What if I suspect my child has been abused during day care?
Depending on where you are in the country, there's a number of different places you can go. Most of the police departments will work with an organization called the Child Protective Services. However, the very first thing you would want to do is open up a file to investigate whether or not your child has been abused. The police department in all cities will have referrals for psychological counselling to deal with children who have been abused. Your local children's hospitals will have referrals for that. Even many of the major churches will have a psychologist or a psychiatrist who has worked with crisis situations with children. So, you need to have your child interviewed by a professional. Often times, you won't get the information out of your own child. You can't just say what happened to you, as they don't want to talk about it. It's usually a situation where a professional who really understands talking to children that's going to use a lot of play therapy to discuss with them what might have happened or where they might have been touched or what happened during the day care facility experience. You need somebody who has credentials to do that. So, I would start with the local police department. I would say that I believe my child has been abused, and then they will open up a case file or refer you to the local Child Protective Services. That's where you'll start getting all of your referrals for medical examinations and for any type of physical examinations. All child abuse cases are going to take an assessment by a number of professionals. They take an assessment from a medical doctor, a psychologist, and the district attorney. So the child is going to be re-traumatized when you're investigating it and it's a difficult process for kids to go through.
