A hospital in northern Texas witnessed a dramatic spike in child abuse cases, and they believe the cases are tied to the stress of the coronavirus pandemic.
Cook Children’s Hospital reported six severe child abuse cases this week in which all of the apparent victims were under 4 years old. It’s the same number of cases the hospital normally sees in a month.
“We knew an increase in abuse was going to occur, but this happened faster than we ever imagined,” said Christi Thornhill, director of the Trauma Program, the CARE Team and Fostering Health at Cook Children’s, according to CBS DFW. “I mean, this happened in a week, and these are really bad abuse cases.”
“We worry about who will see abuse and report it right now,” Thornhill added. “That’s where we need neighbors and other family members to pay attention. If you hear the child next door screaming, call for help. All of us need to be involved. As much as most of us don’t want to, we all must make it our business.”
The spike in child abuse cases arose as people are being forced to stay in their homes as health officials try to squash the spread of the virus. In order to do so, most public schools have been canceled for the time being, while some have gone as far as to cancel school for the rest of the year.
Dr. Jamye Coffman, the medical director of the Cook Children’s Center for Prevention and Child Abuse and Neglect and the CARE Team, argued that the stress of the pandemic has become too much for some parents to handle.
“People have so much increased stress right now,” Coffman said. “They’ve got financial stress. Some people lost their job or worried about keeping their current job. They lost their income. You’ve got stress from being overcrowded. Everyone’s cooped up together. They feel like they can’t get away from each other. These stressors can lead to abuse.”
More than 287,000 people have tested positive for the virus globally, which has resulted in nearly 12,000 deaths, while just shy of 90,000 people have recovered from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
