Publications by authors named "Vincent J Palusci"

Understanding why children die is necessary to implement strategies to prevent future deaths and improve the health of any community. Child fatality review teams (CFRTs) have existed since the 1970s and provide a necessary framework to ensure that proper questions are asked about a child's death. CFRTs provide a vital function in a community to ensure that preventable causes of deaths are identified.

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In this commentary, the editorial team of extends and expands on APSAC's position on diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, affirms our commitment and plans for addressing these issues in this publication, and highlights articles in this issue that continue the discussion about race and racism in the child welfare and child protection systems.

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This article describes the extent of the problem and the medical evaluation of child maltreatment, focusing on the outpatient interdisciplinary assessment of suspected child physical and sexual abuse. Separate from their role as clinicians, the roles of the child psychologist before, during, and after the medical assessment are highlighted. The child psychologist is an important member of the interdisciplinary team who helps the team prepare for the evaluation (before), assists in screening and determining immediate psychological safety during the medical evaluation (during), and communicating the need for further treatment and follow-up (after).

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Aims: This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of an augmented home visiting programme in preventing intimate partner violence among Latinx mothers by nativity.

Background: Intimate partner violence diminishes home visit programmes' effectiveness. Immigrant Latinx mothers are especially vulnerable and need culturally tailored prevention.

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Background: Medical neglect is defined as the failure of a caretaker to heed obvious signs of serious illness, to seek medical care in a timely fashion, or to follow instructions once medical advice is obtained. It is reportable as a form of child maltreatment.

Objectives: (1) identify factors associated with referrals after medical neglect to adoption and foster care services; (2) describe a cohort of children with first-time cases; and (3) assess whether there were factors associated with recurrence.

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After a sudden infant death, parents and caregivers need accurate and open communication about why their infant died. Communicating tragic news about a child's death to families and caregivers is difficult. Shared and consistent terminology is essential for pediatricians, other physicians, and nonphysician clinicians to improve communication with families and among themselves.

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Background And Objectives: Child maltreatment (CM) is recognized as a major public health concern, and an important number of children suffer injuries related to abuse and neglect that result in death. We sought to identify risk factors for CM fatalities among hospitalized children that can provide clinicians with information to recognize at-risk children and reduce further death.

Methods: In this study, we included cases from the 2012 Kids' Inpatient Database with diagnosis codes related to CM who were <5 years of age and were not transferred to another facility.

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When a healthy infant dies suddenly and unexpectedly, it is critical to correctly determine if the death was caused by child abuse or neglect. Sudden unexpected infant deaths should be comprehensively investigated, ancillary tests and forensic procedures should be used to more-accurately identify the cause of death, and parents deserve to be approached in a nonaccusatory manner during the investigation. Missing a child abuse death can place other children at risk, and inappropriately approaching a sleep-related death as maltreatment can result in inappropriate criminal and protective services investigations.

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Child sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with a range of negative consequences for victims that are compounded when it recurs. We used the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System to study a cohort of 42,036 children in 45 U.S.

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Unexplained childhood fracture(s) warrant consideration of physical abuse and osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Genetic OI testing may identify "variants of unknown significance (VUS)." Interpretation of VUS in context of potential abuse may have protective, criminal, and medical impacts.

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Abusive head trauma (AHT) is the leading cause of fatal head injuries in children younger than 2 years. A multidisciplinary team bases this diagnosis on history, physical examination, imaging and laboratory findings. Because the etiology of the injury is multifactorial (shaking, shaking and impact, impact, etc.

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The history of child abuse pediatrics reflects the development of medicine as a profession influenced by social movements reacting to poverty, economic exploitation, and child maltreatment. As physicians began to specialize in caring for children, egregious cases led them to recognize children were affected by special medical problems and diseases which were compounded by poor conditions and abuse and neglect. They developed the fields of pediatrics and child abuse pediatrics to advocate for their needs in courts and communities.

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This paper addresses significant misconceptions regarding the etiology of fractures in infants and young children in cases of suspected child abuse. This consensus statement, supported by the Child Abuse Committee and endorsed by the Board of Directors of the Society for Pediatric Radiology, synthesizes the relevant scientific data distinguishing clinical, radiologic and laboratory findings of metabolic disease from findings in abusive injury. This paper discusses medically established epidemiology and etiologies of childhood fractures in infants and young children.

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The medical evaluation is an important part of the clinical and legal process when child sexual abuse is suspected. Practitioners who examine children need to be up to date on current recommendations regarding when, how, and by whom these evaluations should be conducted, as well as how the medical findings should be interpreted. A previously published article on guidelines for medical care for sexually abused children has been widely used by physicians, nurses, and nurse practitioners to inform practice guidelines in this field.

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