COOPERSTOWN -- What social workers call "the worst of the worst" cases of child abuse and neglect in Otsego County are funneled to the Child Advocacy Center at the Otsego Meadows office complex.
It is there where children are listed in reports as victims of sexual molestation and severe physical abuse tell their stories to specially trained interviewers.
The number of children seen at the Advocacy Center has risen dramatically since 2008, when statistics began to be gathered. Then, 57 youngsters and toddlers passed through the doors. By last year, the number of children who were the focus of assault or mistreatment investigations grew to 108.
"In three years, we've almost doubled the number of kids we have seen," said Stacy Skog, coordinator of the Child Advocacy Center, a state-funded program overseen by District Attorney John Muehl.
Representatives of police agencies, the district attorney's office, victims advocates and child protective supervisors and caseworkers from the Otsego County Department of Social Services work together at the Advocacy Center to make sure children are comfortable. They want the children to be convinced they are in safe hands when it's time for them to be interviewed, Skog said.
Before the Advocacy Center
Before the program came into existence in 2006, children were often interviewed numerous times about the same traumatic events. As days and weeks passed, the child's story would often become less detailed.
By trying to minimize the number of interviews, the center spares the child from having to recall the same excruciating memories repeatedly, officials said.
"You want to do the interview as soon as possible, and you want to do it one time so the child doesn't have to do keep telling their stories over and over again and reliving the trauma," Muehl said at the Advocacy Center.
Skog and other county officials said the reporting of child abuse has been on the rise for a variety of reasons. But perhaps the most significant reason is that society has become more aware of the need for immediate intervention when signs of child neglect or abuse are spotted.
"A lot more people are aware of what is going on, so the reporting has gotten better," Skog said. "People are no longer looking at this as something that needs to stay within a family. People are recognizing that child abuse has extremely long-term effects on the children."
The interview process
Members of the team receive specialized instruction on how to interview the children without upsetting them.
"You don't want to upset them, but it's also about asking non-leading questions and not putting words in the child's mouth," Muehl said. "You don't want to suggest to the child what happened."
The interview room is stocked with toys, dolls and children's furniture. A child interviewed by a caseworker would not be able to notice the camera recording the session. Through the close circuit television hookup, the interviews can be observed from outside the room by a police investigator, victim's advocate or social worker who could suggest questions to the caseworker speaking to the child.
"We try to keep the atmosphere as relaxed as possible," Skog said.
The front line of protection for children in Otsego County is the child protective services unit of the county's Department of Social Services. The unit's eight full-time and one part-time caseworkers and their supervisors are responsible for fielding reports of abuse and neglect that flow through the statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment, also known as the hot line.
Abuse reports on rise in county
The number of children who are the subject of hot line reports each year has also risen steadily in Otsego County, according to records made available by Social Services Deputy Commissioner Eve Bouboulis and Child Protective Services Supervisor Amy Herr.
In 2007, the number of abuse and neglect cases assigned to Otsego County was 782. By 2011, the number would grow to 982.
Many of the reports, after investigation, are determined to be unfounded. But all still must be evaluated, they said.
The rise in abuse reporting has resulted in caseworkers shouldering more work. The average number of open cases being handled by each county caseworker at any given time is 20, Herr and Bouboulis said. It's a less-than-ideal situation, they said, because the state recommends the maximum caseload be kept to about 15 per caseworker.
Supervisors try to make sure the most challenging and time-consuming cases are spread out, Bouboulis said.
Because of the nature of the painful situations, the caseworkers are regularly observed by supervisors to make sure they are not experiencing "vicarious trauma" -- a potential consequence of involvement with children facing serious ordeals, Bouboulis said.
"We try not to set people up for that kind of trauma," she said. "Some people have an unusual capacity for (dealing with upsetting cases) and others struggle with it."
Otsego County keeps two caseworkers on call whenever the office is closed. And whenever they report to work, caseworkers arrive knowing that their schedules and priorities for tackling cases can suddenly be re-ordered based on events beyond their control.
"You can have the best laid plans for the day, and then the phone rings," Herr said. "They're here for the safety of the kids, and they're all willing to alter their personal lives in a way that deals with the situation."
Bouboulis said the caseworkers are individuals motivated with the knowledge that they are part of the safety net for vulnerable children.
"We have a good group," she said, "and they do it well."
