Approximately 30 people from several different organizations arrived at the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial Chapel Annex for Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention and Response Training on Jan. 16, 2014.

Dr. Barbara Craig, MD, director of the Armed Forces Center for Child Protection at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, elaborated on ways to determine child abuse and neglect, and how to report it.

“This training is basically for professionals who base near here to learn about recognizing and managing suspected cases of child abuse, specifically focusing on dermatologic manifestations and fractures today,” said Craig.

Craig’s presentation had three major topics: bruises, bites and burns. This presentation included actual photos that showed what the injuries could look like.

“[The class] helps the social workers and the healthcare providers to better understand what the important issues are, what the differential diagnosis is, what they should do in their office when they have concerns of possible abuse and what resources are available to them,” said Craig.

Whether it was a bruise or burn, Craig had a photo of each injury in almost every part of the body.

“As a dental provider there are a lot of injuries that can affect the mouth and that can be first identified in the mouth and the upper body,” said Lt. Elise Hurrell, dentist for Naval Health Clinic Quantico. “Being a dental provider, we work in that area so we would be able to identify those injuries and report them as necessary.”

Some investigations have proved that not all injuries were intentional abuse or neglect, some were accidents.

“The ‘ABC’s’ of accidental bruises are: ‘A,’ anterior, ‘B,’ boney prominence and ‘C,’ circular,” said Craig. “That doesn’t mean these bruises should be ignored,” said Craig.

In her presentation, Craig said that all suspected cases of abuse should be documented and reported. For some cases, items should be placed next to injuries to provide a scale and show how big it is. She said that the first step in reporting a case is calling Child Protective Services and they will determine if the child will go home that day.

Craig also said that Marine Corps Family Advocacy really tries to promote training and education for the personnel on the bases to make sure that they are up to speed on all the latest advances in evaluating either psychological, emotional or physical cases of suspected child maltreatment.

For information about this class email Dr. Barbara Craig at barbara.r.craig.civ@health.mil.

Correspondent: sarah.a.garcia@usmc.mil