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Issue Brief: NCIOM Task Force on Essentials for Childhood

North Carolina’s future growth and prosperity depends on our ability to foster the health and well-being of our children. Child maltreatment is a significant public health problem that negatively impacts North Carolina’s future. Child maltreatment impacts health across an individual’s lifespan and is associated with a broad range of problems including substance abuse, intimate partner violence, teenage pregnancy, anxiety, depression, suicide, diabetes, heart disease, sexually transmitted diseases, smoking, and obesity.1 In North Carolina, during 2013-2014, over 128,000 children were referred to local department of social services agencies for suspected abuse or neglect. Of these, over 36,000 children were recommended to receive additional services.2 In 2012, 28 children in North Carolina died as a result of abuse or neglect by a parent or caregiver.3 Significant adversity during childhood, such as child maltreatment, can cause toxic stress which can disrupt a child’s brain development and other organ and metabolic systems. In the absence of protective factors, such as nurturing relationships with caregivers, these disruptions produce changes in the body and brain that can lead to difficulty learning and lifelong impairments in both physical and mental health. Additionally, child maltreatment has a significant financial impact on our medical and social services systems, with annual nationwide costs of child maltreatment estimated at approximately $80 billion, and $200,000 in total lifetime costs per victim.4 Child maltreatment is a problem that can be prevented if communities take steps to promote positive development of children and families and prevent family violence. Research has shown that safe, stable