That’s because nearly all state money has been cut for a $1.3 million specialized medical program that helps identify victims and deals with their abusers.

The need for child abuse medical expertise is so crucial that six years ago, four of South Carolina’s children’s hospitals got a $1.1 million grant from the Duke Endowment to set up a network of experts trained to evaluate such cases.

But the state Department of Health and Human Services, which took over funding in 2007, axed most of the money in December, after it was forced to make nearly $137 million in state-mandated cuts, roughly 15 percent of its total budget.

Child abuse is ranked second, behind asthma, as the most chronic childhood condition in South Carolina, said Maggie Michael, executive director of a nonprofit collaborative of the major state children’s hospitals.
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