Reading Response: Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy To begin, I chose this article because when I read the title of the article I did not know what Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) was. Therefore, I decided to read this article so that I would know what MSBP meant and how it is relevant to social work. I think that the author did a great job simply explaining what MSBP is and the components associated to it. I like that they broke the article into different sections so that it was easier to read and so that you could only read about a certain subtopic if you wanted to. The one thing I did not like about the article was that they did not give a detailed scenario of MSBP. They explained what it is and what it kind of looks like. But I did not …show more content…
I learned that MSBP is a mental health problem in which a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury in a person under his or her care, such as a child, an elderly adult, or a person who has a disability. I also learned that the perpetrator is usually the mother, but is not always. It could be a father, grandparent, babysitters, medial personal, etc. I find this scary that the people you are supposed to trust are the ones that could be hurting you. Not only that but if you have been hurt since you were a small child this would be seen as normal, therefore you abuse would not be seen as wrong because to you it would be normal. I find it sad that there are children out there who think that it is normal to be abused by their loved …show more content…
It is good that investigators are doing their job and are taking everyone’s opinion/responses into consideration before they jump to any conclusion. It is heartbreaking that MSBP can lead to death of the victim and even after a death more times than not, the perpetrator continues to hurt others. They need to get help so that they are not hurting others so that they can gain pleasure from it. Similarly, it is saddening that mothers whose babies died at a very young age have been accused of MSBP when their baby’s death was an accident or they had a legitimate illness. I understand that these deaths need to be investigated but accusations should not be made without any proof of evidence. I know that I would be very offended for being accused of hurting or killing my child if I did everything I could to save
In our daily lives the theme of peer pressure still occurs. Shown in an article, “Did a Rare Form of Child Abuse Make a Daughter Murder Her Mom?” by Harriet Sokmensuer, the whole point of the article is to describe why the daughter killed her mother. The mother, Dee Dee Blanchard suffered from Munchausen by proxy, which is a disease where someone exaggerates or induces illness in a child for attention
In this one case alone we can track this incidence from the mother all the way to the role society played. First, the patient had three children from three different fathers, all of whom did not provide any support for her. The first father could have been written off as bad judgment, but to attempt to write off three would be an injustice to her. It is evident due to some emotional attachment to the idea of not wanting to be alone she was able to rationalize her decisions based on that concept. Because of self deception she refused to even entertain the thought of whether these man had any qualities that would make good fathers. Had she not refrained from making judgement on these man father the first father she would have been able to recognize the signs that this man might not make a good father in a nutshell she would have been able to learn from her prior mistakes. However, father she decides to better herself and her children we see society impede this improvement. After she is hospitalized, Social Services sent the two year old to live with his father whose daily routine consisted of a life of "drinking, whoring and fighting." Enlight of all the evidence pointing to a bad home situation Social Services stated "it was wrong to pass judgement on a man like this." The contradiction however is shown after the father and his girlfriend kill the two year old and as a result
Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome is a very dangerous disorder. This disorder came about to identify a parent who intentionally causes harm to their child. This disorder was named after Baron von Munchausen who discovered it. Symptoms are hard to identify because many do not believe a parent could harm their own child. The main symptom is that the child only becomes sick or is harmed in the presence of their parent. The parent tries to maintain a relationship with the doctor of the child because this disorder is based on the parents need for attention from the doctor, other parents, and their child. MBPS is caused by a need for attention and sympathy of the parent for “helping” their child. The only treatment known for this disorder is extensive psychotherapy. Munchausen by Proxy is a very rare behavioral disorder. “This form of abuse claims the life of nine percent of children that fall victim to it.”
The perpetrator is often a parent and typically the mother. However, there have been cases where the father acts as perpetrator. The first reported case of MSBP with a male caretaker occurred in 1990 when a father complained to physicians that his newborn baby would often stop breathing, turn blue and have seizures. Following extensive evaluation of apnea, it was discovered that the father, himself was suffocating and shaking the baby (5). Perpetrators show an avid interest for hospital care and usually have experience in the medical field. Munchausen syndrome is present in 10% of such perpetrators (3).
Before I elaborate more on this topic it will be wise for me to give you more detail and a more accurate definition and understanding at what is a mental abuse or better known as psychological abuse. It is the art of emotionally breaking down a person by inflicting fear by intimidation to create total chaos within a person mentality and with such result the one inflicting the mental pain gain power over the victim and can make him or her do anything they want. Now back to the
MedlinelinePlus offers many incredibly helpful tips on the subject of child abuse. One of the major categories that MedlinePlus provides is over the signs an abused child may show. Children who suffer child abuse not only suffer physical trauma but mental and emotional trauma as well. MedlinePlus lists the following signs “poor self-image, sexual acting out, inability to trust or love others, anger and rage, suicidal thoughts” and these are only a few the websites list. MedlinePlus also explains to readers that trauma from the abuse might not show up until the child’s adolescence or adulthood. MedlinePlus also teaches readers about how to prevent child abuse and neglect. Some of the examples it has are ways to teach the community how to spot
This report aims to describe the abuse which may affect adults. Abuse is a term in which to describe an act of intentionally or unintentionally harming yourself or someone else leaving physical or emotional damage or effects. There are many types of abuse such as physical, sexual, psychological, exploitation, bullying, neglect and many more. It is difficult to categorise abuse as there could be many reasons behind the abuse and because there are so many types of abuse.
Psychological abuse also known as emotional abuse is when someone affects the emotional and social aspect of someone’s life. It is a pattern of behaviors by caregivers that interferes with cognitive, emotional, psychological, and social development. In other words’ it is when someone does something intentionally to hurt the emotional aspects of another person.
What is child abuse? From the word “abuse” we can understand that it is some sort of a maltreatment of a child, causing harm and damage both to his physical and psychological well-being. At the Federal level, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) describes child abuse and neglect as: “any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.” Child abuse is a very substantial and widely spread problem in U.S. affecting children of any age, gender, race, background or income, with more than 1.8 million investigations done every year and on average, killing more than 5 children every day. The main issue of child abuse is that the abuser is usually someone a child loves or depends on (a parent, sibling, coach, neighbor, etc.), who violates child’s trust putting personal interests first, therefore official numbers of how many children suffer maltreatment might be not accurate enough as remarkable amount of these cases go unreported. Each case of child abuse is unique, with a lot of individual factors involved, nevertheless, we can distinguish some of the common causes, such as poverty, lack of education, depression, mental or physical health
They do not deserve to have their lives threatened or to see their mother abused the way she was. However, there were people in my family who felt as though they didn’t need any help or that they were fine and it was all blown out of proportion. While this distortion is damaging to the children who were traumatized, it also shows how trauma affects the person holding the distortion. It shows that their perspective of trauma was handled in a different way than other people and it creates a challenge. It challenged me to understand how different people perceive the trauma of others and how it affects everyone’s lives
However, all forms of child abuse carry emotional consequences because the child's psychological and emotional development inevitably suffers from all forms of abuse. An intervention model that would focus on emotional abuse could also focus on preventing other forms of abuse because violent behavior towards children often comes from the same underlying causes, and most risk factors for child maltreatment are associated with caregiver, family, and environmental factors (McDonald, 2007). With this in mind, a possible solution would have to include early detection, but the intervention would most likely focus on factors that cause all types of child abuse. Despite the widespread occurrences of all forms of abuse, emotional neglect or maltreatment are practically impossible to detect while they occur and impair the child's normal development and social integration. Emotional abuse includes includes verbal, mental, and psychological maltreatment of children, and it is frequently overlooked by the community and mental health professionals who do not define emotional abuse as a suitable factor for diagnostic purposes (as cited in Schneider, Baumrind, & Kimerling, 2007). In reality, emotional abuse is frequently used in many families, it occurs in several worldwide cultures, and it carries significant consequences that should not be overlooked.
There are many things in our society today that unfortunately go overlooked. One such thing that is overlooked is the number of children who are being abused. Unfortunately these children are going through life not knowing whether or not their parents will loose their temper and perhaps kill them. There are many types of child abuse, such as physical, sexual, and emotional. Physical abuse is physical injury as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, shaking, throwing, stabbing, choking, hitting, burning, or otherwise harming a child. Such injury is considered abuse regardless of whether the caretaker intended to hurt the child. Sexual abuse includes activities by a parent or caretaker such as fondling a child's genitals,
Most parents and other caregivers do not intend to hurt their children, but abuse is defined by the effect on the child, not the motivation of the parents or caregiver.Tens of thousands of children each year are traumatized by physical, sexual, and emotional abusers or by caregivers who neglect them.Child abuse as common as it is shocking. Most of us can’t imagine what would make an adult use violence against a child, and the worse the behavior is, the more unimaginable it seems. But the incidence of parents and other caregivers consciously, even willfully, committing acts that harm the very children they’re supposed to be nurturing is a sad fact of human society that cuts
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of children. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or also known as CDC defines child abuse as any act or series of acts by a parent or other caregiver that could result in harm to a child. Most child abuse occurs in a child's home, but it could also be found within organizations, schools, or communities that the child interacts with. There are four major categories of child abuse: neglect, physical abuse, psychological/emotional abuse, and also sexual abuse. In the story I selected, it shows many signs of sexual and physical abuse within a little girl and her older brother. Of course the mother
Do you know the difference between child abuse and discipline? Child Abuse is when someone physically and mentally hurts another person. Discipline is teaching someone or something to do the right thing. Child Abuse is very common in the United States. Many children suffer from bruising, swelling skin, and broken bones. Situations like this happen because of problems at home or personal problems. Parents at home abuse their children because of drinking and depression issues. In this crazy world, there are numerous types of abuses. There is sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect, and emotional or psychological abuse. Sexual abuse is an intentional incident that involves sexual relationship to a child using all their power and taking advantage of them. According to Family & Community Services, Physical abuse is a nonstop injury that happens more than one time. Neglect is a type of abuse you just don’t care or pay no attention to your child. Emotional or psychological harm is when you make your children think something that isn’t true. Discipline children usually do the things their parents or guardian tell them what to do because they teach them to pay attention and be polite.