The public debate now occurring in this country regarding guns and violence in our culture ignores the effects on children who witness such violence. We must do everything in our power to help children recover from the adverse effects of witnessing violence so the negative results will not scar our children and their futures. The expansion of this program will greatly help our children. It is a trauma that is never forgotten. The best we can do after the fact is to build up that side of the child s experience that is positive, which is based on caring for the child.
Unresolved violence leads to the acting out of future agony.
We choose instead to confront it. More than 1,000 children have received special mental health intervention since the program began less than a year ago, said Dr. Lolita McDavid, executive committee member and medical director of child advocacy and protection at Rainbow Babies and Children s Hospital. Hopefully the victim will see that they can break the chain of violence by accepting help. The statewide training to be held in April and May will lay the foundation to expand the successful Cuyahoga County program to six additional sites around Ohio. Attorney General Montgomery will be committing future funding to support the statewide expansion of the program.