Children's Advocacy Center provides training for those dealing with abused children
As seen in The Morning Sun 1/10/2007 by Katie Stockstill
Local attorneys, sheriff's deputies and social workers are all learning how to speak to children.
Over the course of the week, individuals from throughout the state of Kansas have been attending the Finding Words training at Pittsburg State University.
The training, which is sponsored by the Pittsburg Children's Advocacy center, consists of 40 hours of classroom work and mock interviews with Wichita State University drama studens who pretend to be children. The training aims to help teach people how to speak to children that have been physically, mentally or sexually abused.
Kansas was the 11th state in the country to adopt the training and is part of the Half a Nation by 2010 campaign, which aims to have 25 states using the Finding Words program by 2010.
Those in atendance to this week's training vary in profession from health care worker to police officers to attorneys, but all work with children during an interview held after an abuse, neglect or harm complaint.
David Flyer, who is a licensd clinical family therapist and is helping to put on the training, said the training is intended to give people a child friendly protocol to interviewing children during a forensic interview process.
"We teach them how a child develops, what is age appropriate for a child, and how children communicate," Flyer said.
"These people basically lean how to properly speak with a child."
Flyer said that those in attendance come from communities in teams, and therefore learn how to use the training and interact with one another.
"We require that people come in teams," Flyer said. "They need to know how to work in a multi-disciplinary team. Plus, through the mock interviews held wih the Wichita State students, people will be able to use the skills they learned before they leave the training."
This is the third year for the Finding Words training to be given in Kansas. Flyer said the new method of training was created by a Minnesota prosecutor who saw the need for a new, and streamlined method for interviewing children.
And since the training has been available in Kanas the results have been positive.
"Before this training started in Kansas, about 8 percent of victims and their families were receiving mental health services after an incident occurred," Flyer said. "Now that the program has been implemented in the state of Kansas, close to 86 percent of victims and their families are receiving mental health services. The number of cases that ahve been prosecuted has also increased."
