The Senate Health. Education, Labor, and Pensions Children and Families Subcommittee held a hearing on the reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Chairman of the Subcommittee, said that the Act provides grants to programs to prevent and treat child abuse, among many other things. He said that rates of physical abuse of children in the past few years have gone down, while rates of neglect have remained high. He added that half of child abuses cases involve domestic violence and that the very youngest children are the most abused and neglected. (more…)

Barbara Romberg, founder and president of the Give an Hour Foundation, says that among troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, approximately 40 percent of soldiers, a third of Marines, and half of the National Guard members report psychological difficulties. She also says that according to a study by the RAND Corporation, some 300,000 troops are suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and an additional 320,000 troops are suffering from traumatic brain injuries, but that only half have sought treatment. (1:27)

 

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