Official Review
View Kindle edition on Amazon
******************************************************************************************************************************************************
1. Tell us about your background.
Juniata College, BS Biology 1966; Rutgers University, MS Physiology 1968; Hershey Medical School of Penn State University, MD 1972; Internship and Residency in Pediatrics at Ohio State University 1972-1975; Private General Practice of Pediatrics in Sunbury, Pennsylvania; Shadowing Drs. Sylvia Strickland and David Chadwick at the San Diego Center for Child Protection for a month in 1988; Establishment of the Center for Child Protection at the Sunbury Community Hospital in 1988 to evaluate abused children; Establishment of the Children's Advocacy Center at the Geisinger Medical Center in 2004. General Pediatrics and Child Abuse Pediatrics at Geisinger from 2004-2024. Medical Director of the Children's Advocacy Center from 2003-present. Director of the Division of Child Safety and Advocacy from 2016-present. Child Abuse Certification in 2012 and recertified 2021. Recertified in General Pediatrics in 2021. Have evaluated over 6000 children who have been referred for a child abuse evaluation.
2. What made you decide to write a book?
Very simply I needed to put my thoughts, experiences and hopes for the future onto paper before I croaked or retired. I am becoming ahhhhhh shall we say seasoned. DaVinci said it best - "Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, write something, for when you come back to your work your judgement will be surer; since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power of judgement. Go some distance away because the work appears smaller and more of it can been taken in at a glance, and a lack of harmony or proportion is more readily seen."
3. Can you give us a short synopsis of your book How Can I Not? for those that don't know?
There are two nearly parallel and intersecting paths in the book. The first path involves the incremental and difficult steps taken by Dr. Bruno as his career evolved from a rural, solo pediatric practice to the creation of the first Center for Child Protection in Pennsylvania in 1988. The second path gives a detailed understanding of child abuse's root causes, manifestations, and the downstream impacts to the individual, family and society. Many clinical cares are utilized to emphasize the cracks and complexities that exist when health care, law, social services, and cultural norms and practices converge. The book emphasizes the difficulties in creating Centers for Child Protection as well as the local, state and federal problems that are inherent in the multifactorial, multigenerational, and multidisciplinary issue of child maltreatment. At times, in the book, children suffer and even die. Sometimes there is reconciliation and rehabilitation. Through it all there is compassion and attention to the long-term consequences of child maltreatment. Interwoven with these tragic cases is the data, the real science of child maltreatment. One cannot just concentrate on the bad stories and broken babies, but what do science and research tell us about these cases. Is there hope? Are there opportunities for intervention and prevention? There certainly are and Dr. Bruno's personal message of hope for families and children is present throughout the cases and stories. Read the book, cry for the children, but think about how as individuals, how as communities we can make the lives of families and children better through the efforts of all of us. "In the world's broad field of battle.....In the bivouac of Life...... Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife!" Longfellow
"The lives of great men remind us, that we can make our lives sublime, and departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time." Longfellow
4. Being about child abuse, who is your target audience?
The book was written for everybody who has an interest in protecting children. It serves as a poignant reminder of the urgent work that lies ahead, urging us to unite, strengthen our resolve, and forge a society where the well-being of every child is safeguarded.
5. What would you say is the greatest lesson you learned while writing and researching the book?
It serves as a poignant reminder of the urgent work that lies ahead, urging us to unite, strengthen our resolve, and forge a society where the well-being of every child is safeguarded.
6. You have been involved with child protection for many years. Has child abuse changed over the years at all? If so how?
Child abuse has existed forever. But, unfortunately, technology has given perpetrators more tools to abuse children and adolescents.
7. What can the average American do to help prevent child abuse?
a. Be a nurturing parent because children need to know that they are special, loved and capable of following their dreams.
b. Be helpful to a friend, neighbor or relative because parenting is not easy.
c. Be helpful to yourself by taking some time outs when life is overwhelming and out of control
d. Be involved in your community to develop services to meet the needs of children and families.
e. Be an advocate for school programs that teach children, parents and teachers prevention strategies to keep children safe. Why not have a "How to be a parent' class in ninth grade?
f. Be supportive of programs that invest in early physical and mental nurturing of children such as WIC, SNAP, CHIP, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, and PRE-K. Support the United Way, YMCAS, CASA, TRANSITIONS. All it takes is one adult providing a safe, stable and nurturing relationship to change the trajectory of a child's life.
g. Be willing to report suspected abuse or neglect.
8. What is next for you?
Lecture circuit about my journey and the book...Geisinger Medical Center Grand Rounds December 2023; ....... San Diego Child Maltreatment Conference, Jan. 2024; Nevada Conference on Child Maltreatment February 2024; Pittsburgh Child Maltreatment Conference....April 2024; Bloomsburg Pennsylvania Conference on Early Childhood..... May 2024; Institute of Lifelong Learning Susquehanna University......... June 2024; Salt Lake City Shaken Baby Syndrome Conference...... September 2024.
9. Do you have any pets?
Tennising, gardening, traveling, reading, accordioning, restauranting, sculpturing, welding, rappelling, hiking, jogging, bicycling, broadwayshowing, theatering birding are some of my pets......
10. What's by your bed right now?
King - A Life by Jonathan Eig and My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
11. Where would your ideal vacation be?
I have already done these 2 trips but would do them again. Hiking the Camino de Santiago as well as hiking the Via Francigena from Siena to Rome.
12. If you couldn't make a living as you do now, what else would you try?
I have no regrets about what I have been doing for the past 50 years..... Still trying to make a difference. Love teaching pediatric residents. Still working hard.
