Valley Regional Medical Center-Brownsville and Tip of Texas Family Outreach planted blue pinwheels around the hospital’s main entrance Tuesday morning to raise awareness during National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
Hospital, Tip of Texas personnel and others participated in a brief ceremony, after which they placed the pinwheels around the perimeter of the semicircle where patients are dropped off and picked up at the hospital.
“What we are trying to do throughout this month is raise awareness. Child abuse continues to be an issue in every community, and we’ve seen numbers increase during the pandemic, unfortunately. So it’s about providing supportive services to families, and so we’re looking for businesses, organizations, anywhere that we can be, to raise awareness,” said Alma Herrera, executive director at Tip of Texas Family Outreach, a child abuse prevention program in Brownsville.
Tip of Texas offers emergency services for families, school supplies, food, clothing and other services, as well as providing free counseling, parenting classes and home-based services for teen parents, Herrera said.
“It’s all about families becoming more connected, more united, and providing the parents with skills to improve communications and strengthen family relationships. In the end, of course, we want to reduce the risk for child maltreatment,” she said.
Citing statistics from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Herrera said 239 children were removed from their homes in Cameron County in 2021. There were 1,195 confirmed victims of child abuse and three fatalities among more than 5,000 allegations in the county.
Herrera said her agency serves a caseload of 30-40 families per month. Services are voluntary unless ordered by the courts.
Hospital personnel including Chief Executive Officer David Izizarry, said Valley Regional supports any outreach opportunity that offers prevention opportunities and ultimately can help prevent the tragic cases that sometimes end up in a hospital’s emergency room.
The event was held as one group of students from the medical Career and Technical Education programs Veterans Memorial Early College High School was arriving and another was leaving.
The students spend an hour in the morning accompanying hospital personnel on patient rounds as they learn about the medical professions.
The students stood briefly for a photo as part of the observance.
