Legacy expands pediatric help

Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center announced Friday a 3,450-square-foot expansion of its pediatric center that will be built into an unused part of the medical office building. The pediatric facility will house outpatient pediatric rehabilitation and the Child Abuse Assessment Team.

“Some areas in that building are unfinished, and one of those spaces is where pediatric rehab would go,” said Brian Willoughby, hospital spokesman.

Pediatric rehabilitation sees about 500 children every week, not including children seen by the Child Abuse Assessment Team. With the expansion, pediatric rehabilitation would be able to see 200 more children and provide services not currently offered, Willoughby said. Currently, the pediatric center is 6,400 square feet.

The announcement was made during a fundraising luncheon for the Child Abuse Assessment Team at the Hilton Vancouver Washington, where the KMR Group Foundation pledged $250,000 to help construct the pediatric center. This is the largest gift the Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center has ever received and would cover most of the cost of the expansion, which is estimated at $350,000, Willoughby said.

Over the years, the Child Abuse Assessment Team has seen a growing number of referrals for children, from infants to 18-year-olds, who’ve experienced any kind of abuse or neglect. Most of the children are referred to the clinic through hospital emergency departments, the foster care system or the Arthur D. Curtis Children’s Justice Center.

Last year, CAAT saw 352 referrals, or an average of about 29 referrals monthly. This year, they’ve gotten about 33 referrals each month.

“Frankly, it’s a program we hope to get to zero,” said Bryce Helgerson, the hospital’s chief administrative officer.

However, CAAT anticipates serving a record number of children by the end of this year. Dr. Kim Copeland consults on child abuse cases from Skamania and Klickitat counties, in addition to Clark. The team also expanded its services to Cowlitz County in the last year.

As head of the Child Abuse Assessment Team at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center, Copeland’s job is a heartbreaking one. She performs exams on children who’ve been sexually or physically abused, and listens to their stories and fears. The abuse is wide-ranging, Copeland said. She’s seen children who’ve experienced educational, dental and nutritional neglect, among other lesser-known forms of abuse.

One time, a 7-year-old girl told Copeland she was worried she was pregnant.

“It’s amazing how many kids come in with preconceived notions that something is wrong with their bodies,” Copeland said. “You can’t know for sure until you ask them.”

Private horrors

First responders are often the first reporters of child abuse, making Sept. 11 a fitting date for the luncheon. Keynote speaker Digene Farrar called for a moment of silence for those who died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. She, after all, could have easily been one of those victims. That morning, Digene was getting ready for her day in her New York City high-rise, when she felt the building shake from the concussion of the first plane crashing.

“I could see the gaping hole in the World Trade Center,” Farrar said.

A registered nurse, she rushed to the building and told a police officer that she could help. When he turned to respond to her, the second plane hit the building. Witnessing such a traumatic event reignited personal trauma that Farrar had kept buried: years of childhood sexual and physical abuse.

People constantly asked her about what really happened that day, making her think about how that trauma had been so public — whereas her own horrors had been private. When she was a child, there were no mandatory child-abuse reporting requirements for professionals like doctors and police.

“This was in the ’60s, ’70s. We were heading that direction, but we just didn’t have those laws,” said Farrar, who’s 59 years old. “Thank goodness we have that now.”

She was considered a 9/11 first responder and entered treatment for post traumatic stress disorder, which led her to seek treatment for traumas still lingering from childhood.

“Therapy and everything helped me connect the dots,” she said. The healing process led her to write a book about her experiences, “Not My Secret to Keep.”

While Farrar turned out fine — she’s an author, model and registered nurse — she wonders how a program like the Child Abuse Assessment Team could have improved her childhood. Abused children are more likely to end up in the criminal justice system, and experience problems with trust, anxiety and shame.

The most important part of building an abused child’s resiliency is intervention, Farrar said.