Article Summary
Arteaga, S., and Lamb, Y. Winter 2008.
Expert review of key findings on children exposed to violence and their families from the
Safe Start Demonstration Project. Best Practices in Mental Health 4(1):99–107.
http://lyceumbooks.com/MentalHJournal.htm.
This article addresses the review of the Safe Start Demonstration Project by two experts in the field, Dr. Ernest Jouriles and Betsy McAlister Groves. They were asked to submit their thoughts on eight key factors associated with children exposed to violence: (1) an infrastructure for a system of care for these children, (2) the need for a continuum of services or multiple entry points to the system of care, (3) the role of law enforcement, (4) crisis intervention, (5) the challenges of data collection, (6) different measurement tools, (7) sustaining the infrastructure for a system of care, and (8) areas of special interest for future practices and study. A special emphasis was placed on the importance of law enforcement because police officers play a key role in identifying these children. The authors also stress the importance of meeting the basic needs of victims and their families (i.e., for food and shelter) before mental health treatment begins. They conclude that that the findings point to a strong need for further research in the area.
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