Minutes 12-09-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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children and families receive the medical and mental health care, advocacy, and support that they need. Team members include our Managing Assistant District Attorney, the Department of Social Services Investigations Supervisor, juvenile and family violence officers from our three law enforcement agencies, and representatives from UNC Hospitals, the Guardian ad Litem Program, the department of Juvenile Justice, and Family Violence and Rape Crisis Services. We review every open child sexual abuse case every month, from the time of the initial report until the case is resolved. Case reviews allow us to make sure that, from the very beginning, information is shared freely among individuals and agencies involved in investigating child sexual abuse cases and providing services for abused children and their families. Chatham County has a record of every child sexual abuse case reported since 2001, including investigation and prosecution outcomes. In 2000, Chatham County Board of Commissioners created my position, Child Victim Services Coordinator, out of concern that child sexual abuse investigations were being poorly coordinated between the Department of Social Services and our county's three law enforcement agencies. Social workers and law enforcement officers were conducting separate investigations, resulting in children being interviewed about their victimization multiple times by multiple individuals from multiple agencies. Already-victimized children were being further traumatized by the repeated interviews; telling a complete stranger in great and agonizing detail how someone who was supposed to protect you instead sexually assaulted you is not an easy thing for anyone, let alone a child. Having to do that three or four times with three or four different people, is torturous. Additionally, multiple interviews invariably result in slight discrepancies with each retelling of the abusive event, making the difficult job of the prosecutor even more difficult, as defense attorneys are apt to ignore the overwhelming consistency of multiple accounts to jump on inconsequential variations of minute details. Streamlining the process through multidisciplinary coordination successfully addresses these issues, leading to better outcomes for children and greater success in prosecuting sex offenders. I ask the Orange County Board of Commissioners to consider creating a similar county-funded position in Orange County to improve multidisciplinary coordination among those professionals entrusted with investigating sex crimes against children and providing services for these very vulnerable children. Thank you. Sarah Furman read from the following prepared statement: Hello. My name is Sarah Furman. I am a Crisis Counselor with the Chapel Hill Police Department and member of the newly established Orange County Multidisciplinary Team. From here on, Multidisciplinary Team will be referred as MDT. I am here to speak on the behalf of the Orange County team about the critical need for a MDT Coordinator position in Orange County. You heard from Carmen on some of the benefits of having a well-established MDT, including reduction in trauma and re-victimization, better outcomes for children, and improved prosecutions. Let us consider a few others that our team has identified since our first meeting in May 2014. These include: • Reduction in duplication of services and fragmentation in the service delivery process; • Efficient, timely, and precise investigations;