Young Victims of Abuse Full of Rage, Pain : Social services: Experts see an increase of psychological disturbances among children removed from their homes because of violence or neglect. Early intervention is urged.

By LISA RICHARDSON and JULIE MARQUIS

April 10, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

Only 3 years old when he was rejected, first by his parents and then by a foster family, the youngster who came to Eileen and Brian Walton’s Chino Hills foster home was emotionally ready to explode.

“He came to us so battered, bruised and emotionally scarred, it was terrible,” Eileen Walton said. “He would just shout ‘No! No! No!’ and cross his little arms over his chest. And you hadn’t even asked him a question.”

But, she remarked, “What can you expect, when he’d already been given up by two families?”

The Waltons eventually adopted the youngster, along with a 2-year-old boy they fostered at the same time. Now, both are “normal, healthy, extremely handsome little boys who enjoy life,” she said.

In times past, most abused or neglected children removed from their homes and brought to a shelter were merely withdrawn and hurt, mainly in need of love and comfort, child abuse experts say. Now such children tend to be more disturbed psychologically--aggressive and dangerous to themselves or others.

“What we see now are children who are enraged,” said Barbara Oliver, director of the Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Council.

In material prepared for the Orange County Grand Jury last year, county officials noted that abused children are becoming increasingly abusive themselves, threatening the safety of other youngsters in shelters.

“They . . . demonstrate almost uncontrollable emotional outbursts, display strong antisocial behavior, and present a formidable management challenge,” according to the report.

A biographical sketch of a 10-year-old boy brought into Orangewood Children’s Home illustrates the problem: The boy had attacked his mother and grandmother with a pipe, was sexually aggressive and was considered too problematic to be placed at group homes designed for children with severe emotional problems. He was described as a danger to the community.

Also, a report on Orangewood children who stay longer than the average 29 days at the shelter found that children have serious emotional problems that, among other things, hinder their placement in group or foster homes.

The study found that children with emotional problems increased from 4% of the population in 1986 to 23% in 1988 to 61% in 1992.

Some have such serious emotional problems that placing them in foster homes or group homes is difficult.

“Some fail placement after placement, burn out all of the placement resources and thereby become almost impossible to place.”

Their behavioral difficulties increasingly require more intensive medical treatment and, in some cases, psychotropic medications, which have spawned problems of their own.

Some Orangewood staff members recently complained, for example, that one psychiatrist was inappropriately medicating youngsters with drugs approved for adults. An outside audit of medication practices is under way.

Timothy Mullins, the county’s director of mental health, said that Orangewood is medicating a minority of its residents--20 to 25 children at a time, 10% or less of its population.

But “I would expect the medication demand to increase,” he said, as more children with organic disorders--such as those born of drug dependent mothers--enter the system, and drug manufacturers perfect more products for children.

Several case profiles of Orangewood residents taken from court records and prepared by the Social Services Agency for the grand jury included those of youngsters who were violently aggressive, suicidal or had spent time in Juvenile Hall or psychiatric hospitals. Several were being treated with drugs for hyperactivity including clonidine and Ritalin, or anti-psychotic drug and anti-anxiety medications.

Another case study of a former Orangewood resident was that of a 15-year-old girl on Millaril for hyperactive behavior. She had been physically abused by her parents, had lived in multiple foster homes, was aggressive, violent and had sexually abused her 4-year-old adoptive sister.

Some experts say the children have not changed, but adult awareness of their problems has.

“Children who are abused have always been prone to suffer forms of serious psychological distress,” said Richard J. Gelles, director of the Family Violence Research Project at the University of Rhode Island and an expert in the field of child abuse.

“Kids have always responded to abuse by either internalizing or acting out,” he said.

Early intervention is essential to prevent abuse, said Dr. Bernard Rappaport, Orange County’s division manager for mental health services to children and youths. “You’ve got to see the kids when they’re younger.”

As a society, “we are not intervening with the abused population early enough,” he said. “Ultimately those chickens are going to come home to roost.” Oliver said her experiences working with youthful sex offenders underscores that point.

“There’s a group of kids I have worked with in California Youth Authority. They are all sex offenders . . . and without exception every single one of them had been molested sexually” as a child.

In one of her cases, a 14-year-old had molested his 6-year-old nephew. But the teen-ager himself had been molested by his older brother, and the brother had been molested by their father, Oliver said.

The teen-ager had never confronted his brother about the abuse, but later had acted out his anger by molesting his brother’s son, she said.

In an effort to keep abused kids from being sent to jails and institutions, agencies are trying to provide support foster families. That is the option of choice for children who have been removed from their homes because it most resembles a normal family experience.

“We do whatever it takes so the kids don’t blow the placement and end up in a group home,” said Michael Webb, director of foster families for Olive Crest, a private foster agency that places children with serious problems.

The first step to successful placement, Webb said, is for the family to understand that “the Brady Bunch does not exist.”

“They can’t expect kids to be all grateful and happy, because they’re not,” he said. “They’re aggressive, angry and unappreciative. And frankly, there is an increasing need for other types of programs--ones that can take even more difficult kids.”

Of the 1,000 people who call Olive Crest yearly, about 5% become foster parents, Webb said. But many of those parents do have significant successes with the children they receive.

“You set guidelines, rules and consequences for behaviors, stick with it and you do not back down. . . . The child will adjust to the system and you experience success,” he said. “I’ve seen it over and over again.

“But often it gets worse before it gets better and basically you have to be committed to kids. Your own natural kids aren’t easy, but you stick it out with them. And those foster families that make it are the ones that stick it out because they believe kids deserve a chance--just because they’re kids.”

But being a foster parent isn’t for everyone, said foster parent Walton.

“I would not encourage anyone to jump into foster parenting,” she said. “If they’re doing it to feel good about themselves, or, heaven forbid, for the money, rethink it, raise dogs. Don’t do it.

“But watching a child learn to love is just incredible. We’ve learned to trust that God loves them and will take care of them,” Walton said. “So whatever we can do for them, even if it’s just two weeks, two months or two years, that will never be taken away. It will rip my heart apart if they leave, but I know their time with us will stay with them.”