National Position Paper on Child Abuse and Neglect in the Latino Community.

Representing the accumulated expertise of the Spanish Speaking/Surnamed (SS/S) multi-disciplined service provider network, this position paper is designed to focus national, state, and local attention to the Latino/Chicano child abuse and neglect (ca/n) problems and on the bilingual/bicultural resources needed to improve the degree and type of response to ca/n within the Latino community. A brief overview of the state of the art of the ca/n field and the SS/S population discusses child abuse systems and their problems, dynamics of child abuse in the Latino community, family dynamics/family stress, role of the court and protective services, alternative models/bilingual-bicultural resources, demographic profile of the Latino population regarding child abuse risk, and multiple high risk factors faced by SS/S people (e.g., health, emotional, intellectual, and cultural hazards). Among 25 specific recommendations on how ca/n systems can become more responsive to SS/S people are: that a network of bilingual/bicultural referral services be established, advocated for, and sponsored by the state and county ca/n service network and that alternative responses be considered, e.g., bilingual/bicultural manpower resources, family oriented crisis intervention services, and parents as resources. Resolutions presented by the National Chicano/Latino Caucus and the California Latino Federation of Child Abuse and Neglect Councils at the conference are appended. (NQA)