On Tuesday Feb 23, I spoke at the “National Conference on bullying and child victimization” in Orlando, Florida. The topic of my presentation was “How can we be more effective in prevention of child sexual abuse”. This presentation was based on my second book titled “Father Figure – my mission to prevent child sexual abuse”. The presentation focused on prevention by intervention through multidisciplinary team efforts. The purpose was to demonstrate how a timely intervention can dismantle a possibly abusive setup and thereby prevent the possibility of child sexual abuse. However, in the process, the presentation also focused on the existing systemic and procedural inefficiencies that must be improved in order for us to become truly effective in prevention of child sexual abuse. The presentation emphasized the fact that prevention means doing something “before it actually happens” and how our systems aren’t always as effective in a preventive situation. The conference was attended by school administrators, counselors, school resource officers, child protective services, probation officers, psychologists, community workers, and judges, and various other groups. There were some excellent comments and discussions. It was clear that most attendees agreed that similar issues existed in most places around the country, although there are some differences in the way things are handled in different states.
Next week on March 3, I will be speaking at the Washington School Counselors Association conference in Seattle, WA. This will be a presentation on my first book “A Life Interrupted – the story of my battle with bullying and obsessive compulsive disorder”. I am excited about this opportunity because school counselors have a key role in working with students to maintain a safe environment. Also, this will be my first visit to the state of Washington.