Nov 26 2008
Open Letter To San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
This letter is being posted on behalf of my friend Carmen Henesy.
Dear Mayor Newsom,
The National Center for Victims of Crime estimates that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will have experienced an episode of sexual abuse while younger than 18 years.
Children who are abused or neglected are more likely to become criminal offenders as adults. A National Institute of Justice study found “that childhood abuse increased the odds of future delinquency and adult criminality overall by 40 percent” (Widom, 1992).
Consequences of child sexual abuse range “from chronic depression to low self-esteem to sexual dysfunction to multiple personalities. A fifth of all victims develop serious long-term psychological problems, according to the American Medical Association.
Sexual abuse of children is a major public health issue with possible long reaching sequeale that can have many effects on this city.
Who will care for our most vulnerable victims, those from birth to 18 years of
age, who have suffered the most horrible crimes? The four registered nurses at CASARC are part of a multidisciplinary team that includes CPS, social services, the police department, its specialized inspectors in the field of sex abuse, the office of the district attorney and allied professions in the community. They have provided services to the children of San Francisco on a 24 hour a day/seven day a week basis. We are familiar with all these various systems and the unique needs of these disenfranchised and traumatized children. These children deserve our expertise as they try to heal.
Among us, we cumulatively have over sixty-five years of experience in the field of child sexual abuse. As specially trained child interviewers, we enable even the young child to tell about what happened to him which makes it more likely to have a successful criminal prosecution. These children have one chance to tell what happened in a forensically defensible interview. Accomplishing this requires consummate skill on the part of the interviewer. CASARC nurses are the experts at doing this. In addition, we all have extensive training and education in the areas of child development and forensics, We provide evidence collection, crisis intervention, case management, outreach and education in the community and consultation to other professionals.
As one juvenile inspector told us, “You are our 911.”
If your child were ill, would you take him to an adult medical provider or a pediatrician? In these cases of the most heinous crime against innocent children, CASARC nurses are the specialists in every aspect of meeting the needs of the young victim.
The proposed budget cuts will leave only one RN at CASARC, decimating an agency that has served San Francisco children for over a quarter of a century. It will eliminate the one Spanish speaking nurse and the only African American nurse that has ever been regularly employed at CASARC in its twenty-five plus year existence.
What a sad legacy for your administration to leave behind!
Carmen Henesy, RN, SANE-A
Child & Adolescent Support, Advocacy, and Resource Center ( CASARC )
Thank you so much, Jo, for posting this letter. My colleague and I were at the public health commission meeting yesterday. So many services are being cut in this mid-year slash of vital city services. The feedback, from almost everyone who spoke, is that the cuts were made with very little thought, without talking to the agencies involved to see if they could implement cost saving measures first, etc.
Someone at the hearing suggested that, if every city worker who earns a six figure salary would donate ten percent of it to the public health budget, the cuts would not be necessary at all. Others said cuts could be made from areas that do not affect the health of others.
What we are talking about here, is eliminating the safety net for the city, services to human beings, many of them to children and families, to the poor, to the critically ill, many with mental illness,
the elderly, children.
This city, so beloved by visitors from all over the world, will suffer from the loss of tourist dollars if these services are cut and our
streets are filled with those who cannot receive the good care they have in the past.
Readers should write to Mayor Newsom to protest these cuts - as soon as possible. Contact information is:
Mayor Gavin Newsom
City Hall, Room 200
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
Telephone: (415) 554-6141
Fax: (415) 554-6160
Email: gavin.newsom@sfgov.org
I do know the statistics in this letter to be sound, grounded, and peer reviewed. I don’t know that much about Mayor Newsom, but from what I do know, he doesn’t need any more legacy hits on his record. I hope the Buzz helps this most worthwhile cause. If I may, you might try contacting Psychology and sociology departments at universities in SF and see if you can post this on their Graduate Listserve. That is a great “hotline” for hotheaded grad students who love nothing more than to fight for good cause! Just a thought… Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving! ~k
Carmen - You are very welcome and I hope it helps in some way.
Khlindsey - Thanks for commenting and your suggestion. We will certainly look into it. And a Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.
I, too, appreciate your comment and support. Yes, the stats are sound and there are many more. Having worked in the field for these 21 years, I’ve seen many of these children in our city and I am part of an international nursing organization that serves abused children and adults worldwide. While many would put their heads in the sand and try to deny these abuses take
place, especially in a city like San Francisco, they do not.
For children, sexual abuse is so difficult to acknowledge. For one thing, their abuser is usually someone they know, often someone they love and frequently, especially in a younger child, they are not even aware that it is something wrong. That is why it is such a betrayal of trust.
It isn’t surprising to me, also, how often a parent acknowledges they were also abused - but never told - when a child makes a disclosure.
This is an extremely important issue, and should not be ignored. As an expert in sexual assault issues, these stats and the statements are based on sound research. In order to make positive change, and decrease the domino effect of violence, San Francisco needs to not only boost sexual assault response programs, but boost Public Health programs that help to circumvent child abuse and sexual abuse cases in order to improve overall public health.
So many aspects of violence are related to child abuse and child sexual abuse. Taking a leadership role in this area, and addressing this problem with a consistent, firm and directly focused program that includes research, planning, interventions and evaluations…WILL make a difference.
Very Respectfully,
Cynthia T. Ferguson, CNM MSN FNE-A SANE-A
(C) PhD Public Health/Community Health Walden University
CASARC has advocated for child victims for a very long time. CASARC’s staff are dedicated to righting the wrongs of our society. No responsible civil servant would eliminate such a vital and important service. Spending cuts are essential in frugal times such as the economic crisis that we are experiencing right now but, these cuts should be aimed at wastefful spending to unessential services. Services to children should not be jeapordized. This is NOT good government.
I too have worked in the sexual assault field albeit for a very short time comparatively speaking. I also work in the 8th poorest congressional district in the nation. That said, the poor are very vulnerable to abuse as my statistics will bear. Children of poor mothers are in my experience subjected to the most heinous of crimes because mom is unable or unwilling to stop their abuse.
Cutting services to this special population is a crime in itself. Everyone always says “children are our future” yet services/funding for children are usually the first ones to be cut. How can anyone say this and still contemplate cutting services?
Mayor, I beseech you to please think about what will happen to your city in the near future if these children are not helped. Surely there are other programs or services that could be curtailed so that this program is not so greatly impacted. Please for everyone’s sake, THINK about it.
Respectfully,
Rinne Olson RN, BSN, SANE-A, SANE-P
Mayor Gavin Newsom.
What is your purpose for cutting CASARC . Apparently you do not know what is important in the city of S.F Have you seen a child/person who has been traumatized by having been RAPED. Why don’t you follow in the footsteps of the nurses who ha ndle these children/adults, talke to the attorneys who handle the cases. It is definitely not a staff that should be cut. Where is the money going what is truly going to be done with the money.. Take a real ggod look at SF… Has there really been a noticiable improvement.. Now you want to have victims laying in the street or being shift to different departments with inexperienced people taking care of them. Disaster waiting to happen.
Anonymous - While I’m not directly involved here I am the one who posted the letter for my friend. Let me just say that Mayor Newsom may not even be aware of the situation so I suggest not placing any blame here. This post was to enlighten and bring attention to the Mayor and the general public. The blame game does not help anyone.
Dear Mayor Newsom, CASARC is medical program that our youth of San Fan ciscisco need. Our children incountering sexual abuse need the services only CASARC have the skills and experience to provide. Mr. Mayor please continue the city,s medical youth program for sexual abuse.
To all of you who have take the time to write to Mayor Newsom on behalf on CASARC, I am most appreciative. My collegues from the International Association of Forensic Nurses and others who have been the recipient of CASARC services have come forward to express their concerns. So many people are just unaware of how prevalent this crime against children is and getting the word out will help.
Thanks to all of you.
As a child abuse pediatrician and medical consultant to Contra Costa County’s Children’s Interview Center and SART(sexual assault response Team), I was dismayed by the proposed layoffs of experienced and skilled RN’s who have devoted their careers to the children in San Francisco
Carmen HenesyRN was our former SART coordinator and helped fashion a successful program in our county. The Bay Area always looked to Casarc as the first and best program to dealing with child sexual abuse.
Nurse examiners who can and will do forensic interviews and examinations of child victims are a truly rare commodity and should be nurtured and maintained rather than laid off.
The job is already stressful and prone to compassion fatigue when there is adequate staffing. What will happen to the program with 1/4 the staffing is predictable.
Please reconsider the gutting of Casarc. It is/was a program that San Francisco could be proud of.
Jim CarpenterMD, MPH
Contra Costa Health Services
Martinez, Ca.
I want to extend my support to those who expressed concerns regarding the proposed budget cuts involving CASARC. As a forensic nurse consultant in the State of Washington, I am well aware of the state of the art services provided by CASARC. I am especially disturbed by the proposed layoffs of pioneer nurse examiner/forensic interviewers such as Carmen Henesay, RN. While it is understood that many governments are currently faced with difficult decisions, it is most difficult to discern how the San Francisco/Bay Area could prioritize its economic decisions in this manner.
I firmly believe that if the government searches its soul and its coffers, the CASARC program will continue to flourish.
Thank you for your consideration of these comments.
Tascha Spears, Ph.D., RN, SANE-A
Forensic Nurse Consultant
Nighthawk, WA