Child maltreatment is a public health problem that impacts over 3.5 million youth each year who are involved in child protective service investigations or other responses. Society is also negatively impacted by the increased use of resources within the health care, education, and the criminal justice systems. Often, government agencies and public systems run into challenges when trying to identify and assess maltreatment and provide intervention and treatment services.
To address this issue, Penn State’s Child Maltreatment Solutions Network will hold their seventh annual conference, “Strengthening Child Safety and Wellbeing through Integrated Data Solutions," Sept. 27 to 28, at the Nittany Lion Inn, University Park, Pennsylvania.
The conference will promote the discussion and consideration of new methods of using data to improve the response to child maltreatment.
“Over the last decade, there has been substantial growth and innovation in technology used by the child welfare system, and this technology is made up of large datasets which are crucial for the identification of child maltreatment risks and consequences as well as improve community targeting and reaction to these challenges,” noted Jennie Noll, director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network and professor of human development and family studies, regarding the developments in the child welfare system.
The conference will bring together researchers and other professionals to discuss new, advanced methods such as the use of data from across different systems to conduct predictive analytics, risk monitoring, and policy and program-focused research and evaluation as a way to improve child welfare system solutions.
Three sessions will address the use of integrative data to predict the occurrence of child maltreatment and negative outcomes in maltreated youth, and target effective and efficient implementation of services.
Concluding the event will be a panel discussion formed by several speakers to engage the audience and consider collaborative data sharing, analytic approaches to predict maltreatment and outcomes, and how these can impact policies and programs.
For more information about the conference, visit http://solutionsnetwork.psu.edu/conf18 and click here to register.
The Child Maltreatment Solutions Network advances Penn State’s academic mission of teaching, research, and engagement in the area of child maltreatment. Since the Solutions Network was launched in Fall 2012, its conferences have established a concrete frontier of understanding child maltreatment through advanced research. It is part of the Social Science Research Institute at Penn State.