THUNDER BAY – More than 15 years ago, Sheldon Kennedy turned the hockey world on its head when he led a lawsuit against his minor hockey coach Graham James.
Now the former NHLer is leading another revolution, one against the way sexual assault victims are treated and he shared this message in Thunder Bay Wednesday evening.
The Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre in Calgary, Alberta is more than just another stop along the way for victims of childhood traumas.
Over the past five years, it has revolutionized the way children are being treated, by implementing something Kennedy calls integrated policy.
It's a legislative change that means representatives from the health sector, child and family sector, city police, RCMP, indigenous police, crown prosecutors office, and therapy professionals, not only share office space, but also information.
The result is a system that reduces post-incident trauma.
“Most of the time you got to drive across town and tell your story over here now, and now you have got to cross town and tell your story over here, and now you’ve got to wait three months and tell your story over here,” Kennedy said.
“It’s just re-victimization after re-victimization.”
Creating a common location for victims of childhood trauma does more than just reduce trauma.
It has lowered psychology wait times by seven months, cut wait times for social pediatric doctors by 50 per cent and saved more than half a million dollars for children abuse investigation teams.
Though there are already some systems in place to encourage cooperation between agencies in Thunder Bay, a centralized location offering all of these services would be invaluable.
Thunder Bay and Area Victim Services executive director Renee Monsma believes improvements need to be made regarding access to services for clients.
“That’s really what it’s about, serving the clients. Really meeting the needs, and helping them recover, and helping them to improve their well-being, and help their recovery and allowing them to move on and live healthy lives.”
Kennedy hopes legislation allowing this kind of cooperation will be integrated across the country to improve trauma treatment.
(TBT News)
