ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 10, 1997 TAG: 9702100002
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR
A statewide report on the status of Virginia's children, released two weeks ago, showed alarming statistical jumps in some categories of information on child well-being.
Bedford and Bedford County, for example, had a 129.4 percent increase in births to girls ages 15 to 17 in the past five years and a 113 percent increase in the number of victims of child abuse or neglect.
What accounted for the steep climb? Leighton Langford, director of the Bedford County Department of Social Services, attributed the increases to population growth.
Between 1991 and 1994, the population of children 17 and under in Bedford and Bedford County rose from 11,207 to 12,049. The population of girls 15-17 rose from 882 to 961.
"We have one of the highest-growth communities in Virginia, certainly central Virginia," he said. "Those kinds of figures are going to happen."
Bedford and Bedford County have "embraced" Healthy Families Central Virginia, a Lynchburg-based program that provides family support services to first-time parents, Langford said. The program, scheduled to start this spring, aims to reduce child abuse and neglect, encourage appropriate child health care and teach parenting skills.
The worst part of the child abuse and neglect statistics is not so much the rising number of cases but the type of abuse, Langford said.
"We're seeing more violent child abuse types of things - sexual abuse and physical beatings," he said.
The report, called "KIDS COUNT in Virginia. Kids and Communities," used state Health Department data for teen births and child abuse and neglect cases.
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