Essentials for Childhood: Planting the Seeds for a Public Health Approach to Preventing Child Maltreatment.

Public health addresses child maltreatment and other adverse childhood experiences by focusing primarily on preventing them from happening in the first place; understanding and addressing their individual, relational, community, and societal causes using the best available scientific evidence; and engaging in large-scale, multi-sector partnerships. Such large scale efforts require bringing together a compelling narrative, relationships, and strategy. This article describes how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used a public health approach to develop a narrative, relationships, and strategy to prevent child maltreatment.