Coordinating Child Sexual Abuse Services

Despite the magnitude of the problem of child sexual abuse and the concomitant range of behavioural, emotional, and interpersonal problems in child victims, there is a dearth of services available to respond to this client population. Interventions that do exist tend to be sparse and piecemeal in approach, with no systematic follow-up or evaluation. Often, services are available to specific target clients (usually victim and perpetrator seen separately), with little consideration directed to other family members or to the social environment in which the abusive behaviour has occurred. In rural areas these problems are compounded - hampered by travel distances, diverse population bases, and limited service resources. Coordinating Child Sexual Abuse Services in Rural Communities reports on a three-year project concentrating on the design and implementation of a coordinated program for the treatment of child sexual abuse in rural Manitoba. The project was unusual in that it followed a...