Press Release

March 27, 2006
Contact: Jerry Carey
Phone: (856) 566-6171
careyge@umdnj.edu

Nearly 500 to Attend Statewide Symposium on Child Physical Abuse

NEW BRUNSWICK - Nearly 500 law enforcement officials, child advocates and medical and mental health professionals are expected to attend a daylong statewide symposium on “Identifying, Treating and Healing Child Physical Abuse” on Thursday, March 30, at the Hyatt Hotel, 2 Albany Street, in New Brunswick.

Sponsored by the CARES (Child Abuse, Research, Education and Service) Institute at the UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine, this symposium includes workshops that feature the best practices for diagnosing and treating child physical abuse along with discussion on cultural issues that are factors in abuse cases. The program incorporates a unique four-track approach that organizes workshops to meet the needs of mental health professionals, law enforcement officials and social workers, non-medical professionals and physicians and nurses.

“This program aims to improve the skill sets of those who are working to protect New Jersey’s children,” said Dr. Martin Finkel, medical director of the CARES Institute. “It highlights the importance of collaboration among medical, mental health, child protection and law enforcement officials to ensure that abuse investigations are conducted effectively so that we can protect children from future harm and provide the treatment they need and deserve.”

Two keynote speeches will be presented at the symposium. In the morning session, Dr. Cindy Christian, chair of Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect at Philadelphia’s Children’s Hospital and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, will discuss “The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth.” The afternoon keynote will be by Dr. Howard Stevenson, Jr., author of Playing with Anger: Teaching Coping Skills to African American Boys, will present “Stickin’ to, Watchin’ Over, Getting’ With: Effective Discipline in African American Families.” Dr. Stevenson is an associate professor in Applied Psychology and Human Development at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.

Reporters wishing to cover the symposium, which will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., should call Jerry Carey at (856) 566-6171.

UMDNJ is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health, on five campuses. Last year, there were more than two million patient visits to UMDNJ facilities and faculty at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a mental health and addiction services network.