SECTION III

Key Lessons

Our greatest disappointment was that this remarkable example of collaboration and coordination did not leave the lasting impact on the rest of the service system that we hoped it would. Still, says psychologist Susan Meyers: "The project allowed
us to see how coordinating services can really work for the brief shining moment in time that it did."

· Making decisions under intense public scrutiny and in the face of uncertainty about the nature and magnitude of the crisis

- Resisting the tendency to overreact to revelations of horrific forms of sexual abuse

- Balancing the need to act quickly with the need to plan systematically and thoroughly

- Fulfilling individual agency mandates while meeting the needs of the broader community

- Finding creative ways to resolve tensions between divergent community interests, agencies and funding sources

- Building collaboration and enhancing coordination at all levels simultaneously - between frontline workers, agencies and government ministries

- Involving community members in the crisis response without jeopardizing the confidentiality of those involved in the investigation or legal process

- Meeting the needs of the children affected by the crisis without stigmatizing them or providing preferential service

- Keeping one eye on the immediate crisis and the other on the future; anticipating the positive and negative impact of all decisions in the long-term

- Walking the line between being open and cooperative with the media while protecting the privacy of those involved and safeguarding the investigation and court cases

- Sharing needed information between professionals without breaching client confidentiality

- Finding ways to dovetail numerous cnmmal and child protection proceedings

- Ensuring the continuation of treatment after the termination of special treatment services

- Meeting the special needs of many victims and perpetrators with developmental delays

- Dealing with the community's trauma and reaching out to the groups most stigmatized by the crisis

- Selecting prevention approaches that don't reinforce fear an negative attitudes about human sexuality

- Maintaining collaboration and coordination between all key players as the crisis diminishes

- Providing adequate support to front-line workers contending with the stress and emotional demands of the case

- Finding ways to learn from the crisis and use these lessons to improve the service system.

It is unfortunate that it took a sexual abuse disaster to propel us into action, but it did. 'The crisis gave us an opportunity to get together to do something about child sexual abuse," says sexuality educator Cecile Loiselle. 'I don't think we would have otherwise."

Nonetheless, we were able to move past the negativity, divisiveness and paralysis that can accompany such a crisis, and make a conscious decision to use the situation for the long-term benefit of all sexually abused children in our area. As Family and Children's Services supervisor Rocci Pagnello puts it:
"When you face a situation that looks disastrous you have to deal with it. You can also create a centrepiece out of it. The analogy I use is if you are excavating a foundation for a house and you find a huge granite outcropping in the middle, you turn it into something - like a fireplace."

Develop Community-Wide Partnerships

The best response to a multi-victim crisis requires a strong partnership between a community's service network, key government ministries and the community itself. We took the approach that since everyone owns the problem, everyone must be part of the solution. Our experience shows that a cornmunity-based committee with representation from all these sectors can be an excellent vehicle for sharing information, planning, strategizing, and fostering the kind of constructive action that is required.

Adopt a Multifaceted Approach

The best response to a child sexual abuse crisis is also a comprehensive response. This means working on several fronts simultaneously  Treatment, support and education must reach a wide spectrum of groups. With regard to treatment and support, it is not only the child victims who will need attention, but also the non-offending members of their families, their foster parents and the professionals who will work with them. A crisis may also prompt an increase in disclosures by adult survivors seeking help. With regard to prevention, efforts must reach children, the school system, professionals, parents and community members.

It is essential to remember that a multi-victim case is not just a crisis for social services, it's a crisis for the entire community. Ensuring that members of that community are part of the crisis response will promote community ownership, empowerment and healing. Building on the existing strengths of the community and giving people a say in decisions that affect their lives will also foster long-term change. Involving individuals outside the services supported by your funding target can also help to increase lobbying clout should that be necessary.

We struggled with the question of community participation on the Advisory Committee. While the mayor of Prescott was in a key leadership position as chairperson and represented the community's interests well, some felt that there should have been more townspeople on the committee. We ultimately decided to limit representation to professionals out of concern for the confidentiality of those implicated in the investigation and prosecution.

In addition to the mayor or representatives of council there may be other community leaders who should be pulled in."Perhaps somebody from a social planning council, a ministerial group or a YMCA which provides most of the supports to kids in a community," suggests Geoff McMullen, current chair of the Children's Services Advisory Group. "You look for those key actors because it's a community issue to resolve."

Non-professionals, consumers of service and community people can all be effectively integrated into a crisis response through membership in subgroups of a main committee, such as committees dealing with media, community healing or prevention. You may also want to look for other ways to consult with community members. Holding public meetings or promoting discussion through radio call-in shows are just two ideas.

Promote Collaboration Between Services

The broader the collaboration within the service network, the more effective the response. It is vital to have all key players and stakeholders represented. Collaboration allows parties to see different aspects of a problem and contribute to solutions that extend beyond individual limitations. Therefore, it is extremely helpful to have a wide range of agencies and human services involved in your interagency response. For example, having Developmental Services at the table made it possible to offer the front-line team training and consultation on the special needs of people with developmental handicaps.

Many of the service providers who organized the initial response knew each other and had worked together before. A committee called "Youth in the Community," with representation from the police, Family and Children's Services as well as the schools and other youth-serving agencies, had been meeting regularly in Prescott for several years to find solutions to the problems of teenagers. Initiatives such as these had created "trust in the bank" and laid the groundwork for positive relationships. "We knew each other and each other's styles," says school psychologist Grant Curry. "We could get on with things and get things done, bypassing the feeling-each-other-out stage where you try to figure out each other's agendas."

Communities lacking this history may need to bring in an outside resource person or facilitator to help unite service agencies. You will need someone who is experienced in problem-solving, identifying issues, facilitation and project management who can offer an objective viewpoint.

Avoid Quick Fixes:    Situate Your Crisis Response Within a Longer-term Vision

The overall goal of a response to a multi-victim crisis should be to meet urgent and special needs at the same time as strengthening the long-term capacity of the service system and community to respond to child sexual abuse by increasing local expertise and improving the coordination of services.

When the crisis hit in Prescott, we knew that a quick fix approach would be short-sighted. Our initial funding proposal reflected our desire for far-reaching and lasting change. At the time, our community was not providing an effective, coordinated, comprehensive response to the problem of child sexual abuse for a variety of reasons, many of which are not unique to us.

Although good relationships had been established between individual service providers, our service system was composed of independently-run agencies which tended to protect their territory. We also had the usual conflicts between disciplinary approaches and philosophies and we didn't offer adequate specialized or multidisciplinary training in child sexual abuse for frontline workers.

Recalls social worker Sheila Irvine: 'There were close to 200 kids in the area on waiting lists for treatment who had been sexually or physically assaulted, or were family abuse survivors. We were already in trouble when this crisis came along. Then we were in really big trouble."

In retrospect, it has become somewhat clearer why we didn't achieve the lasting change we hoped for. The main reason was that the special project approach supported by the government was short-term, crisis-focused and Prescott-centred. As a result, it was only partially integrated into the system that served the larger community. This reduced the extent to which the lessons from the project and the expertise developed could spread through it.

We also learned that concentrating a special project in a small community can stigmatize it. It is often in the interests of others, such as the media, to attribute a problem to an identifiable place even if it is not restricted to that place. As the case widened over time, only nine per cent of victims and perpetrators were actually located in Prescott. Broadening rather than confining
a crisis response may prevent this stigmatization.

The Advisory Committee was set up as an autonomous body with a limited life span tied to two-year funding. While it could exercise strong persuasion in encouraging agencies to work together, it had no authority to require agencies to commit to long-term changes in systems or policies that would guarantee the ongoing coordination of services. As social worker Henry De Souza observes: "In a crisis everyone cooperates and pitches in. The further you move away from a crisis, the weaker the commitments."

In hindsight, many of us believe that linking the committee into an existing coordinating body might have increased the potential for creating lasting change. Bonnie McIsaac notes: "We learned a lot by setting the committee up to stand alone. I don't think that should be repeated."

The special treatment service was also set up on a short-term basis and was dedicated solely to children and families involved in the Project Jericho investigation. Although it was attached to a children's mental health treatment centre for administrative purposes, the Team had no practical or program links to the rest of the centre. When it was disbanded, the specialized treatment skills left with the therapists. No mechanisms were ever developed for sharing their expertise with other mental health professionals.

'There is no way I would ever advocate establishing a one-shot short-term sexual abuse program to go into any community and then disappear," says psychologist Susan Meyers. "Some kids get good service out of it but it also creates a lot of hassles. There need to be sexual abuse treatment services in a communities. Communities have to come together and establish those on an ongoing basis."

A special service can also create the perception that those affected by the crisis receive better service than clients who are not. This may create frustration and resentment among front-line workers who continue to work on similar cases without special support or recognition and this may result in difficulties transferring children to other therapists when the service closes down.

The prevention effort, although also time limited and Prescott-centred, was organized somewhat differently and was thus better integrated into existing community services. Its key staff were seconded from local agencies and were thus able to incorporate their experience into the programs and priorities of those agencies on a permanent basis.

"Our goal was always to integrate the work of the project into our regular community work," says Louise Ward, "and by the end of the two years that's what we had done. It was our goal that when the prevention committee was no longer, the work would still continue in a different form."

Build on Strengths while Recognizing Limitations

The more a community can respond to a crisis with the resources of its own service network, the better. To achieve this you will need the solid support and commitment of agency boards and management and key government ministries. Before deciding to seek additional government funding to create new services, look carefully at the resources you have in your community and determine how they can be used to meet the needs of the crisis. Encourage agencies to redeploy human resources, commit staff time to the crisis and formalize these new arrangements in writing.

According to community mental health worker Alice Koekkoek, "one thing that got missed in this project was building on the strengths that already existed in the community. New resources were brought in, but now that they've left, we haven't learned the skills." She feels that seconding local workers to the treatment positions would have enriched the community by leaving trained people behind. "Or part of their mandate could have been to train the professionals already here for twenty weeks, one day a week for an afternoon, or whatever," she says.

While the emphasis must be placed on encouraging service agencies to change priorities and find new and innovative ways to use existing resources, it's not wise to force square pegs into round holes. If existing resources can't provide the needed services, you will need to find other alternatives.

We became aware of the vital importance of consulting with credible people. As Rocci Pagnello cautions, a high profile case can attract "buzzards" as well as "wise owls". It is important to be able to distinguish between them. As Geoff McMullen recalls: "We got to the point where somebody in the group was assigned to profile these people. We were bringing people in who were going to have an impact. We didn't want to bring them in on an article or hearsay. We did reference checks and followed through. How effective are they? What are their motives for coming in?"

When special funding is required to augment inadequate local resources, use it to expand the capacity of existing services to handle the increased demand generated by the crisis rather than to establish separate, specialized, short term services. It's better, says program supervisor Rob Richards "to first look at how to make what you've got work through add-ons," that is, special adjustments within the operation of programs rather than initiatives disconnected from the system.

Dismantling such initiatives when a crisis is over can present enormous difficulties. "This project was purpose-designed and very focused," he notes. "There was very close coordination and collaboration between the players involved. To replace that in a system where there are a number of agencies with their own distinctive programs, their own methods of operation and their own pressures to deal with is virtually impossible."

If a special service is established, the following should be taken into account:

To prevent difficulties in reintegrating the components into the existing service system, it is vital to begin planning immediately for how this can be done most effectively.

Recognize that resentment may block acceptance of your service. Communicate the message that while efforts are needed to provide excellent service for all children, it doesn't make sense to penalize some just because all children can't immediately benefit.

If you do decide to bring outside expertise into your community to fill gaps in services, make sure you have a plan for using it to strengthen the existing service system through training or other measures.

Define a Shared Vision

Obtaining agreement on a philosophy and principles that will inform all your actions can be a good way to keep everybody on the same track. Although we never developed a formal statement of principles, we all agreed early on that the welfare of the child victims would be our primary concern and rallying point.

Keeping the needs of the children foremost in mind made it easier to get past territorialism. "As long as we were talking about agencies and mandates and services, we got absolutely nowhere," says one participant. "Once we started talking about kids and their needs, we forgot about what our agencies were supposed to do, or not do." "However, it's not enough to agree upon principles," says De Souza. "They must be reviewed regularly." "'Hang them on the mirror at home. Recite them at every meeting to remind you why you are there."

In Just Before Dawn, Jan Hindman describes the driving force behind the response of an interagency team in Malheur County, Oregon: "It was for the children that each one of the interdisciplinary agencies could set aside professional antagonisms, agendas and priorities. The protection of children weaved its way into each discipline so the goal of repairing damage to victims could become the needed philosophy. It was only with this goal and this philosophy that the Child Abuse Team was able to organize. And it was only with this goal that working together laid the roots for understanding the true trauma suffered by sexual victims."1

We suggest you write down your philosophy and flesh it out. Such a statement should be part of any crisis preparation plan. You will also want to spell out a common understanding of key concepts and approaches associated with sexual abuse that may vary between agencies and disciplines.

Clarify Roles and Accountability

Whenever two or more players come together to take coordinated action in any area, roles must be clearly delineated. In a crisis response, a wide range of roles must be clarified - for example, the role of government ministries vis-a-vis community-based committees and agencies, the distinct role of each agency and organization, the roles of individuals representing them on an interagency committee, and the roles of different professionals on interdisciplinary front-line teams.

For example, we needed to work in partnership with government bodies and representatives. We had to help them be clear about their role and contribution and how to be constructive in their approach. Geoff McMullen believes that in an MVMO crisis, government can facilitate the coming together of the right people to strategize. "Government is responsible for providing the supports and keeping the realities on the table. Facilitating working relationships is a strong role for the government."

Our experience taught us how essential it is to take the time to work out role definitions and limits in every sphere of action. For example, in the case of the joint investigative team where police and Family and Children's Services worked together very closely, child protection workers had to be clear that their role did not involve interviewing accused persons.

Efforts may be needed to help clients understand the distinct roles of professionals. Social worker Maureen McDougall recalls that many clients mistook child protection workers for police officers because they were together so much. "I often received questions from clients about the laying of charges," she says. "We would have to emphasize that we were not police officers and that the decision to lay charges rests clearly with the police."

Another area in which clarity is important is that of accountability. Every individual and organization must know who they are expected to answer to for their actions and what the repercussions are for failing to carry through. In cases where individuals are accountable to two bodies (their own agency and an interagency committee), it is important to ensure that potential areas
of conflict are worked out carefully at the beginning.

Coordinate Your Actions

An effective response to an MVMO crisis demands excellent coordination at every level: between front-line workers on individual cases, between agencies at the management level, between the local and corporate office of the ministry responsible for child welfare and between other key provincial government ministries such as the Attomey-General and Solicitor-General at the local and provincial levels. Coordination implies institutionalized rather than informal relationships between parties undertaken in an effort to harmonize plans and goals, implement decisions, evaluate and take joint responsibility for outcomes. It requires players to give up some ability to act unilaterally.

As we've said before, the area in which we can point to the most success coordinating our actions was on the front line. We worked hard to develop effective procedures and protocols for all aspects of the case: investigation, prosecution, child protection, treatment and support to the people involved with the children. We had clear guidelines for case management, information-sharing and protecting confidentiality. There is no question that co-location was a critical factor. "We all agree that much of the success of the project was due to being in the same physical space," says Family and Children's Services team leader, Pam Gummer.

Coordination efforts were weaker at the government level. The program supervisor for the Ministry of Community and Social Services was the main government official overseeing the case. Program supervisor Bonnie Mclsaac advocates a team approach between government departments: "No one person should be in a position of decision-making in a case like this. Instead of leaving decisions to the program supervisor to make, there should have been an ad hoc group of corporate people and local ministry representatives set up to discuss how we would work together."

Pay Attention to Your Process

We came to appreciate the importance of good group process in creating effective interdisciplinary teams and committees. Members need time to get to know each other as well as learn about and gain respect for each other's agency imperatives, philosophical approaches and areas of expertise. This is critical to building trust and good working relationships between service providers.

Collaboration and coordination require individuals to compromise soon after forming a group, to adjust to peer review and to surrender the traditional pecking orders of hierarchies. Successful team functioning means putting aside assumed status, balancing shared decision-making with expertise, and carving out complementary rather than overlapping roles.

This calls for a strong commitment to breaking down the barriers to collaboration in the interests of achieving a common vision. It means taking risks, remaining flexible and open to leaniing about the work of other professionals, and overcoming myths and stereotypes. It means giving up entrenched positions such as "my way is the best way" or "my interest is the most important".

There are also unique dynamics to working together in a crisis. For example, shock and anger - natural human reactions to being faced with an unwanted reality - can produce a tendency to blame that interferes with a constructive, proactive approach. With the history of good relationships between individual professionals in our community, we found this stage fairly easy to move past. Adversarial relationships could make it more difficult.

Be Prepared to Cope with the Media

One thing you can be sure of is that the media will play a major role in any multi-victim child sexual abuse case. Handling the media well requires a clear and proactive communications strategy. This will help to minimize but may not entirely eliminate the distortions and sensationalism that can harm the victims and the community as well as interfere with the legal process. Whatever you do, don't assume that ignoring the press will make it go away.

As a specialist in coping with the media in disasters, journalism professor Joseph Scanlon says that the media can increase convergence to the scene both by the curious and by those with genuine concerns. Their very presence can create pressures for information to the point where effective action is hampered. "They can spread rumours and alter the reality of a disaster in a way that biases the nature of the response. They can and do create myths about disasters, myths which will persist even in the face of contrary experience." 2

These problems can be managed and controlled because of two key facts:  first, the media behave much the same way in disasters as at other times; and second, media behaviour in general is highly predictable. This makes disaster planning relatively efficient because it's possible to predict with some certainty that the media are likely to become voracious consumers of information in a crisis. "Unless officials come up with something to satisfy media appetites, the media will find things to report. These may be offbeat feature stories or items that amount to made-up or created news." 3 Therefore, a media strategy must be a critical element of any plan to respond to a sexual abuse crisis.

If you don't have a media strategy ready as part of a crisis preparedness plan, you'll have to act quickly to develop one. "The media forces immediate decisions in terms of who gives interviews and what information is to be supplied," says Cecile Loiselle. Geoff McMullen suggests bringing together a media advisory group that combines individuals from a variety of backgrounds: "You need someone with specific expertise in the media," he advises. "Typically, social services people don't have that kind of know-how. Also, involve someone who knows all the legal issues and someone from child welfare."

Nobody but the police should discuss the criminal investigation. No one should discuss specific cases. Designate one person to speak on behalf of the community or social service response. That person should periodically let the press know what is going on, within the limits of what can be divulged. He or she should be trained in media relations and not directly involved in the day-to-day operations. He or she should get whatever information is legitimately available, then make decisions as to how it should be given and in what format.

Build In Strategies to Help the Community Heal

A sexual abuse crisis will have severe psychosocial consequences that requre attention. Intially the community will experience shock, then a process of grieving, which in cases like these includes grieving a loss of innocence. One of the most common psychological reactions to disaster is loss of a sense that the world is benevolent, controllable and fair. A disaster attacks deeply held beliefs. Suddenly the world seems malevolent and unpredictable. People lose the sense that their environment is safe and that they are worthy of that security.

Initially, we failed to predict the full impact of the crisis on the community and the intensity of the grieving process. "We didn't pick up as quickly as we could have on how the crisis affected the town," says David Devlin, Assistant Director of Family and Children's Services. Another observer remarked that if the crisis had been a train derailment, there would have been a more immediate reaction to support the community. However, once we came to grips with what was going on, addressing these needs became the task of the prevention committee. In retrospect, some of us feel that activities designed to promote community healing should have been carried out separately from prevention.

As social worker Henry De Souza points out: "Community healing is almost treatment in a sense. You are not trying to prevent something, you are trying to heal something that is hurt."  You may want to designate a crisis response team to go into the community as one of your first actions. In addition to helping the community work through troubling emotions, it can also help vulnerable populations such as children, parents and teachers deal with media assaults. This entire process must be geared to the specific needs of the community and conducted in partnership with it.

Incorporate Ways to Learn from Your Experience

There are many good reasons to evaluate your response to a multi-victim crisis. First and foremost, an evaluation will indicate whether an initiative has met its objectives, whether they be in the area of treatment, prevention, or the criminal justice response. An analysis can also provide a foundation for long term service planning once the crisis period is over. By examining what allowed the problem to develop in the first place, an evaluation can also generate ideas about how to avoid such a problem in the future. It can also supply valuable information to share with governments and other communities.

2. Joseph Scanlon et al, Coping with the Media in Disasters: Some Predictable Problems (Ottawa: Emergency Communications Research Unit, Carleton University Press, 1985), p. 124.

3. Scanlon et al, Coping with the Media in Disasters, p. 128.

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