Seeking the truth; protecting the children

Understanding just what a child is saying can be difficult. They tend to use their vocabulary in ways that confuse adults. It can be quite amusing when it is part of a program designed to highlight the effect, as the "Kids Say The Darnedest Things" television program does.

When it comes to serious subjects, such as child sexual abuse, with real-world consequences it is important to find out exactly what the words actually mean when the child says them. Chad Adams, executive director of the Children's Center in Joplin, said it was just as important to find out an accusation was wrong as to confirm it.

"It is just as important to prove something didn't happen as to prove that something did," Adams said. "If someone hasn't done anything they need to be cleared. We're out to get the truth, whatever that happens to be."

Adams used as an example a little girl who tells someone her father put his pee-pee in her pee-pee. To an adult it sounds like a clear-cut case of sexual abuse, but that's because the girl is using her vocabulary in a way adults wouldn't.

"You've got to talk the same language as the child," Adams said. "Here's an example. The father takes his daughter to the mall. She has to go to the bathroom so he takes her to the men's room and puts her in a stall and she urinates. Afterwards he uses the same stall to urinate. The way she sees it, he put his pee-pee into her pee-pee. It's innocent but someone hearing the girl could misunderstand and the father could face serious charges."

Having the center in the downtown area will help in many ways, not the least of which is that it is easier for out-of-town families to find. Adams said the recent change in location of the Nevada center will help it provide its services to the community and make it more accessible.

"I think the change in location will serve the public well," Adams said. "It gives our team members more privacy dealing with the children and is less institutional feeling. That will definitely increase the children we see."

Adams said the Children's Center has a unique role to fill in the community, one that no other organization is equipped to handle.

"We are really a service that isn't duplicated in the community," Adams said. "There is no one else you can call to get a forensic interview, you'd have to go to Kansas City or Greene County for something like that."

The Children's Center offers child interviews, which are recorded, and medical exams among its services. Medical exams can be to detect sexual assault, which comprise 80 percent of the cases, or they can be care exams to see if a child is at risk of neglect.

"We're looking to improve both of those services," Adams said. "We want to offer families the best service we can."

Adams said that the people who work at the center and who donate their time are valuable assets and that they could never be compensated enough for what they do.

"We went several months last year without a medical component," Adams said. "It's difficult to get a doctor to take this on. They have to take at least four days out of their practice to take the training in Minnesota. We provide a very nominal fee for their service and it really doesn't pay for their time away from the office."

Adams said even doctors who have practiced for years find out many new methods and treatments from the training.

"We've had doctors who have practiced for years and years that have taken the training and they said until then they didn't know what they didn't know," Adams said. "We want them Safe trained so when they go to that court they can testify to the training they've received, that makes them more credible witnesses."

Adams said the need was great and public officials needed to understand that.

"We need people to get on the phone and tell their local state representative and the governor about the need for the child advocacy center," Adams said.