Reed said advocates across Washington are working to inform and educate essential workers on how to spot and report child abuse. That includes grocery workers, mail delivery workers and garbage collectors. But Reed said the general public needs to play a bigger role in mandatory reporting than it traditionally does.
“It’s a matter of all of us being aware,” she said.
Advocacy centers in Washington, such as the Arthur D. Curtis Children’s Justice Center in downtown Vancouver, have seen a 50 to 80 percent decrease in the number of child abuse referrals, Reed said.
Those referrals, which come from Child Protective Services and law enforcement after a report is screened in, lead to forensic interviews as part of abuse investigation. Amy Russell, the executive director with the Children’s Justice Center, said forensic interviews for the Justice Center held steady for first three months of the year, but recent numbers indicate there might be a decrease in April.
In January, the Center had 36 forensic interviews. It had 30 forensic interviews in both February and March. Slightly past the halfway mark of April, the center has conducted 10 forensic interviews.
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