| LAC + USC VIOLENCE INTERVENTION PROGRAM |
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PROGRAM
BACKGROUND
The
LAC+USC Violence Intervention Program grew out of what was originally
known as the LAC+USC Center for the Vulnerable Child (CVC).
Under the leadership of Dr. Astrid Heger, the CVC was founded in
1984 and modeled as a “Center of Excellence” for the evaluation and
treatment of child abuse victims and their families.
As component of the Violence Intervention Program, the CVC
continues to be the largest multidisciplinary child abuse center of its
kind in the State of California.
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The CVC expanded and was renamed the LAC+USC Violence Intervention Program (VIP) in 1995.
The VIP is built upon the success of the Center for the
Vulnerable Child. Services
now include comprehensive medical help and mental health treatment of
domestic violence, sexual assault, elder abuse and adolescent violence.
The heightened awareness of the impact of domestic violence and a
long-standing need for available and appropriate evaluations of sexual
assault cases prompted the addition of these services.
Services are available seven days a week and are staffed by
medical personnel trained to provide appropriate diagnosis and
treatment. Assessments are
done in cooperation with social, legal and mental health services.
The program relies on these disciplines as well as community
resources and shelters to guarantee the highest quality medical
interventions. When medical
evaluations are combined with a multidisciplinary intervention plan, the
rights of victims, their families and the accused are protected.
The Violence Intervention Program is now considered a model
Family Advocacy Center, the first of its kind in the nation.
The VIP mission statement summarizes its goal: “Intervening
to protect and treat all victims of violence.”
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CURRENT
SERVICES
The Center for the
Vulnerable Child (CVC) has a long-standing reputation as a
multidisciplinary child abuse center.
The CVC provides round-the-clock expert, comprehensive treatment
that includes emergency medical care, medical and mental health
follow-up and forensic documentation of abuse.
Over 1600 children are evaluated each year for possible sexual
abuse and an additional 400 for physical abuse and/or neglect. Children and their families are referred by physicians,
social services and the legal system or may seek care on their own. The CVC works closely with the social and legal system to
guarantee victim-sensitive services and to guarantee appropriate,
conservative evaluations, which protect the victim, the family, and the
social and legal systems. The
CVC provides medical treatment, social services and mental health
services to every child and their family regardless of language or
financial status.
The Sexual Assault
Center (SAC) currently focuses on the delivery of multidisciplinary
emergency medical treatment, forensic documentation of abuse, advocate
crisis intervention, referral to emotional counseling and long-term
medical and mental health follow-up for all victims of sexual assault. The SAC evaluates 60 cases of acute adult or adolescent
sexual assault each month. This
program works in conjunction with AVANCE, the East Los Angeles rape and
battering hotline, to guarantee advocacy for every victim of sexual
assault. |
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Domestic Violence Center (DVC) provides services to women and
children where domestic violence has been identified.
Services include emergency medical care, crisis intervention,
on-site individual and group counseling, referrals to social service
agencies, medical outreach to shelters and training of medical personnel
in the proper protocol for suspected cases of domestic violence.
The program provides individual and group counseling in Spanish
and English to 100 women and children for eight and twelve week
sessions, totaling approximately 3900 individual mental health visit
each year. Most recently,
the United States Department of Justice has funded a planning grant to
establish the first hospital-based domestic violence shelter in the
United States. This shelter
will provide victims and their families with a safe, secure place where
social workers and medical professionals can assist with risk assessment
and safety planning. |
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The Mental Health Center
provides a broad range of bilingual and multicultural mental health
services to the patients served by the VIP.
The program currently provides crisis intervention; clinical
assessment of children, adults and families; and individual and group
treatment. Complete
psychological assessment services are also available.
A team of clinicians provides parallel treatment groups to
mothers and their children for both domestic violence and for children
who have been sexually abused. Other
specialty treatment groups include adult sexual assault, adolescent
sexual assault, parent training and peer mediated support. |
THE FUTURE
The
Center for Violence Prevention and Policy is an interdisciplinary
University of Southern California initiative that will coordinate the
development of policy, programs and curricula to change the levels of
family and community violence. These
services will evolve into a full-service community program, which will
provide primary violence prevention to children in the schools and
crisis interventions to families in need of mental health services.
The LAC+USC Violence Intervention Program is in the process of
examining the issues of elder
abuse and adolescent violence.
Currently, the VIP is working to identify and expand the services
to be provided to these victims of violence. |
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