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Hospital Coordinator To Detail Job Giving 'Voices' To Abused Children
Oct. 10, 2014
SHSU Media Contact: Beth Kuhles
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John Bickel |
As a community outreach coordinator at Texas Children’s Hospital, John Bickel’s mission is to educate doctors, nurses, police, fire and emergency medical personnel, teachers, child protective services, and the public about the signs and symptoms of child abuse and neglect.
Bickel is assigned to child abuse pediatrics at the hospital, one of the largest programs of its kind in the country to increase the awareness, identification, evaluation, and treatment of this growing social issue.
Bickel will discuss his duties in this capacity on Thursday (Oct. 16) during his Voices Lecture Series presentation, which will begin at 2 p.m. in the Criminal Justice Center’s Hazel B. Kerper Courtroom at Sam Houston State University.
More than four children die every day in the U.S. as a result of abuse or neglect, and a case of child abuse is reported every 10 seconds, according to ChildHelp, a national prevention and treatment organization.
A clinical social worker, Bickel has dedicated his life to fighting child maltreatment for the last 16 years, first working with sexual abuse cases at Children’s Protective Services and later at Texas Children’s Hospital in the emergency room, where he evaluated children for signs of abuse. His youngest abuse victim was just days old; the oldest pediatric cases extend up to 18 years old. His youngest sexual assault victim was one month old.
For the last three years, Bickel has served as the community outreach coordinator, sharing what he has learned about child abuse with many different groups.
As part of the education program, he emphasizes detection and prevention by focusing on the signs and symptoms of maltreatment; the biomechanics of injuries and how they may indicate underlying abuse; the importance of family history; conditions that mimic abuse; how to document injury findings; and local resources for medical consultation or service referrals.
“We want to help every citizen to be an advocate for children,” Bickel said. “It is not just a job for Child Protective Services. Every day, many people are involved with children in day care, in doctors’ offices, at school. It is really crucial for everyone to recognize the problem and what they can do about it.”
During the Voices lecture, Bickel will discuss the impact of adverse childhood experiences over a person’s lifetime.
“These stressors during childhood can build up, creating poor health as well as physical and mental health conditions,” he said.
To help break the cycle and to assist victims of child abuse and neglect, Bickel also will discuss career opportunities available in the field.
Many police departments offer positions to assist victims of crime, both for adults and children. Schools are always in need of teachers or psychologists to help identify or address the problem. Finally, trained social workers can become advocates for children in the criminal justice system.
“There are plenty of jobs around Texas,” Bickel said. “Texas is growing and there is a high rate of child maltreatment here.”
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