Research - Case Studies

I did some research to help me understand what some people feel like whilst they are going through Child Abuse. I looked up some case studies and they gave me loads of information I needed to understand how they felt through that sad time.

The first case study I read was about a young boy called 'JB'. He had the best childhood with his mum, they had loads of memories together, but Dad created bad memories for him. Dad constantly used to punch holes in walls, kick doors down. JB never told anybody, he kept his thoughts in but school didn't help, they thought he had behaviour problems, they took him to speak to somebody but nobody understood.

His worst memory was when he was 9 year old. His dad was shouting at mum, calling her horrible names. Dad went to hit Mum, but JB got between it and protected his mum by pushing his dad away. JB and his Mum moved out that day and went to stay at Nan's house. JB used to pretended to be ill so he didn't have to go to school. He wanted to stay at home with Mum and keep her safe in case Dad came. A school nurse got somebody from NSPCC to come and see him, they spoke about Domestic Abuse Recovering Together program that was going to help JB. The person from NSPCC Lynsey was the first person that spoke to JB like an adult instead of a child, this made JB feel better. He got to meet other people who have been through the same as him and realised he wasn't alone.

The second Case Study was about a little girl (Sophie) that had been neglected. Her experience stay with her forever because of it. Nobody was ever at home with her and even when they were, they were too out of it to even notice she was around. She put it down as 'It was just hell'

Both her parents did drugs and whilst she was growing up none of them did basis things a child needs, like cooking meals and bathing. Her mum wouldn't of noticed if she had gone to school or not gone at all, as she was always upstairs drunk, Sophie wanted to go to school so she didn't live the same life as her parents, she could pretend everything was fine at home when at school as no-one knew what was happening at home until the house was once raided.

When Sophie was little, she used to always have to answer the door to strangers and let them in and out of the house, she was really scared of the people who came. Sophie never knew what was happening with all them people. For a few months Sophie doesn't remember seeing her apart from when she was telling Sophie off or told she wasn't letting enough people in the house.

Sophie was often left by herself and felt really lonely, but she also felt lonely when her parents were in as they were mentally completely out of it. Sophie says her worst experience was when her mum got arrested so when Sophie turned up home the windows were boarded up so she couldn't get into her own house, she had no idea what had happened because nobody had contact the school. Sophie cried her eyes out. Her dad turned up, but he was drunk, she was with her dad conked out and had no idea what to do. Sophie tried speaking to her mum and dad about their problems with drugs but they kept yelling and yelling so Sophie left. Sophie thought everybody hated her and that she was lying. She felt completely alone. Sophie took an overdose, she didn't think there was any other way out of it, she wanted her parents to listen to her.

Sophie was referred to the NSPCC by 'Women's Aid'. Sophie didn't tell anybody about her parents substance misuse before NSPCC got involded. Sophie tired speaking to her school but because I was a good kid, they thought there wasn't much going on. NSPCC made me realise that it wasn't Sophies fault and that she wasn't the one to blame. They made her realise that they were her mum's choices and she couldn't change that. Sophie was worried she would follow her mum's route and take drugs, but with NSPCC that didn't happen. The NSPCC took their time to get to know Sophie as they knew everything that had happened, therefore Sophie never had to re-tell her story every time she saw them, she just picked up where they left off.

NSPCC is a place that helps loads of different type of children going through rough patches.

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/

Personal Project - Child Abuse Propsal

For this project I decided that I was going to do it on 'Child Abuse'. The reason I picked to do Child Abuse is because I have a really strong opinion on it, just like everybody else. Recently, I've been hearing a lot about Child getting abused/bullied so I have loads of reasons to take this forward as a Personal Project.

Firstly, what is child abuse?
Child Abuse is any action by another person, child or adult that causes significant harm to a child, the child will experience more than one type of abuse over a period of time, not just once.
There are many different types of child abuse for example -

• Neglect
• Online abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Physical abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Child sexual exploitation
• Bullying and Cyber bullying
• Domestic abuse
• Grooming

And so many others cases that are classed as Child Abuse.

Here are some short explanations on some of these cases.

Neglect - Neglect is the ongoing failure to meet a child's basic needs. It is dangerous and children suffer serious and long term harm,

Online abuse - Online Abuse is any time of abuse that happens via the web. Social networking and online games and also using a mobile phone.

Sexual abuse - sexual abuse is when they are forced or persuaded to take part in sexual actives. This can happen physically but also online.

Physical abuse - Physical abuse is hurting a child, causing bruises, broken bones, burns or cuts.

Emotional abuse - emotional abuse is suffering from neglect, this can cause serious harm.

Finally, Child sexual exploitation - Child sexual exploitation is a type of sexual abuse in which is caused for money, power or status.

The long term effects for somebody that has suffered with Child Abuse are -

• Emotional difficult such as anger, anxiety, sadness or low self - esteem
• Distress or confusion
• Poor physical health, obesity, aches and pains
• Learning difficulties
• Behavior problems

I want my work to look like some sort of poster/leaflet to help people understand Child Abuse and prevent the amount of how much Child Abuse is used. I want to go forward and take photos of people that have been through Child Abuse (acting) and make people see the consequences and how to get help.

These pictures are the pictures that have helped me with what I am going to do when it comes to taking pictures for our idea. 

 

These are of girls that have been through Child Abuse and some notes of what they are told or how they feel, I want to use Leah to remake images like this.

Whilst doing this task, I want to get more understanding on Child abuse and the help that is there for people that need it, I want people to see my poster/leaflet and I want it to help them get help from their past and even future. I want people to learn how to get through it and how to get help due to speaking to people and I want to try to lower the risk of child abuse.

Did you know? half a million children are abused in the UK each year! 

There are many online places that help with Child Abuse, here are a few I found -

Save the children

https://secure.savethechildren.org.uk/donate/?utm_campaign=ppc&utm_medium=ppc&utm_source=ppcgen&sissr=1

Childfriendlyfaith

http://childfriendlyfaith.org/2015/08/a-new-pilot-program-for-faith-communities-who-put-children-first/?gclid=CjwKEAiAt_K0BRCzjtv92_HGoR0SJAA9QNn_ouvSL1OpkHrbTYkisYMmDpO9Caacwz3WibjmsKgrZxoC1Gzw_wcB

Childline

http://www.childline.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=UK_GO_S_B_GEN_Grant_Childline_Helpline&utm_term=child_helpline_number&gclid=CjwKEAiAt_K0BRCzjtv92_HGoR0SJAA9QNn_sC1L9cXwpm0FAn4nh1nbHdPr6TsTu-IITEFyliJbtxoCEMbw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I don't know who did these as it doesn't say online but these images explain how some people may feel during 'Child Abuse'. Some people may find them quite deep and upsetting but it's real life and how real children feel.

Here are some art work of Child abuse -


Karen Clementi drew this, there isn't a background on this image but it says it itself really, this shows that children feel like they can't speak throughout Child Abuse.

This is from -
RAVSCA is a project to Raise Awareness for Victims and Survivors of Child


This image I found off google, somebody drew it and posted it on their Blogger. It is of 'Margaritas' 7 year old niece, that she took a photo of then drew it to add bruises and more proofs of child abuse.


Proposal was approved by Tutor, was advised to get a few more art work of Child abuse which I completed.

My 6 week schedule -

Week one - For my first week, I want to do loads of research to help me get a better understanding on my project before going ahead.

Week two - I want to try and go around, making questionnaires and finding primary information so that I get an even better understanding on how people feel about child abuse and see if I can find anybody that has experienced it.

Week three - I want to go and do some photography, I want to take as many different shots as I can so then when it comes to making my poster, I have loads of different options to use.

Week four - Taking more pictures and starting to edit then, getting them into the theme and how I want my images to look for my final poster.

Week five - I want to think about the rest of my poster, the little catchy saying and thinking of different fonts, colours and things around my image that I pick.

Week six - By here - I want to put my poster all together, making sure it is to the best of my ability and then start on my evolution.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/C9FNKGH - here is my survey monkey, I have got multiple of people to sign this so I can use it as primary research.