Support Centre for Child Victims of Sexual Assault Proposed

By David Bartlett
CBC News
June 29, 2016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/kent-centre-sexual-assault-trauma-reduction-1.3657605

New Brunswick as a whole and the Moncton area both have high rates of sexual assault on children and adolescents. (Shutterstock)

The Kent Centre for the Prevention of Violence wants to minimize the trauma of child victims of sexual assault by creating a place where they can get the help they need under one roof.

Most provinces and territories in Canada already have similar facilities, but there is no such facility in New Brunswick.

"There is a big need to have this kind of centre here," Angele Richard, the community development coordinator of the group said on Information Morning Moncton on Wednesday.

"The rate of police reported sexual abuse in New Brunswick has exceeded the national average annually for almost 20 years now."

According to statistics in the Kent Centre's recently released feasibility report for such a centre, child sexual assaults in the Moncton area ranked third among urban areas in Canada in 2012 at 312 cases per 100,000 people, far out-pacing Halifax, Montreal and Toronto.

In 2012, New Brunswick ranked third in Canada for the reported cases of child sexual assault despite a 20 per cent decline in reported cases between 2009 and 2012.

Richard said the main focus of the centre would be to try and minimize the affect of the crimes on young victims.

"After a child discloses sexual assault, the child shares their story once in an interview with the social worker and police offer and receives a medical examination immediately," said Richard.

"Responders support the family throughout the whole legal process and provide specialized treatment services immediately to the victim and to the parents if needed."

Consolidating services in a child-friendly environment

Richard said the current system has victims going to different places for different aspects of the help they need, which means they have to tell their story multiple times in places like police stations and emergency rooms.

Richard said a permanent centre for victims of abuse would not only consolidate services for victims but would offer those services in a child-friendly environment.

"A lot of children, they don't know how to deal with it," Richard said of the abuse.

Angele Richard is the community development co-ordinator with the Kent Centre for the Prevention of Violence. The Kent Centre wants to create a special centre for children and adolescent victims of sexual assault where they can get the help they need. (David Bartlett/CBC)

"Sometimes a lot of them, they keep it inside for a long time and finally when they decide to disclose that to someone it's a big, big step for them,"

She said a centre teamed by the proper professionals can help lift some of the weight off the shoulders of young victims.

Richard said the plan is to set up an advocacy centre in Greater Moncton, as well as one in a rural area, likely near the Kent Centre's office in Sainte-Anne-de-Kent.

But she says the centre still needs to find funding for the project as well as complete its organizational development, which would set out everything from policy development to strategic planning and training.

The hope is top have the centres up and running by March 2018.