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April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. We teach children simple safety rules about sharp objects, hot stoves, and bike helmets; why not teach them safety about protecting themselves from sexual abuse? In 2011, President Obama signed the federal version of Erin's Law, which would require children be taught about sexual abuse, and granted funding for the bill to be implemented across America. The funds will be made available to schools in the 2018–2019 school year.
With states enacting Erin’s Law one by one, Social Work Today looks into what the preparation and rollout looks like around the country. Check it out in this month’s E-News Exclusive.
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— Marianne Mallon, editor |
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Implementing Erin’s Law
By Sue Coyle, MSW
Protecting children from sexual abuse is an unfortunate but agreed-upon edict. However, too often that protection takes the form of shielding—shielding youth from information about their bodies, safety, and what exactly sexual abuse is. That lack of education can be, and often is, dangerous.
“When I was a child, I was taught tornado, bus, and fire drills; stranger danger; and the eight ways to say ‘no’ to drugs through D.A.R.E.,” says Erin Merryn, founder of Erin’s Law, who was a victim of sexual abuse starting at the age of 6. “But where were the eight ways of how to get away and tell? The only thing I was taught on personal body safety was from my abusers and that was to keep it [the abuse] a secret.
“I was safer talking to the man at the bus stop walking by with his dog that I didn’t know than with the people in my life who abused me: a neighbor and a family member,” she says.
After revealing the abuse, Merryn sought healing, in part through advocacy. She wrote to legislators in her home state of Illinois and worked to get a law passed that would require children be taught about sexual abuse. It came to be known as Erin’s Law.
Full Story » |
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Social Work in a Post-Election Nation —
Facing Challenges, Encouraging Hope
A new administration could mean changes in policy and programs that will affect social workers and the populations they serve. How can social workers move forward in what may be an unfriendly environment? Read more »
Teaching With Technology in Social Work Education
Social work professors recognize the need for technology to be a mainstay in the classroom. Read more » |
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How Artificial Intelligence Will Save Lives in the 21st Century
A groundbreaking project led by a Florida State University (FSU) researcher makes an exponential advance in suicide prediction, potentially giving clinicians the ability to predict who will attempt suicide up to two years in advance with 80% accuracy.
FSU psychology researcher Jessica Ribeiro, PhD, feels an urgency to confront this relentless problem. Shadowing her research is the ever-present awareness that 120 Americans take their lives every day, nearly 45,000 a year.
Ribeiro’s paper, “Predicting Risk of Suicide Attempts Over Time Through Machine Learning,” will be published by the journal Clinical Psychological Science.
The study offers a fascinating finding: machine learning—a future frontier for artificial intelligence—can predict with 80% to 90% accuracy whether someone will attempt suicide as far off as two years into the future. The algorithms become even more accurate as a person’s suicide attempt gets closer. For example, the accuracy climbs to 92% one week before a suicide attempt when artificial intelligence focuses on general hospital patients.
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Young Adult Social Media Heavy Users Report Social Isolation
According to NPR, a new study finds increased social isolation among young adults who report heavy use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram.
Therapists Challenged by Clients Overwhelmed With Political Controversy
L.A. Times reports therapists seeing more clients on both sides of the political spectrum who are anxious and concerned about the contentious nature of the country’s political climate.
Surgeons Challenged Managing Pain of Previously Opioid Dependent Patients
Accordingly to NPR, surgeons treating patients formerly dependent on opioids fear them becoming addicted again, and are seeking help from addiction specialists, but specialists are in short supply. |
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