Some children experience multiple episodes of abuse or an ongoing and persistent experience of abuse or neglect. When this happens, it is important that we keep “the big picture” in clear focus. If we treat each occurrence in isolation, or if we fail to account for the history, focusing only on the current situation, we will fail to understand and address the real impact on the child.

The cumulative effect is the way that the impact of one experience or episode of abuse adds to and increases the negative impacts and trauma of earlier abuse.

Although all abuse is abhorrent and has significant long-term impact on the child, children can display and build resilience and can recover to varying degrees from the impact of the trauma that they experience. When a child experiences repeated or ongoing abuse, it is much more difficult to build resilience and recover from the harm. Each subsequent experience of abuse reinforces and solidifies the previous harmful impacts, creating an ever-growing weight of impact that increases with each subsequent occurrence of abuse. The more occurrences of abuse occur and the longer they last, the greater the damage to the child and the more difficult recovery becomes.

It is vital that we keep both the immediate risks and the broader historical context I’m mind as we assess needs and plan support.