CHILD PHYSICAL ABUSE
A delay between injury and receiving medical assistance can be due to:
Fabricating and rehearsing story
Denial
Coming up with alternative explanations
Injury on Intake record is particularly important to protect the child and yourself.
Any injury noted after drop off should be recorded immediately and signed off by a Parent later that day.
A delay between injury and treatment is suspicious for a number of reasons. In that time when you or I would have grabbed our coats and wallets and jumped in the car to get to the hospital, abusers are concerned about getting their stories straight.
They might also be in denial and just hoping that the injury will resolve itself.
Also the longer they leave it, the more alternative explanations they can come up with. You need to be careful that you aren’t one of them. I investigated a number of cases where Parents dropped children at day care with injuries – and when questioned later they would simply state, “Well I don’t know what happened – it wasn’t there when I dropped them off – it must have happened in Day Care.”
To avoid incrimination, offenders will blame anyone else – Babysitters, Day Care Staff, siblings, neighbourhood children. Again this is where the role of the Injury on Intake Record is valuable.
Always remember the importance of good documentation and observation skills. If you notice an injury soon after drop off, but don’t document until later that afternoon, then a parent trying to accuse you of being the perpetrator will find it much easier to do.
Your service may already have an Injury on Intake form so please check with your Senior Supervisor/Team Leader/Coordinator. In the absence of such forms you may wish to utilise this simple Injury on Intake Record.