Effective Training for Child Advocates

With CASGSL Forensic Manager Linda McQuary

During hearings for the Improving Government Responsiveness and Efficiency Interim Committee, we have heard heartbreaking testimony from family members unsuccessfully trying to have their children removed from abusive homes. Multi-disciplinary teams capable of conducting accurate home visits are essential to ensuring that children in such situations are quickly taken from dangerous environments.

This is a daunting task, but the Children’s Advocacy Services of Greater St. Louis (CASGSL) has developed a new facility to better train members of these teams.

CASGSL, which is affiliated with the Psychology Department at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, provides forensic interviews, counseling, and other services to trauma victims under 18. The newly renovated Kathy J. Weinman House, located in Kirkwood, also includes a simulation laboratory that is designed to look like the inside of a house with common signs of child endangerment, such as drug paraphernalia and exposed wires.

This mock house will be used to give students a better idea of what to expect during home visits and help them learn to detect indications of child endangerment.

In addition to the simulation laboratory, the building contains clinical services and rooms for art therapy, play therapy, and parent child interaction therapy.

There are only a handful of laboratories like the Weinman House, and I commend CASGSL’s innovative approach to training those on the frontline of child abuse prevention.