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Denver Continues Effort To Curb Child Abuse, Neglect

By Jeff Todd

DENVER (CBS4) - After three deaths of young children in a span of 18 months, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock vowed on July 17, 2015 to change how the city treats child abuse cases by forming the child Safety Net Impact Team.

Over the past eight months the city has taken steps to change multiple agencies and the way it views child abuse and child neglect.

"I asked the team to identify immediate actions that we as a community could take to make our child safety net stronger. And they delivered," Hancock said.

By the end of 2015 investigations were up 28 percent. Two thousand employees have been trained to spot child abuse and neglect and make immediate reports. And a major review process started looking at cases where two reports had been submitted within a 14-month span for young kids.

"The kids at most risk of serious bodily injury or fatality are kids in the age range of 0 to 5," said Jeff Holliday the Deputy Director of Protection and Prevention Programs for the City of Denver. "Today what's different is a group of professionals who are charged with protecting kids, strengthening families and working in the community to do that."

There are an estimated 100,000 children living in Denver.

FAMILY WELLNESS
CBS4's Jeff Todd interviews Jeff Holliday the Deputy Director of Protection and Prevention Programs (credit: CBS)

"Knowledge and data are powerful in shaping effective procedure," Hancock said.

Legal limitations have made it hard for the Denver Human Services department to get involved in many cases. On Monday, the city and Denver Health announced the Nurse Home Wellness Program, which brings medical professionals into homes to assess at a time when caseworkers may not be able to.

"It's essentially a prevention oriented program. We're asking families to volunteer to allow nurses to come in to their home. And do a deeper assessment," Holliday said.

The city has vowed to continue looking at other possible solutions to the child abuse problem but feel confident new programs and monitoring will be successful.

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(credit: CBS)

"Over time we'll continue to monitor our progress and see if we're making the difference in the lives of families of metrics we look at," Holliday said.

Jeff Todd joined the CBS4 team in 2011 covering the Western Slope in the Mountain Newsroom. Since 2015 he's been working across the Front Range in the Denver Headquarters. Follow him on Twitter @CBS4Jeff.

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