Those waging the war against child abuse and neglect are getting more weapons in their artillery. The Melba Shewmaker Southern Region National Child Protection Training Center at NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville will celebrate its grand opening Thursday.
The center is the fi rst of only four regional partners of the Gundersen National Child Protection Training Center at Winona State University in Minnesota. The organization is dedicated to “ending child abuse in three generations through training, education, awareness, prevention, advocacy and the pursuit of justice.”
The center provides training for mandated reporters, teachers, social workers, counselors, law enforcement off cers, fi rst responders, health professionals, attorneys and members of the judicial and child care systems to recognize, report and respond to child abuse and maltreatment.
“We have to protect children from having abuse happen. Everyone has got to be involved,” said Stephanie Smith, regional director of the center.
The center has been providing training since 2010, but Thursday’s celebrationwill mark the completion of renovations to transform the former Highlands Oncology Group building in Bentonville into a fully outfitted training center.
The completed Bentonville location serves a 16-state region and boasts a two-story mock home, practice courtroom, practice medical exam rooms, interactive video capabilities and child forensic interview rooms to help prepare child abuse professionals for what they will face in the field. A successful$3 million capital campaign, started in 2011, paid for the furnishings, technology, equipment and the renovation of the building.
TRAINING FOR REAL LIFE
It’s estimated that more than 1 million children each year are abused or neglected. According to training center information, in 2009, more than 41,000 cases of suspected child maltreatment were reported to the Arkansas Division of Child and FamilyServices, with 2,233 children receiving court action.
Cpl. David Williams with the Fayetteville Police Department, one of the center’s trainers, said, “I like the model - take it out of astrict classroom setting and get some sense of immersion into the world where you’re going to do investigations … You can tell a rookie all day what it will be like, but until they experience it, it’s not real to them.”
Brenda Zedlitz, director of children’s services for the Economic Opporunity Agency of Washington County, spent four years as a case worker for the Department of Human Services in Texas. After that relatively short time, she moved to Arkansas to get out of the field. Being a case worker “opened a world that I didn’t know existed and was not equipped for,” even with college and department training, she said. She added the lack of training is one reason for a high burnout rate for those who work in social services.
The new center, though, affords the “opportunity to place a student in a mock courtroom or mock house, to walk in there, do your best job, have someone critique you, what you did well, what you missed … it’s so dift cult, because at fi rst, your brain rejects what you’re seeing,” Zedlitz said. “You have to go in every room in the house, open every cabinet door - dogs are barking, people are trying to distract you, but the things you see or miss can mean life or death for a child.”
EOA will use the center for education and training of their Head Start and Children’s House staffs, who conduct home visits and work in risk assessment with children and families. “Having access to NCPTC will prepare our workforce to be uniquely qualified in the early learning community in terms of prevention and intervention, and, of course, treatment through Children’s House services,” Zedlitz said.
Upcoming courses for professionals include “Seminary Curriculum: When Faith Hurts Summit,” “From Crime Scene to Trial” and “Advanced Issues in Forensic Interviewing.”
Along with providing continuing education forpracticing professionals, the center also off ers Child Advocacy Studies Training proficiency and technical certificates. The profi ciency certificate requires 16 hours of coursework with classes that include child abuse and neglect, response to child maltreatment and child psychopathology. The technical certificate program builds on the profi ciency prerequisite and includes abnormal psychology, responding to survivors of child abuse and social problems.
Amy Benincosa, associate director of the NorthWest Arkansas Community Foundation, said the certificates are “applicable to a wide variety of professions and would benefit any student going into a field where he or she would be working with children.” TEAM EFFORT
Getting the facts without further traumatizing abuse victims is a big part of what the training center teaches. Children’s advocacy centers, such as the ones in Benton and Washington counties, coordinate interviews, forensic exams and other elements necessary to investigate and prosecute abuse cases and treat the child. The approach saves the child from having to repeat the same information to many different people and undergo multiple exams.
Elizabeth Shackelford, executive director of the Children’s Safety Center in Washington County, said all decisions in the advocacy center model “are made based on what is in the best interest of the child.”
Williams praised the multi-profession, multi-fi eld approach to training. Being “able and willing and knowledgeable to use the wisdom of other professions is necessary. When you’re dealing with crimes against children, you want a concerted group effort.” Learning “this is what you do and this is what otherpeople do” is key.
SPECIALIZED INTERVIEW SKILLS
Getting children to talk about the abuse and abusers takes specialized interviewing skills - skills Williams said are crucial.
“We know how to do subject interviews, but teaching skills in interviewing children as well as other victims … to get a lucid interview, that can make all the difference in a case. Victim interviews are just too critically important not to have training in it,” he said.
Smith said, “When dealing with young children or even teens, they’re very vulnerable. There’s a lot on their little shoulders.” Children often worry what they say will hurt the family and are reluctant to talk.
GOING TO TRIAL
Smith, a former prosecuting attorney, said trying child abuse cases is particularly challenging. “First you have to convince the jury there was a crime, then prove that you can treat the child as a trustworthy witness.”
Smith said she was fortunate she received extensive training before being assigned as the full-time prosecutor for an Indiana child advocacy center. Nonetheless, “that first case is terrifying.”
Trainers use the classroom lecture and the center’s on-site mock courtroom with role playing to prepare students to be good witnesses. Smith said students work in teams of two, conducting forensic interviews as prosecutor and witness, then move on to court situations where faculty conduct cross-examinations and act as defense witnesses. “You need to have enough training to feel you can take it on,” Smith said.
Zedlitz said she spent many sleepless nights over trials. “Trials are emotional. … The attorney for the parents is doing his or her job, trying to take your testimony apart.” Training helps one “learn to be on the stand, make your case and bring your testimony forward. “
Zedlitz added that in trial, as in all aspects of dealing with child abuse, practice makes a huge difference. “Nothing takes the place of experience.”
Life, Pages 6 on 02/05/2014