SafeCare Programmes

SafeCare is in the process of planning to extend its range of programs.

It currently provides an integrated program for all family members. The various family members participate in their own group and/or individual treatment program, followed by family reunification services when appropriate, including couple counselling, parent-child sessions and family counselling. The approach is positive, constructive and works with offenders in a voluntary and non-coercive way.

[ Adults ]      [ Children ]     [ Partners ]       [ Young People ]

SafeCare’s Adult Program is a 2 year program. Participants sign a contract giving them conditional confidentiality in exchange for strict child protection measures. After initial assessment and psychological testing, all child sex abuse offenders accepted for treatment at SafeCare are required to participate in 4 ten-week group treatment modules. Groups are usually held in the evenings for two hours once a week. The treatment modules are:

• Introductory Group,

• Childhood Issues,

• Victim Empathy, and

• Relapse Prevention and Positive Sexuality.

Such a treatment regime for intra-familial offenders is generally recognised as necessary by psychologists and criminologists throughout the world. However the emphasis of the 2^nd module is unique to the SafeCare program.

The second year of the program entails four assessments to assess the degree to which the changes made in the 12 month intensive group experience have continued to grow and be integrated into the life and self of the offender. The assessments also takes account of the degree of risk to children.

SafeCare has found group treatment to be particularly effective with child sexual offenders because it provides them with considerable social support and at the same time can be used as a means of strong challenge and confrontation. In our experience CSA offenders need both support and challenge if they are to fully acknowledge the impact of their sexual assaults and if they are to make the necessary changes to their attitudes and lifestyle to ensure that they do not re-offend. We supplement the group treatment with individual counselling according to the needs of each case.

Sex offenders have all sorts of cognitive distortions, lack of information, and false perceptions (for example “the child wanted it”). All these must be shifted, but not intellectually, but through genuine insight and empathy. This necessitates engaging with the material at an experiential and authentic level, not just at an intellectual level.  There is a need to deal with these cognitive distortions and misconceptions resulting from their own CSA and promote their own insight and emotional development. The group process allows them to see parts of themselves in other group participants in a way that allows increased insights and possibilities of change than individual work.

The group process is very transformative and allows greater honesty and reduction of a sense of secrecy and shame. Respect and acceptance of the person (not of the offending) allows the person to lose the stigma and shame that keeps them from growing and changing. It is through this process that the likelihood of re-offending is reduced.

Much earlier intervention into offending and more open and honest disclosure is possible in the context of treatment for the offender when fear of criminal convictions and penalties is absent. By offering help without the fear to families of the deterrent approach, the community gains the benefit of the earliest possible intervention and more open disclosure of the problem.

SafeCare also provides a treatment program for children under 12 years of age where a family member is in one of the other SafeCare programs. The program tends to be individual treatment in the form of play therapy and occasionally groups where there are sufficient numbers. The purpose is to provide healing of trauma, assessment of further risk, protective behaviours skills development as needed. SafeCare also see children prior to there being any agreement for the family to re-unify and also to monitor the family’s progress and the children’s response to this.

Providing support for all members of the family to work at their own issues helps the victim to recover in a secure and supportive environment. The issues faced by children who have been sexually abused are complex and different from child to child. However, we have learnt that the burden of guilt is usually significant. This can be increased if the offender is removed, the family breaks up, the police are involved or the offender goes to prison.  On the other hand it is eased where adult family members take responsibility for their problems and can receive positive help.

A Partners' Group for partners of offenders also runs for 10 weeks and provides support and information regarding child protection issues. Partners and children also receive one to one counselling as needed and there is also a group for adolescents when numbers are sufficient.

SafeCare considers this a very important part of the work of the organisation. The women are given the opportunity for support and counselling for the many effects on their lives of their partner's actions. The women often become more able to be there as a support for their children, when their own issues are validated and listened to. In helping the partners deal with their own feelings and difficult decisions, they are also being equipped to see to the needs of their children those who have experienced abuse and those who have witnessed its effects.

SafeCare does not take a stand on whether or not the women should remain with their offending partner in the long term, but we do make child protection our first priority, and work with the partners in areas of supervision and child protection strategies. The partners are empowered to make good decisions for themselves and their families, which they are more likely to carry out than decisions being forced upon them. Members of the family are able to be included in programs at SafeCare whether or not they remain united as a family or have any future contact.

In operation since 1998, the SafeCare Young People's Programme (SYPP) offers a service to the whole family where an adolescent has been sexually abused by a family member and/or where an adolescent has engaged in sexually harmful and inappropriate behaviour within the family network. SYPP provides a counselling and treatment service which recognises the needs of all family members while maintaining child protection as its priority. The service provides an integrated program for all family members, whereby the various family members participate in their own group and or individual treatment program together with family reunification services when required, including couple counselling, parent‑child sessions and family counselling.

Initially the adolescent and wherever possible, at least one parent or caregiver of the adolescent attend. The needs of the various members of the family are assessed and a treatment plan devised. The plan prioritises the treatment required by family members; for example suicidal clients are attended to before beginning therapeutic work with other family members. Measures to protect children from further abuse are also addressed in the initial session. Furthermore, to ensure the needs of all are addressed, SYPP has separate case-management streams for victims, parents and offenders.

For the adolescent offender a thorough assessment is first undertaken. Adolescent clients are seen in individual counselling and where possible group therapy. Groups are seen to form an important adjunct, not substitute for individual therapy. Separate groups may be provided for victims, offenders and potential offenders following individual assessments to ascertain an individual's suitability for inclusion. Groups provide a means to break the feelings of isolation and provide a sense of community from which the adolescent can reach out to the wider community. They also provide a normalising experience and an opportunity for young people to test out their own reality and feelings with other young people and with therapists. For adolescent offenders, groups provide a safe, supportive, yet challenging atmosphere in which they can examine the difficult personal issues they share.

In addition to working directly with victims and offenders it is considered crucial to support and educate parents. This support is seen as necessary not only in terms of the benefits to the victim and offender but also to process parents own issues and reactions. Different aspects of the SYPP utilise different therapeutic models, all of which are grounded in recognised theory, research and practice. The work done with young people may incorporate cognitive behavioural strategies, but also includes non-verbal techniques such as art therapy to allow the expression and integration of emotions. A psycho-educational approach is also used in some aspects of treatment. For young victims psycho-dynamic play therapy is often used, together with work on protective behaviours, identifying feelings and exploring a number of ways to express feelings as well as developing cognitive strategies to deal with flashbacks.

Parent-child sessions are also included where possible as a means of discussing the effects of and commonly observed behaviours of child sexual abuse, exploring the family's boundaries and "natural" protective behaviours, fostering positive communication and attachment. With younger clients, parents may join in play therapy sessions that can help them to learn new ways of relating to their children. Family sessions use a Family Systems Model to understand and intervene in family dynamics.