CHILD NEGLECT
Home environment inappropriate:
- nowhere for child to sleep
- facilities that don’t work – like water, toilet, electricity, gas etc
- hoarder’s house
- dirty unhygienic environment eg overrun with pets and pet faeces, dirty nappies in yard, rubbish built up, cluttered living areas, rotting foods in kitchen and fridge
- no clean cutlery or dishes
- Parents overwhelmed with substance abuse, mental illness, physical illness or disability
- chaotic and unkempt family life with lack of structure
- family isolated from relatives and support
- Parents involved in criminal activity
- Parents have inappropriate relationships – eg many different partners, partners who are violent or abusive to them or others in the household
- Parents fail to protect their children from abuse by partner or others
You may also notice indicators of a neglectful home environment. A child may tell you or you may hear from siblings a description of the home life that indicates neglect.
In houses where neglect is an issue, children often have nowhere to sleep, and no clean dishes or cutlery available. Rotting food occupies the kitchen, fridge and sometimes the yard, and garbage and clutter is left to build up in the yard and inside the living areas of the house.
Sometimes the house can be overrun with pets and pet faeces that’s not picked up – and you would usually be able to smell this on a child. Family life appears chaotic, unkempt and messy – and often the family can be isolated from relatives or support.
Parents may be involved in criminal activity, inappropriate relationships, or might fail to protect children from abuse by a partner or someone else.
Living in squalor or hoarding will also impact on a child’s welfare.
CASE: Police attended a premises and removed 5 children from a 10 month old home that had gotten to the stage where it was not fit for human habitation. In this case the Father was a respected teacher and the Mother was a nurse – and no previous reports had indicated a problem building up – by the time Police arrived the situation was critical.