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A multidisciplinary approach is often essential in preventing child sexual abuse even though it may sometimes be difficult to work effectively with the various systems.

When it comes to prevention of child sexual abuse, it is often critical that an intervention through multidisciplinary teams is implemented to provide the best results. A timely intervention can dismantle a possibly abusive setup and thereby prevent possible child sexual abuse. However, in the process, there can be many existing systemic and procedural inefficiencies that must be improved in order for us to become truly effective in prevention of child sexual abuse.

There can be numerous challenges involved in dealing with several inconsistencies while trying to work effectively with the various “systems”. The fact is that prevention means doing something “before it actually happens”, but our systems such as child protective services and law enforcement services aren’t always as effective in a preventive situation.

It is important to focus on the responsibilities of the various organizations and individuals in order to try to intervene and prevent a possibly abusive scenario. Multidisciplinary team efforts are critical to prevent a likely abusive scenario, but in the process it is also important to look at the existing challenges inherent in many of our systems such as law enforcement, legal and court systems, correction system, child protection system, etc, while working in a preventive mode. This is an area that requires immediate attention if we are truly focused on intervention and prevention of child sexual abuse.

Bullying at schools often creates mental health issues for the victims and unfortunately in most of the cases that often goes undetected during the school years. And that causes delay in treatment.

It is very important for school staff to have adequate training in this area, i.e., to detect children dealing with more than usual amount of stress. When children get bullied at school, they show their stress in many different ways. If a school staff is well trained in this area, then they can figure out that something unusual is going on with these specific children and make sure that some appropriate intervention is happening. Typically all school staff including teachers, nurses, administrative staff should have some training so if they detect anything unusual about a child, they can immediately refer him or her to the school social worker or the school psychologist.

Children who get bullied at school often do not want to talk about it when they get home. Once they get off the school bus and enter their homes, they feel relaxed right away and do not want to discuss these negative school-related issues. They treat their homes as a sanctuary and feel that they can relax there stress-free until the next school day.

That is why early signs of problems are often not detected at their homes. Their parents can start seeing the problem typically at a later stage when things have progressed significantly further. The family members can see something only when the child is not able to contain his or her stress only while at school. If this was detected earlier, then the child would receive appropriate treatment right away, when things are still at a mild stage. That is why it is important for school staff to detect this as soon as possible so the mental health issues do not progress to a more serious level.

It is important for all companies (big or small) to have an established process to deal with complaints from employees about bullying and harassment in the workplace. The process does not need to be elaborate, it just needs to be followed.

Having an established process makes it clear to everyone that the company takes this seriously. The process basically needs to include steps that will be taken if there is a complaint of bullying and harassment in the workplace. Some larger companies may have elaborate processes and procedures, but for smaller companies what is needed is just a set of steps describing what will be done if there is a complaint. The process would likely include steps such as documenting the complaint, interviewing the person who made the complaint, doing an appropriate investigation, preparing a closing summary with an action plan.

However, having a process is just the first step. Many companies do have a process, but they do not follow it sincerely. Following the process sincerely is the best way to ensure that the work environment will remain positive and rewarding. At times it may be difficult to come up with a definite conclusion, but if everyone knows that these steps will be followed, this will have a positive impact.

Employees need to feel that the company cares about everyone’s safety and wellbeing, and having an established process (and following it appropriately) is an excellent way to let employees know that the company is focused on maintaining a positive environment.

School social workers, school counselors and school psychologists often have a significant role in promoting personal safety and welfare of children because working with children is a key aspect of their job.

Prevention of child sexual abuse is one of those areas where school Social Workers, school counselors and school psychologists can have a significant role because:

• Most children often do not like to discuss concerns and/or incidents of abuse with family members because they don’t believe that they will be taken seriously
• Most abusers are typically members of or close friends of the family, and therefore, children do not feel safe discussing this at home or with a family member
• School Social Workers, school counselors and school psychologists or other school staff such as nurses, can be in regular contact with children, and are often viewed by children as trusted adults outside the home/family
• All of these school staff members are generally mandated reporters – and therefore, concerns and/or incidents of abuse will typically reach the appropriate authorities
• School Social Workers, school counselors and school psychologists are professionally trained individuals who are able to discuss topics of this nature appropriately with children or are able to refer them to appropriate professionals
• Many of our systems such as child protective services or law enforcement are more likely to respond to a concern brought in by a school staff member rather than an ordinary citizen

Schools must try to get the parents involved in their efforts to prevent bullying. Many parents often do not understand how devastating impact of bullying can be.

Children need consistency whether they are in school or at home. If school staff promotes a “no bullying” environment at school, then it is important for parents to totally support that approach when children are at home and when there is a discussion about bullying. It will be of no use if parents do not follow up on the directions set by the school staff – in that case, no matter how hard the school staff tries to prevent bullying, there will likely be continuing bullying incidents at school since the bully knows that he/she has support from home.

This makes it very hard for the school staff. I have had several presentations at schools around the country and in many cases I was asked to make an additional presentation to a group of parents. Although the school presentations were very well attended, the presentations for the parents have typically not been very well attended. It has been clear to me that many parents still follow the “boys will be boys” attitude and do not take bullying seriously.

It is a sad situation because with just a little bit of support from the parents, the school staff can really do an excellent job of preventing bullying. I strongly believe that if the parents really understood the kind of devastating impact bullying can have on many innocent children, they will work hard to cooperate with the school staff and make sure that a positive environment is maintained at school.

Even in the case of workplace bullying, bystanders can play a significant role. If a bystander watches harassment and doesn’t do anything about it, then he or she is not helping in promoting a positive environment at the workplace.

We all know about the role of bystanders when it comes to bullying in schools. When some children are watching and laughing about an ongoing incident of bullying, then it only encourages the bully to continue his bad behavior. It gives the bully a platform that he certainly does not deserve. Something similar can also happen at a workplace. If an employee watches another employee being bullied or harassed and doesn’t do anything about it, then he or she is also promoting such behavior at the workplace.

In my book titled “How to stand up to workplace bullying and take on an unjust employer”, I have discussed this issue in great detail. In my case I know that there were some employees who noticed that our supervisor was harassing me, but they did nothing about it. Some of them came to me later and told me how they felt about it and how it was not appropriate for our supervisor to behave like that. But when the time came for some of these witnesses to come forward and describe what they had seen, most of them simply did not want to come forward. They felt they just simply did not want to get involved with anything legal. I was fortunate that finally one person did come forward and expressed what she had seen in detail, and that had helped my case significantly.

The bottom line is that it is everyone’s responsibility to do what they can to maintain a positive environment at the workplace. No one deserves to be treated badly at a workplace and all employees have a role in this. If you see something, then go to someone and say something about it. In most places, you can do this and stay anonymous.

Many schools around the country have training programs for school staff members about issues associated with child sexual abuse. This is an excellent initiative since school staff can play a significant role in detecting or preventing child sexual abuse.

Children typically spend a significant part of their days at their schools, and over time they develop a trusting relationship with a number of school staff members. And often they find one or more of the staff members to be the only trustworthy people with whom they can share some difficult personal struggles that they may not feel comfortable in sharing with their own family members. Often information about child sexual abuse or about concerns of possible child sexual abuse fall in this category. For various reasons children often do not feel that they can share these situations with their own family members, but they might feel more comfortable discussing them with a trusted school staff member. In my book “Father Figure – my mission to prevent child sexual abuse”, I describe a true story about a young child who ended up disclosing being sexually abused to a trusted school counselor. Training all school staff members about all issues associated with child sexual abuse is therefore is an excellent idea.

In trainings like this, the school staff typically get to know all about child sexual abuse including key information, salient advice, and guidance on what child sexual abuse is, what it does, how it happens, how to recognize it, and what to do about it. School staff also receive training about noticing children’s behavior and finding any significant discrepancies that might lead to having a discussion with the child, which might then lead to detecting possibilities of sexual abuse or of concerns about sexual abuse. That is why trainings of this kind are a very positive approach.

Bullying must be prevented at all schools. And in order to prevent bullying, school staff must learn how to help the bullies – typically school bullies are asking for help and the adults around them are responsible.

Most of the times, bullies are acting out in a negative manner simply because they are having to deal with some difficult issues of their own that they are not able to resolve just by themselves. Maybe they are being bullied at home by other members of the family and the only way they can feel better is to take it out on other innocent children. Also, it is possible that their families are going through a very difficult time (such as divorce or other serious miscommunications between family members, death or serious illness in the family, etc) and their frustrations come out on other children. Typically these bullies are not “bad” kids, but they do not realize that their actions are hurting other children significantly. These bullies need to be in therapy so they can have a way to deal with their own issues.

In my book “A Life Interrupted – the story of my battle with bullying and obsessive compulsive disorder”, I describe an encounter I had (in adult years) with the worst bully from my middle school days. I learned a lot from him about what his home life was like during those school years and how he resorted to bullying to be able to deal with his own stress. Later I have heard from many other adults around the country who admitted to me that they too had similar issues to deal with at home and that’s what turned them into bullies.

It is important for all school staff to be aware of this so they can act accordingly to help bullies so that they do not have to resort to bullying other kids to relieve their own stresses.

If you are being harassed or observing misconduct at your workplace, it is important to disclose all such incidents to your employer in a manner that is appropriate and in accordance with the proper chain of command.

Here is an excerpt from my book “How to stand up to workplace bullying and take on an unjust employer”:

Many employees feel it is too risky to report inappropriate conduct involving their superiors to higher authorities, as was the case with many of my coworkers at the center. However, I firmly believe that officially disclosing your concerns in good faith is essential to protecting your rights in the long run and potentially building a case against your employer. After all, how was the unemployment law judge in my case able to correctly determine, over the telephone mind you, that I had been fired as a form of retaliation for my whistle-blowing activities? It is because there was a long line of documented concerns made by me to management, to the board of directors and to my employee union; all leading up to my wrongful termination. With a documented history of reported concerns, it becomes easier for the DHR or a judge or a lawyer to see how you were indeed a victim of retaliation. Once this pattern can be clearly established, the likelihood of prevailing and/or receiving a settlement naturally increases for you.

Along these lines, it is essential for you to disclose misconduct to your employer that may be either discriminatory and/or sexually offensive in nature. Remember, employers are not to punish or terminate you in response to your disclosing what you honestly perceive, in good faith, to be unlawful discrimination or sexual harassment occurring at the workplace. There are legal consequences for such improper actions. Even if the negative conduct you alleged is later found to have not actually consisted of discrimination and/or sexual harassment, it is still illegal for your employer to wrongfully punish or terminate you for disclosing your potential concerns of this nature.

There are still many people around the country who are not able to talk about cases of child sexual abuse or about prevention of child sexual abuse. We need to continue to talk about this to remove the stigma.

I have known adults who were abused as a child but did not tell anyone about it. It is important for everyone to know that they are ‘never’ responsible for how reporting abuse may make someone feel. A female friend of mine had once told me about how her mother’s boyfriend had frequently touched her inappropriately back when she was a teenager. Along with telling me that she had never told anyone else about this, my friend further stated that she didn’t tell her mother because she felt responsible for how her mother might feel if informed about the abuse.

Though we all know it is good practice to be thoughtful toward the feelings of others, there are some circumstances in life where it is both okay and necessary to be focused on yourself. Telling an adult that you are being abused is a circumstance where it is crucial for a child to speak up, and to not feel responsible for the impact they fear this information may have on the adult(s) that they share it with. Even if feelings are hurt and relationships are broken, it is always far better in the long run that children report being abused to adults.

While speaking around the country I was also surprised to find mixed reactions among professionals (such as school social workers, school counselors, etc) when it came to talking about child sexual abuse. I have presented at conferences where number of attendees far exceeded the room capacity, but I have also presented at conferences where there were only a very few attendees. When I spoke to conference directors about lack of attendees, most of them commented that “many of our members do not want to discuss this subject of child sexual abuse, but I still wanted you to come and present because they do need to listen to this.” That was an encouraging sign.