For example, children can use one of the center’s new light walls — boxes with multicolored rods or marbles that can be used to create pictures or patterns — as both a calming and creative activity.
This not only generates better results for law enforcement, it makes the ensuing forensic experience less stressful for the child, especially when that child has recently gone through a traumatic event or has special needs.
“A lot of kids who come in for forensic interviews, obviously they’re very nervous about the process and what to expect,” said Holbrook. “If you look around at the different items that are in (the sensory room), they’re all geared towards a therapeutic, calming environment, which kind of speaks to the work that we do here.”
One of many child advocacy centers across Ohio, Michael’s House advocates for and cares for children in Greene County who are victims of violent crime or have witnessed violent crime, such as domestic violence or sexual abuse. These kids may undergo forensic interviews, medical evaluation, mental health treatment, as well as receive victim advocacy as child abuse cases are investigated.
The center also has a mock courtroom that serves as a place for victim advocates to prepare children to testify in court, which children as young as four can be asked to do.
“When a child is in fight or flight...it is very difficult for a child to be able to answer questions, to hear — literally to hear — or to speak, or to remember correctly, when the brain is in that overdrive,“ said Greene County Commissioner Sarah Mays, herself a longtime foster parent. ”And so allowing a child a space to calm, to take a deep breath, to come out of that fight or flight mentality, it allows the brain to then hear the question, to be able to respond to the question."
The sensory room is the only one of its kind in the state, and represents a shift in the world of child advocacy and understanding children’s mental health, Holbrook said.
“20 years ago, we would say ‘they’re unruly’ or ‘they’re oppositional defiant,’ but there’s other factors that play into it. And the research and the promotion of these trauma-informed services for kids, I think, has really opened the community up to being more educated about...’what is trauma-informed practice?’” Holbrook said.
Michael’s House serves children as young as infants up to age 18, as well as individuals over 18 who have developmental or cognitive disabilities, Holbrook said.
“It speaks to our heart,” Mays said. “(Michael’s House) is something we’re proud of, but we’re proud of it because it shows that our county cares about the whole person. It cares about the family, it cares about the child...it’s for their safety. It’s to be loving, it’s all of these things that say ‘this is more than just county services.’”
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