*** This Managing Disclosures of Abuse: A Duty To Report Training session is closed/specific to the agency that has requested it. (If you would like this for your organization, please contact us at any time.)

Many families (especially new immigrants to Canada) live in fear of becoming involved with Children’s Services.  And this fear can impact their willingness to actively parent their children in appropriate ways.  When parent’s don’t understand the role that Children’s Services might have in their lives, they often imagine the worst – and that’s almost never accurate!  This session is about helping clients navigate the possibility of having reports being made to Children’s Services.

If a child/youth shares a disclosure that appears to be about an incident of abuse or neglect, there are some very specific procedures that must be followed (legally) by the professionals involved.  This kind of situation can be quite stressful for the families involved and for the support workers who have to manage the next steps in the disclosure process, especially when they know that Children’s Services, Police Services and the court system are also going to become involved, at least in some capacity.  This session can help alleviate those worries as well.

On Friday, December 15th, from 9am to 12 noon, Tacit will present our Managing Disclosures of Abuse: A Duty To Report Training session to the Alberta Immigrant Women and Children Centre – as a means of helping clients (and workers) navigate the Children’s Services systems when concerns are brought forward.  This educational training session is designed to provide those professionals who work with families, in any capacity, (teachers, librarians, social workers, nurses, doctors, therapists, day care workers, ministerial workers, etc) with an understanding of their appropriate role and the protocols involved when anyone under the age of 18 discloses an incident that might be considered abuse (physical, sexual, emotional/mental) or neglect.

This session will empower support workers as they help the families that they work with better understand the positive and helpful role that Children’s Service’s can play, so their fears can be dramatically lessened.  This session will help staff understand their Duty To Report disclosures of child abuse or neglect (knowing specifically what might constitute suspected abuse/neglect situations, even historically).  It will help staff feel comfortable knowing how to discuss their obligation to report with the person/family that is involved – and it will staff address the family’s fears and worries about what will happen after the report is made.  It also helps staff learn how to protect themselves (in case they are called as a witness in criminal proceedings) and how to appropriately support the child/family they might be working with (even with ongoing Children Services or police investigations), after a disclosure has been made.

This Training is being facilitated by Kim Silverthorn BA, RPC, MPCC, CT of Tacit Knowledge.  Kim is a therapist with 33 years of experience – she was employed directly by Children Services, and worked in partnership with Police Services during these cases, for more than 16 years.  The information in this session is sometimes specific to Alberta legislation, but includes information pertaining to legislation in all other provinces/territories as well.

Have a question? Please feel free to reach out to us at counsellors@tacitknows.com. We are happy to discuss the other Training Sessions that we offer.

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