Safe Harbor Provides Multi-Disciplinary Approach To Forensic Interviews Of Child Abuse And Neglect Victims
October 15, 2021 at 2:10 a.m.
Safe Harbor Provides Multi-Disciplinary Approach To Forensic Interviews Of Child Abuse And Neglect Victims
By David [email protected]
Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center, 1515 Provident Drive, Warsaw, helps to reduce that number of interviews down to as little as one in a safe and child-friendly environment.
“First of all, it’s a less-traumatic environment,” Safe Harbor Executive Director Kelly Bugg said Thursday afternoon after the ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce at the K21 Health Services Pavilion. “Before, when kids were interviewed, they would have to go to the police station, the sheriff’s department or the (Department of Child Services). Now, they can come to this family-friendly, child-friendly (environment). It’s more comfortable for them.”
Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center is child-focused and provides a multi-disciplinary approach in conducting forensic interviews of victims and witnesses of child abuse who are under 18 years old, according to a news release from Safe Harbor provided at the ribbon-cutting.
The interview is conducted by a certified forensic interviewer in a safe and child-friendly environment. The interview room has microphones and cameras that the child being interviewed isn’t aware of and that feeds into another room where the multi-disciplinary team watches.
The multi-disciplinary team assists the forensic interviewer during the interview. The team comes in a back door and the family and child come in the front door so the family and child don’t know the team is there.
Also, the multi-disciplinary team assists the child and the child’s family with services to address any physical or mental needs.
Members of the multi-disciplinary team include representatives from the Indiana Department of Child Services, Otis R. Bowen Center, law enforcement, Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office and medical personnel.
“We’re there with law enforcement during the interview. We’re in an adjacent room so we watch the interview take place. Kelly has a earpiece so during the interview, we’re able to feed questions into her. If she doesn’t ask a question we know is relevant to what happened, we can feed the question into her and that way we can reduce the number of interviews for the child to one rather than being interviewed at the Department of Child Services, being interviewed at the police station, being interviewed at other places. We can limit it to the one, so it’s less traumatic to the child,” Kosciusko County Prosecuting Attorney and multi-disciplinary team member Hampton said.
During an interview in the interview room at Safe Harbor, Bugg said, “So they’re interviewed one time, where, before, it was three or four times. By the time Bowen (Center) would get done with them. DCS would get done. Sheriff’s Department would get done, or the police department. And then the prosecutor’s office. Now, they come in here. I sit in that chair, the kids sit here and I wear an earpiece so that the prosecutor, DCS, Bowen – they’re all sitting in that big conference room. They can radio in questions to me so there’s one interview instead of four.”
She said having all the players watching and listening to the same one interview eliminates phone calls and dropped cases.
“We do a case review monthly. We go over every child that we’ve interviewed. We go over their case. And so we update what progress we’ve made so no cases are sitting around for months and months and months anymore. They find their people, they interview them and get them filed. Really huge for victims,” Bugg said.
Since December, 125 victims and witnesses of child abuse under the age of 18 have been forensically interviewed at Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center. The multi-disciplinary approach has resulted in a more immediate investigative response to child abuse reports, more efficient and specialized medical and mental health service referrals and significantly reducing the re-traumatization of children during a child abuse investigation, the news release states.
Hampton said while the Safe Harbor in Kosciusko County is very new, the concept of the Child Advocacy Center is not.
“It’s been around for 20 years,” he said. The National Children’s Alliance is kind of the overseers or the certification agency for the Child Advocacy Centers nationwide.
Hampton estimated there were around 25 Child Advocacy Centers in Indiana. The next closest Centers are in Elkhart and Fort Wayne.
“We’ve already had cases from surrounding counties. From Noble County, from Fulton County, from Marshall County. So these counties have been coming to us to use the facility, to use Kelly,” Hampton said.
Bugg has been a certified forensic interviewer for 16 years. She recently retired from DCS after 33 years, but forensic interviewers were not certified until about 20 years ago, she said.
Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center was incorporated through the Board of Directors: Hampton, Sheriff Kyle Dukes and Warsaw Police Chief Scott Whitaker. Bugg is the executive director and treasurer is Jim Tinkey.
Funding for the development of Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center was provided by Kosciusko County Community Foundation, Kosciusko REMC, Warsaw Community Church, Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office, Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office and the K21 Health Foundation.
“No one said no,” Bugg said. “Everybody knew that it was something that needed to be done. Because it’s a 501(c)(3), it’s all grant funded, so Dan sponsored me through the Prosecutor’s Office until we got some funding. And then we got this space in the building. K21 is kind enough to give us the space .... for really, really cheap. And they did all the furnishings except for like the decor kind of stuff. It’s perfect for kids.”
Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center, a member of the Indiana Chapter of the National Children’s Alliance and Indiana Child Advocacy Centers, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. Anyone interested in financially supporting the Center through tax-deductible donations should contact Bugg at 574-253-1871 or [email protected].
Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center, 1515 Provident Drive, Warsaw, helps to reduce that number of interviews down to as little as one in a safe and child-friendly environment.
“First of all, it’s a less-traumatic environment,” Safe Harbor Executive Director Kelly Bugg said Thursday afternoon after the ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce at the K21 Health Services Pavilion. “Before, when kids were interviewed, they would have to go to the police station, the sheriff’s department or the (Department of Child Services). Now, they can come to this family-friendly, child-friendly (environment). It’s more comfortable for them.”
Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center is child-focused and provides a multi-disciplinary approach in conducting forensic interviews of victims and witnesses of child abuse who are under 18 years old, according to a news release from Safe Harbor provided at the ribbon-cutting.
The interview is conducted by a certified forensic interviewer in a safe and child-friendly environment. The interview room has microphones and cameras that the child being interviewed isn’t aware of and that feeds into another room where the multi-disciplinary team watches.
The multi-disciplinary team assists the forensic interviewer during the interview. The team comes in a back door and the family and child come in the front door so the family and child don’t know the team is there.
Also, the multi-disciplinary team assists the child and the child’s family with services to address any physical or mental needs.
Members of the multi-disciplinary team include representatives from the Indiana Department of Child Services, Otis R. Bowen Center, law enforcement, Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office and medical personnel.
“We’re there with law enforcement during the interview. We’re in an adjacent room so we watch the interview take place. Kelly has a earpiece so during the interview, we’re able to feed questions into her. If she doesn’t ask a question we know is relevant to what happened, we can feed the question into her and that way we can reduce the number of interviews for the child to one rather than being interviewed at the Department of Child Services, being interviewed at the police station, being interviewed at other places. We can limit it to the one, so it’s less traumatic to the child,” Kosciusko County Prosecuting Attorney and multi-disciplinary team member Hampton said.
During an interview in the interview room at Safe Harbor, Bugg said, “So they’re interviewed one time, where, before, it was three or four times. By the time Bowen (Center) would get done with them. DCS would get done. Sheriff’s Department would get done, or the police department. And then the prosecutor’s office. Now, they come in here. I sit in that chair, the kids sit here and I wear an earpiece so that the prosecutor, DCS, Bowen – they’re all sitting in that big conference room. They can radio in questions to me so there’s one interview instead of four.”
She said having all the players watching and listening to the same one interview eliminates phone calls and dropped cases.
“We do a case review monthly. We go over every child that we’ve interviewed. We go over their case. And so we update what progress we’ve made so no cases are sitting around for months and months and months anymore. They find their people, they interview them and get them filed. Really huge for victims,” Bugg said.
Since December, 125 victims and witnesses of child abuse under the age of 18 have been forensically interviewed at Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center. The multi-disciplinary approach has resulted in a more immediate investigative response to child abuse reports, more efficient and specialized medical and mental health service referrals and significantly reducing the re-traumatization of children during a child abuse investigation, the news release states.
Hampton said while the Safe Harbor in Kosciusko County is very new, the concept of the Child Advocacy Center is not.
“It’s been around for 20 years,” he said. The National Children’s Alliance is kind of the overseers or the certification agency for the Child Advocacy Centers nationwide.
Hampton estimated there were around 25 Child Advocacy Centers in Indiana. The next closest Centers are in Elkhart and Fort Wayne.
“We’ve already had cases from surrounding counties. From Noble County, from Fulton County, from Marshall County. So these counties have been coming to us to use the facility, to use Kelly,” Hampton said.
Bugg has been a certified forensic interviewer for 16 years. She recently retired from DCS after 33 years, but forensic interviewers were not certified until about 20 years ago, she said.
Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center was incorporated through the Board of Directors: Hampton, Sheriff Kyle Dukes and Warsaw Police Chief Scott Whitaker. Bugg is the executive director and treasurer is Jim Tinkey.
Funding for the development of Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center was provided by Kosciusko County Community Foundation, Kosciusko REMC, Warsaw Community Church, Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office, Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office and the K21 Health Foundation.
“No one said no,” Bugg said. “Everybody knew that it was something that needed to be done. Because it’s a 501(c)(3), it’s all grant funded, so Dan sponsored me through the Prosecutor’s Office until we got some funding. And then we got this space in the building. K21 is kind enough to give us the space .... for really, really cheap. And they did all the furnishings except for like the decor kind of stuff. It’s perfect for kids.”
Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center, a member of the Indiana Chapter of the National Children’s Alliance and Indiana Child Advocacy Centers, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. Anyone interested in financially supporting the Center through tax-deductible donations should contact Bugg at 574-253-1871 or [email protected].
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