TCC

Unstranger Danger is multi-media presentation which uses interview style documentary filmmaking, and live presentation to consider a more comprehensive response to child sexual abuse, beyond prevention alone. Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDT’s) and all professionals who respond to reports and/or allegations of child sexual abuse do so when prevention efforts have failed or were never implemented in the first place. The resources provided by Unstranger Danger are intended to provide professionals and other protective family members or care givers with the tools to respond to reports of child sexual abuse using a victim-centered strategy, with restoration as the ultimate outcome. Using what he calls the Four Core Pillars – Prevention – Investigation – Prosecution – Restoration, Jeff hopes to encourage, enable and empower those who have been impacted by child sexual abuse and those entrusted to walk with them through the process.

Starvation and torture of children is a unique and horrendous form of child abuse. This has occurred for years but only recently come to the attention of the medical providers providing care for abused children. This session will describe the history of the issue, and then present some specific cases from the state of WA, highlighting the techniques used by the abusers to fool medical providers, school personnel, and family members into thinking they are doing the right things for these children.

We are ALL messed up!! Vicarious traumatization is unique to police officers, social workers and other crisis workers because of their frequent contact with human suffering, especially when dealing with children. Multidisciplinary child abuse members routinely must respond to situations where they are exposed to the worst of people and the worst of what people do to each other. The psychological impact of such incidents is referred to as vicarious traumatization. Most investigators learn to maintain an emotional boundary in order to protect them from affecting their emotional needs; it is more challenging to separate while dealing with victims of trauma, particularly when the situation involves a child and to cope with such traumatization problem behaviors, such as drug, sex, food, and gambling addictions can develop.
This training will address ways police officers and social workers can deal with the two types of trauma that may be experienced: post-traumatic stress disorder and vicarious traumatization.

Young children who experience severe developmental and behavioral challenges create difficult family dynamics that include increased care necessity, financial strain, social emotional strain, and other known difficulties. Due to the increasing prevalence of such disorders which may include autism, severe emotional challenges, and other neurodevelopmental problems, many child welfare workers across different systems are tasked with supporting children and their families impacted by these challenges. Communication difficulties and problems with emotional regulation, for example, create unique yet not uncommon barriers. In this seminar, risk factors for children and their families that may lead to issues surrounding child welfare will be discussed, as well as ways to support young children with high needs during complex transitions.
Supports for managing social/communication deficits alongside challenging behaviors which may present during custody transitions, court or other legal proceedings, a evaluations associated with such cases will be discussed.

Case Review is a valuable tool to improve case outcomes and to strengthen multidisciplinary team functioning. In this presentation, participants will increase their understanding of the purpose and of case review, while exploring the elements of a successful case review process, and how to identify and address common challenges.

This presentation will discuss how and when to use the one-party consent phone call in child abuse investigations. The presenter will show how to properly prepare the victim before the call. Case studies will be used in which one-party consent phone calls were used as an important tool in the prosecution of child abuse cases.

The multi-disciplinary team’s response to special victims cases (crimes against children, family violence, sexual assault) is complex. The heavy burden of these complex assignments, however, is routinely overlooked. This workshop will candidly explore the challenges that arise from constantly working within the trauma-specific to special victims cases and the effects on those who handle them. Participants will be encouraged to consider the unique impact these cases have on them and will be offered alternative solutions to traditional methods for how they are handled—including personnel assignments, investigations, interviews, and court testimony. Participants will discuss recognition and prevention of burnout and be provided strategies for leadership to build preventative measures into team dynamics. This workshop also serves as a platform for participants to open up about barriers to successfully juggling day-to-day duties, on and off the job, and normalize the emotional/mental toll of these unique cases.

Sex crime investigators, prosecutors, judges, probation officers, medical staff, child welfare workers and child/victim advocates should be familiar the various theories about the etiology of pedophilia and development of pro-offending attitudes, plus the more typical patterns of sexual offending (rape, sexual assault & computer crimes against children) committed by juvenile and adult sex offenders. This presentation will highlight (via video taped interviews with various sex offenders) some of the more common pathways to developing deviant sexual interests and criminal sexual behavior. In addition, the presenter will review various studies that examined the number of detected vs. undetected offenders and sexual crimes occurring in our communities, the true rate of false allegations and the average degree of “cross-over” or “crime switching” behavior sex offenders engage in. The misconceptions about “re-offense” and “recidivism” rates and the expected outcomes for sex offender treatment will also be addressed.

When children can’t live safely with their parents and an out of home placement is necessary DCYF’s priority is to place children with a relative or close family friend. This is called kinship care. Research confirms that children do best in kinship care and that family connections are critical to the development and sense of belonging. In this session we will walk through the different kin-first culture initiatives at DCYF. Beginning with why a kin-first culture is so critical using 2020 Washington State Healthy Youth Survey data, then by looking at the unique needs of kinship caregivers.
Additionally, this session will explore resources available to address the needs of kinship caregivers which will aid in supporting permanency for families for children. Resources will include local/state-wide resources, kinship caregiver engagement unit, child specific licensing, and initial licensing (7/23) and much more. At an agency level- a kin-first philosophy is supported through our partnerships within our communities. DCYF is engaging the community in a co-design process to assist us in developing more resources for kinship families.