Child protection services for children of battered women: Practice and controversy.

Doctor Smith complains that Dan's stepfather Bill, who is still mainlining heroin, is physically and emotionally abusive towards Dan's mother Helen. In fact, she states that Dan witnessed Sam trying to strangle his mother last weekend. The doctor reminds the child protection worker that this is the third letter she has written about her concerns and notes that Helen still refuses to leave her abusive partner. The doctor demands that Dan be removed from the abusive environment.