Center cares for kids A mother learned from her 7-year-old, the eldest of three daughters, that her husband was sexually abusing all of them while she was at work at night.
in times of despair
Victims need a place that is
child-friendly, a program director saysProgram helps heal abuse wounds
Centers expand to coordinate child abuse casesBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comShe made a police report at her child's urging, and the family was taken to the Oahu Children's Justice Center for interviews by police and Child Protection Service workers.
The mother, a battered wife, said she had no idea the children's father was sexually abusing them until her daughter told her. It was not until then that she realized why her daughter kept saying: "Don't go to work, Mommy. Stay with us."
The woman separated from her husband and lives with the children, who are in treatment with services from the nonprofit Friends of the Children's Justice Center. The case is going to criminal court.
Four siblings -- two boys and two girls 8 to 12 years old -- were abused by family members and placed with other family members who physically and sexually abused them again.
Despite the mistreatment and repeated involvement with the criminal system, the children cried and begged workers to return them to their first home.
They are up for adoption now and probably will end up in separate homes, as they are in foster care.
These are just two examples of the hundreds of cases seen at the Oahu Children's Justice Center, according to Jasmine Mau-Mukai, the center's program director.
She said the saddest situations are when children disclose their abuse, often at school, and are brought to the center for a forensic interview and taken to a foster home.
They may arrive with only the backpack they took to school. Even if they have bruises and tell of family molestation, they want to return home, she said.
"I just had the experience the other night, telling children who were begging me to go home that 'you have injuries, and it is not a one-time situation. It is ongoing abuse. You can't go home.'"
Before children are taken to a foster care home, the nonprofit Friends of the Children's Justice Center provides them with donated clothes, toiletries and toys.
One little girl, who had no clothes or the blanket she normally sleeps with, stopped crying when given a stuffed bear, Mau-Mukai said.
"She left here smiling. I thought, This is why this work is so important. Whether it's sex abuse or physical abuse or children who witness tragic crimes, at least there's a place they can come to that is child-friendly."
There are days, however, when the three interview rooms, for preschoolers, school-age children and teenagers, are all in use and four or five preschoolers are waiting to be interviewed, she said.
"We're seeing children who are witnesses to homicide and domestic violence, often very young children ... who witnessed serious assault or a parent being killed.
"These are pretty heartbreaking cases."
Injuries of abused children are being missed because only 3 percent are seen by a doctor skilled in that area, said Dr. Victoria Schneider, who has organized programs to help address that problem. Program helps heal
abuse woundsBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com"The system really is overwhelmed," said Schneider, the pediatrician who directs the Child Protection Center at the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children.
"There are a lot of reports going to Child Protection Services that are serious enough that require investigation, but the number of hospitalized kids has not gone up."
"CPS workers can't always see a child immediately after abuse is reported, because they have so many cases," Schneider said. "By the time a worker gets there, bruising is gone."
She has developed a Child at Risk Evaluation (CARE) program to provide forensic medical services to children at risk for injuries from abuse and to coordinate medical services to children in the foster care system.
She said direct services will be provided to children without a doctor, and in other cases information will be collected for a child entering foster care.
"Information often is lost along the way, and kids going into foster care are at higher risk for medical and mental problems than the general population," she said.
The Geist Foundation is funding a project at Kapiolani to see new foster care children, she said. Background medical information will be collected, and the children will receive physical, visual and hearing exams and immunizations. Younger kids will have developmental evaluations, and older ones will have behavioral assessments.
A pediatrician or family doctor will be identified to care for the child, and all information will be organized and sent to the doctor, foster parent and child welfare worker.
Funding still is needed so doctors experienced with child abuse can be available to consult with general practitioners who see a child with injuries and are not sure if the explanation is plausible, Schneider said. Geist is supporting comprehensive health evaluations for kids already in foster care, but not for forensic evaluations, she noted.
Schneider said Kapiolani is working with the Children's Justice Centers, where interviews are conducted with sexually abused children.
"The potential for improving and increasing that cooperation will certainly be to the best interest of these children," she said, referring to efforts to centralize various child abuse functions.