences which included:

17th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect of the Children's Bureau's Office on Child Abuse and Neglect of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families
Prevent Child Abuse New York
National Supervised Visitation Network
46th Annual Conference of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
17th National Colloquium of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children
International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation
International Society on Traumatic Stress Studies
Center for Court Innovation Domestic Violence Program
New York City Family Court
Women's Bar Association of New York City
National District Attorney's Association for the Prosecution of Child Sexual Abuse

This work is continuing in 2010. The following national and state conferences are scheduled:

In April, Katheryn Lotsos, LCSW, Director of Clinical Services, conducted a two-day training at The Mediation Center in Asheville, North Carolina on The NYSPCC's supervised visitation model, Positive Parenting Plus (PP+).

Ms. Lotsos and Brenda Tully, LCSW, Assistant Director of Clinical Services, presented at the annual Prevent Child Abuse New York conference in April in Albany, NY. They presented Strengthening Families by Addressing Children's Trauma History in Supervised Visitation Settings.

Ms. Lotsos and Ms. Tully presented two workshops at the Supervised Visitation Network's Annual Conference in May 2010 in Denver, CO. They presented Managing the Complexities of Supervised Visitation for Children in Foster Care: Understanding Trauma, Strengthening Connections, and Moving Towards Permanence and Tuning In: Promoting the Parent/Child Bond.

In October, Dr. Pulido will present at the 2010 Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists Conference which will be held in Toronto, Canada. Her presentation is entitled Supporting Child Protective Staff Following Child Fatality and Other Critical Incidents.

FACULTY APPOINTMENTS

Mary L. Pulido, Ph.D., The NYSPCC's Executive Director, holds the rank of Adjunct Assistant Professor at The Hunter College School of Social Work and is also a Medical Reserve Corp "first responder" to disaster trauma through the New York City Office of Health and Mental Hygiene. In 2006, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed Dr. Pulido to the New York City Child Fatality Review Team (CFRT). The CFRT has responsibility for examining all deaths of children up to age 12 whose deaths are categorized as unanticipated, the result of trauma, or the circumstances of which are suspicious, obscure, or otherwise unexplained.

Jorge Irizarry, J.D., a Mediator in our Child Permanency Mediation program, is an Adjunct Professor and the Director of the Mediation Clinic at Brooklyn Law School.