Newsletter: Winter 2002: Quarterly Meeting Review

Programs who have been assisting WTC survivors shared the difficulties, challenges and also opportunities they have experienced. Some receive funding for this work, and others fit these clients into their preexisting facilities. Self-care within the organization was highlighted by the Brooklyn Child Advocacy CenterÕs debriefing sessions available for staff, and by Mount SinaiÕs plans for a ÒQuarterly Fun Day.Ó Programs who work closely with detectives are working to maintain the essential services of the NYPD Special Victims Squads in a time of strain on the NYPD.

The discussion on adolescents began with a presentation by Meghan Guz, the AllianceÕs Social Work Policy student on her survey of parental consent for specialized sexual assault/abuse services. (This information is available on the Alliance website.) As the review indicates, there is a great deal of variability in the types and range of services available to adolescents without parental consent at different facilities. This led to a group discussion on how adolescents were served differently at their organizations in the areas of prevention education, healthcare and counseling. Issues raised included parental consent, statutory rape, "acting out" behavior and increased skepticism of the caregivers. Most organizations do not have unique systems for dealing with adolescents and all agreed that adolescents could fall into the gaps between child-oriented and adult-oriented services. Training must be provided for all healthcare providers, including Sexual Assault Examiners, and counselors, who often must play a dual-role as child protectors, in order to make sure these clients do not go unaided.

The group decided that the first step would be to address prevention education targeted to adolescents. At the next quarterly meeting, planned for March 26th, the Alliance will invite outreach professionals who work with teenagers to help us better gauge the adolescent response to prevention education trainings.

(Read other articles in this series.)

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