Project to Combat Child Abuse Begun

Their methods are innovative but the two San Fernando Valley psychologists heading an $800,000 child-abuse prevention project are trying to prove a simple point: Good parenting can be taught in 15 weeks.

With a four-year $804,000 grant from the California Wellness Foundation, psychology professors John Lutzker of the University of Judaism and Ron Doctor of Cal State Northridge are launching Project SafeCare this month, targeting more than 300 families in the Valley.

About half of the program participants will be abusive parents and the other half will be families considered at risk for abusive behavior. Nurses, case workers and graduate students will educate the families according to a 15-week formula of in-home training and evaluation. There are 10,000 child-abuse referrals in Los Angeles County every month, about 30% of which involve children from birth to 4 years of age, according to the project directors.

Lutzker, who founded a child-abuse prevention project in Illinois with a nine-month framework, said the goal is to deliver the same core prevention lessons in a much shorter period. Eventually, he said, the sessions might even be recorded on video and distributed through health care organizations.

The training will include lessons in safety, health care and nurturing. Parents will learn, for instance, how to store poisons out of their children’s reach and otherwise child-proof their homes. They will be taught to recognize and report illnesses in their children.

Also, teaching parents to speak affectionately to their children, play interactive games with them and keep them interested during car rides and everyday errands, Lutzker said, will help to prevent the disruptive behavior that sometimes precedes abuse.

The grant is part of more than $20 million in violence prevention pledged by the Wellness Foundation, created two years ago by Health Net as part of a deal with the state allowing the Woodland Hills-based foundation to drop its nonprofit status.

If Project SafeCare works, Lutzker said, the early intervention model could have wide-reaching implications.

“You are saving a generation worth of money if you are successful,” he said.