Family Advocacy hosts Child Maltreatment Conference

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman David Dobrydney
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  The 48th Fighter Wing Family Advocacy office began a three-day conference on child maltreatment August 10 at the Eagles Landing Officer's Club.

"The goal of the conference is to raise awareness of child abuse and improve handling of child abuse cases," said Virginia Bulleman, Family Advocacy program assistant.

Topics to be discussed at the conference include parental neglect, sexual abuse and self-injurious behavior.

Amanda Clark-Andrejkovics, Family Advocacy treatment manager, said the last conference was held in 2006.

"This is basically a refresher since we have had people leave and new people come in since then," said Ms. Clark-Andrejkovics.

Because of the need for American and British authorities to work in tandem on some abuse cases, child protection workers from the local British community were in attendance in addition to the military members and Department of Defense civilians.

"We want them to see how the Americans do it because it's quite different," said Marie Moore, Family Advocacy outreach manager.

One of the British specialists Ms. Moore invited is Shanna Nunn, a transitional worker at the Children's Center in Newmarket who came to gather information on child maltreatment from the American perspective.

"It's good to have those links to the American community," said Ms. Nunn.

Coming from even farther away were three specialists from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

"Our mission is to provide objective child maltreatment expertise when and where it's needed throughout the Department of Defense," said Dr. Barbara Craig, founder and director of the Armed Forces Center for Child Protection in Bethesda.

Col. Rebecca Brown, 48th Medical Operations Squadron commander, welcomed the gathered medical, security and child protection personnel.

"We're thrilled to host this conference for the second time and to have such leading experts attending," said Colonel Brown. "I challenge each and every one of you to take what you learn here and make our community safer, happier and ultimately more productive to our mission to fly, fight and win."