Frances L. Loeb Center for Child Protection and Development

The Child Protection Program at Bellevue Hospital Center has been providing comprehensive medical and psychosocial intervention to child victims of abuse and neglect and their families for over 30 years. Margaret T. McHugh, M.D., M.P.H., first developed and initiated the practices at Bellevue that have become New York’s statewide protocols for the identification and treatment of child abuse and neglect in hospital settings.

Like all CoB programs, the CPDC is a partnership between Children of Bellevue and Bellevue Hospital Center.

Children of Bellevue pays for:

• 60% of one doctor’s salary
• Two full-time Social Workers
• Two part-time Child Life and Development Specialists
• All supplies, toys, art-supplies, etc.

Bellevue Hospital Center pays for:

• 40% of one doctor’s salary, and
• Two full-time doctors’ salaries
• The Center space, including operating costs

All three of these doctors are also on staff at NYU/Tisch Hospital and in the Bellevue Hospital outpatient clinic.

The Frances L. Loeb Center, located on the first floor of Bellevue Hospital, is the heart of all of CoB’s child protection programs. It is a safe haven for doctors, nurses, social workers, patients and their families to come and discuss issues. As seen on Law and Order: SVU there are special interview rooms where a child can be interviewed by a trained expert while people from other agencies observe through one-way glass. This prevents a child from reliving and ordeal more times than necessary. In other child protection programs, there can be up to 15 professionals who speak with the child; at the Loeb Center there is just one.

Statistics

Between July 2009 and June 2010, the Frances L. Loeb Child Protection and Development Center performed 244 medical evaluations.

• 70% for concerns of sexual abuse; 25% for physical abuse; 5% for other reasons.
• Referrals came from: our emergency room (40%), inpatient units (30%), police and Administration for Children Services (30%).
• Ages were distributed evenly: birth to age 5 years old, 5-10 years old and older than 10 years of age.
• Children came primarily from Manhattan (40%), but also Brooklyn (20%), the Bronx (10%), Queens (20%), and Staten Island (10%).
• Among children with a known alleged offender, the majority (60%) were fathers or father substitutes; mothers (10%), or other family members (15%).

In addition, there were patients referred for ongoing counseling, crime victims support and other assessments.

Sally, a four year old foster child, came to the Frances L. Loeb Child Protection Center because of concerns over her “sexually acting out” behavior. After an evaluation at the Center, Sally revealed that the son of a previous foster care family had sexually abused her, which led her to act out in sexually inappropriate ways. With the information Sally provided, the staff of the Center collaborated with the Administration for Child Services and identified the former foster care family and uncovered other victims from that home. The offending son and foster care mother were prosecuted and Sally began to receive the treatment and counseling that would help her overcome her abusive past.

How can you help?

• $50 will purchase journals for one month, so that the children can record their thoughts and feelings
• $100 will purchase four medical play kits.
• $250 will purchase one set of anatomically correct dolls, to help children explain what happened to them.
• $500 will purchase one year’s supply of books to help children and families, like “My Body Belongs to Me”, “Learning about Internet Safety” or “What Every Child Should Know About Sexual Abuse”.

To speak to someone at the Loeb Center, please call 212-562-6073