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Every four minutes in Florida, a child is physically, sexually or emotionally abused or neglected.

In 2006 alone, nearly 32,000 reports of abuse and neglect were reported in Brevard, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties. For years, child abuse has been the leading cause of death in children under the age of four. Eighty percent of fatal head injuries in children under the age of two are non-accidental. This current generation of children is being attacked like no other generation of children before. They are exploited, prostituted, preyed upon, solicited online, forced to perform all manner of sexually explicit acts, beaten, burned, raped, sodomized and killed.

For years, state and local governments have developed, erased, modified and restructured systems of care designed to help children who have been forced to endure the physical and emotional trauma caused by abuse. Inevitably, the nature of child abuse, poor coordination between service providers and the lack of available professional resources meant thousands of children were not receiving the compassionate care needed for true physical and emotional healing to take place. Many children fell through the cracks of overworked, understaffed and overburdened systems and never found treatment that would help them overcome their trauma and find restoration.

In 1986, a new model for caring for these vulnerable children was developed in Huntsville, Ala. The concept was a children’s advocacy center and its premise was to bring all the critical services an abused child and their family would need from report and investigation through treatment and prosecution together into one child-friendly, safe and caring facility.

In 1999, Kids House of Seminole, Inc. Children’s Advocacy Center opened its doors in Seminole County and began helping children regain lost childhoods. This recent July, Kids House celebrated its eighth anniversary. During those eight years, program development was in direct response to the needs of the children we served. In early 2006, Kids House, in partnership with Florida Hospital Altamonte, began developing a unique and innovative medical trauma program. In addition to providing forensic medical exams to child victims of abuse, a licensed pediatrician, advanced registered nurse practitioner and physicians assistant would provide short and long term medical care. An alarmingly high percentage of child abuse victims are uninsured or underinsured, leading to difficulty obtaining follow up care with primary care physicians or specialists. Additionally, 70 percent of children placed in foster care come from homes devastated by physical abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, mental health disorders and myriad other dysfunctions.

In response to this current generation of victim’s lack of access to appropriate and timely medical care, Kids House of Seminole, again in partnership with Florida Hospital Altamonte, is developing a first of its kind Physicians Alliance. The Alliance will be comprised of physicians from diverse fields of practice including cardiology, optometry, urology, podiatry and many other specialties. The Alliance’s primary roles will be to become knowledgeable about abuse and its disastrous physical and emotional affects, consult with Kids House medical staff as they continue to connect with victimized children, and provide acute care follow up for a select group of children following their evaluation at Kids House.

Since the creation of the Kids House Medical Trauma Program in 2006, more than 600 forensic medical exams and 500 foster care medical exams have been performed by Kids House medical staff. Fifteen percent of these children have presented with medical issues requiring specialist care. Kids House Physicians Alliance will positively impact this community’s population of vulnerable children and enable them to regain their lost childhoods and find emotional healing along with critical physical healing.


For more information about Kids House of Seminole, Inc. or its Physicians Alliance, contact Laura Phipps, director of Kids House Medical Trauma Program, at Phipps@kidshouse.org.



November 2007

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