How Safe Horizon’s Child and Family Programs Continue During the Challenges of COVID-19

Rapid Response at the Child Advocacy Centers (CACs)

Not only are our CACs still open, they are more critical than ever. Without school or other community supports, many children face increased risk of abuse right now.

Beginning in mid-March, with New York State and New York City implementing a quarantine where all but essential workers are instructed to remain home, our five CACs have remained open with multidisciplinary (MDT) partners, including Safe Horizon staff, continuing to respond to the most serious reported allegations of child abuse seven days a week. Although all mental health, crisis counseling and advocacy work is being provided to clients over the telephone, the CACs remain open and available to clients in the initial stage of the child abuse investigation. On a reduced schedule, Safe Horizon staff remain on site to orient families to the CAC and the MDT, coordinate new investigations with MDT members, provide forensic interviews of child victims, and support families during their time at the Center.

Since March, CAC staff have provided additional support to Safe Horizon clients personally affected by the pandemic and continue to provide quality, trauma-informed therapeutic support to clients over the telephone, checking in with them on a regular basis, offering vital resources, and providing mental health services as needed. The concern remains, however, that child abuse and neglect reports to the New York State Central Register have drastically declined since mid-March, leaving many children unprotected and at risk in their homes. The decline in reports is not surprising given that, nationally, only slightly more than six percent of allegations of child abuse are reported by parents. Thus, we anticipate an uptick in reports once children are no longer confined to their homes and are around others such as school teachers, religious leaders, relatives, and friends who are more likely than parents to report suspected child abuse.

Safe Way Forward——Supporting Families to Stay Safe at Home

Safe Way Forward is Safe Horizon’s flagship whole-family program, working with families on Staten Island to balance healing from trauma, family and community strength, and accountability as core components of lasting safety. Formally launched in 2019, Safe Way Forward supports children who have witnessed domestic violence and their families in healing and accessing safety, using a range of case management and clinical interventions, grounded in rigorous evidence.

The Safe Way Forward team is working to stay connected to survivors in any way possible during the crisis. The Safe Way Forward team has transitioned to remote outreach, reaching families by FaceTime, G-Chat, whatever works. We have video platforms for teletherapy and groups and have been doing video home “visits” as well. Overall, the program is adapting phenomenally to the challenge, and is continuing to work with dozens of families in this new path to safety. Of course, we know this period carries stark risks as well: domestic violence and child abuse both spike when families are isolated at home, and we have to find creative means of safety planning and emotional support now. Also, referrals through the city are slowed down or paused – but we’re ready for a surge once the State PAUSE is lifted, so our teams are preparing to support that.

Child Trauma Response Team—a Collaborative, Coordinated Response to Families Experiencing Domestic Violence

Safe Horizon’s Child Trauma Response Team (CTRT) is a mental health collaboration that pairs police officers with clinicians to quickly identify and reduce the impact of children’s exposure to traumatic events. Now in its fifth year, CTRT works in partnership with our Crime Victim Assistance Program, NYPD, and District Attorney’s Offices in 12 precincts in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens.

During this time CTRT has focused on maintaining contact with current active clients, checking in with recently terminated clients along with outreaching any pending referrals. We are conducting phone and video counseling sessions, utilizing mainly our Brief Trauma Intervention and some Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention sessions. We are assisting clients to manage many concrete needs including continual reassessment of safety risks and needs, navigating what the criminal courts and family courts are offering at this time and linking them directly with resources such as the Domestic Violence Law Project, food pantry resources, etc. We are also providing families in need with food vouchers and are working on sending care packages with therapeutic items directly to families who have agreed it is safe to receive.

Safe Horizon Counseling Center – Continuing to Provide Evidence-Based Treatment Remotely

The Safe Horizon Counseling Center (SHCC) is the only mental health clinic in New York State specializing exclusively in evidence-based treatments for survivors of crime and abuse. It is one of the nation’s most experienced providers of treatments tailored to the developmental needs of young children.

Through these interventions, SHCC promotes long-term healing and positive growth for young children who have lived through severe violent events. Our treatment interventions restore children to the expected developmental trajectory and empower caregivers. Afterwards, they are positioned to build healthy relationships, maintain emotional well-being, and ultimately reach their full potential.

SHCC closed its main office and four satellite sites March 14 and made a seamless transition to teletherapy on March 16. Within three days, SHCC therapists contacted every existing client and made an individualized plan to continue therapy by telephone or video conference. Within four days, SHCC began accepting new clients for trauma teletherapy. Having an excellent operations and technology infrastructure has allowed us to provide uninterrupted service to the families who need us.

A story of hope and healing: the Child Trauma Response Team partners with Maria and her three children to heal

Responding to a 911 call reporting a domestic disturbance, police arrived at *Maria’s home late one evening where they found the home in total disarray—broken TV, clothes and other items flung, and the whole home trashed throughout. More important, they found Maria and her three young children—Gena, Mark, and Joe—scared, upset, and unsure of what would happen next. Along with creating the chaos, Maria’s boyfriend Alex and the father of her youngest child threatened to kill Maria. NYPD officers arrested Alex on the scene and notified Safe Horizon’s Child Trauma Response Team (CTRT) that Maria and her children needed help.

Barbara, a CTRT clinician, swiftly contacted Maria just a few days after the incident. Maria was committed to supporting her children after such a frightening event and worked with Barbara for support in helping her family heal and remain safe. Barbara screened the children and Maria for traumatic symptoms and found that none of them were sleeping well and all were experiencing anger outbursts with each other and in school. Mark and Joe were having an extremely hard time concentrating and staying on task, and Mark was experiencing extreme sadness to the point that he attempted suicide.

Maria was so scared by all the changes she was seeing in her children. She also struggled with feeling unsafe in the home. Alex knew where she worked and where her family lived and had a history of stalking her. Even so, she knew the dangers of leaving because she had tried that before and Alex found her and made her return.

Constant safety planning between Maria and Barbara was vital. As a team, they reviewed and revised Maria’s safety plan during every phone call and every in-person meeting. When the right opportunity to leave the home came up, Maria and her children found safe refuge in a Safe Horizon Domestic Violence Shelter. Maria and her children participated in a brief, evidence-based intervention to reduce the trauma reactions they were experiencing. Gena had a significant decrease in trauma reactions to the point she no longer needed further treatment for the time being. Mark and Joe also had significant reductions in trauma reactions but needed longer term mental health support. Barbara referred the two boys to the Safe Horizon Counseling Center where they developed trusting relationships with their therapists.

Maria is back at work full time and has received a voucher for her family’s own apartment. Maria is feeling back in control of her life. She has a long road ahead of her, but Safe Horizon is at her side to help her and her children along the way.

Safe Horizon’s Bronx Child Advocacy Center

“These five years have truly been a blessing. The opportunity to provide the highest level of care to the children and families of the Bronx is truly a humbling privilege.” – Fabio Cotza, Senior Director, Bronx CAC

It’s been a busy and productive five years!

Among the many activities and accomplishments during its first five years, the Bronx CAC has:

• Hosted visitors from around the world, including Ireland, Greece, Malta, and even Mozambique, who have toured the CAC and learned from its multidisciplinary team experts.
• Trained more than 200 child protective services workers in Trauma-informed CAC Practice and more than 100 Bronx Domestic Violence NYPD Personnel in the Sensitive Arrest Protocols.
• Developed strong relations with the New York Yankees who have become annual donors to Safe Horizon and provided more 100 tickets for Bronx CAC and Domestic Violence Shelter children to attend the Yankees’ annual Winter Wonderland event.
• Continued to collaborate with the Bronx DA’s office in their community events such as the annual Safety Fair and the Safe Sleep Project.
• Continued to share knowledge with other experts in the field by participating in media events such as an ABC Protect Our Children Special, Op Eds in The New York Times.

Additionally…

• Members of the Bronx multidisciplinary also presented their work at the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) Conference in Prague in September 2018 and in Qatar in February 2020.
• The New York Yankees has recognized the Bronx CAC for its work with the Latinx community and the Bronx Borough President for the CAC’s work with the Bronx LGBTQ community.
• And last, but certainly not least, the ASPCA presented Clinical Director Urania Castaneda with its Human Hero award for her efforts in saving a dog who had been abandoned when the family needed to escape a critical domestic violence situation.

“None of this would have been possible if not for the ongoing drive and support of our multidisciplinary partners. Their commitment and passion for the work is really what has made this program a place for hope for so many survivors of sexual and physical abuse.” – Fabio Cotza, Senior Director, Bronx CAC

Elsewhere in the Field of Children’s Services

Did you know that, according to the National Children’s Alliance, the 881 Children’s Advocacy Centers strewn across the country helped a total of 367,797 children last year?

• That’s an average of 417 child victims of abuse helped per CAC.
  • By comparison, Safe Horizon’s five CACs helped a total of 9,686 children last year, an average of 1,937 children per CAC.
• The Jane Barker Brooklyn Child Advocacy Center, which has the highest volume of cases of any CAC in the state and is among the highest volume CACs in the country helped 3,767 children.
• And serving the city’s smallest borough, the Staten Island CAC helped 647 children—still far above the national average.

*All names have been changed to protect confidentiality.