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TAMPA, Fla. — Raising children can be both joyful and stressful. Sometimes, stress wins out as kids do not come with instruction manuals.

And when that naturally tough job for a parent gets interrupted with stress, money woes, substance abuse - or even a pandemic - children can take the brunt of it.

On the latest episode of our To The Point Already podcast, Spectrum Bay News 9's Rick Elmhorst and Roy DeJesus talk with law enforcement, a family support specialist and a parent about preventing child abuse.

Hillsborough County leads Florida in confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect. The numbers of reported cases are down 11 percent during the pandemic, leading law enforcement to believe many cases are now going unreported.

"We directly attribute that to children being less visible," said Jennifer Hock, a child abuse investigator with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. "And our response to the community is if you see something, we want you to say something. It's critical that you report it."

Hock added that in Hillsborough County, suspected child abuse can't be investigated until it is called into the child abuse hotline and accepted as an incident that needs to be further looked into.

But there is help for parents out there dealing with the stressors of life. That is a key point Champions For Children Associate Director Nikki Daniels wants people to know.

"Most people who grow up with abuse tend to do what they learned when they were kids," said Daniels, whose agency helps prevent child abuse and neglect by helping families with knowledge and skills to create a good home environment. "We try to provide parents with different skills. We believe any parent can use support and guidance. It's not so much child development, but also parent development."

Tampa parent Melissa Wright can certainly attest to that.

A mother of two young children, Wright leaned on Layla's House, operated by Champions For Children, when she lost her job as a photographer early in the pandemic.

Wright said parenting classes, activities for the children and online forums and groups helped her immensely.

"After coming here, I felt more confident (as a parent) and I felt like someone cared that I was worried (about being a parent).

ABOUT THE SHOW

Spectrum Bay News 9 Anchor Rick Elmhorst sits down with the people that represent you, the people fighting for change and the people with fascinating stories to ask the hard questions.

To The Point Already will cover people, politics and issues from a Tampa Bay perspective every Wednesday.