Child Advocacy Center (J.E. and Z.B. Butler)
The J.E. and Z.B. Butler Child Advocacy Center, the only nationally certified, medically based Child Advocacy Center in the New York metropolitan area, offers medical and counseling services that are among the best treatment options available to children. The Butler Child Advocacy Center, which can be reached by calling 718-920-5833, is heralded as a national model because we focus on the child and family. We utilize a medical and social service based technique and a multi-disciplinary approach in the evaluation and treatment of child abuse and neglect, maintaining our own counseling center, and seeing any child if there is any suspicion of neglect or abuse.
Clinical, Counseling and Follow Up Services
The Butler Child Advocacy Center team has vast knowledge and expertise in the field of child abuse and neglect detection, medical treatment and therapeutic interventions. They conduct medical evaluations and provide treatment to physically and sexually abused children, offer second opinions to other medical providers, and are available for court testimony. Working closely with families, our team provides non-threatening, culturally sensitive, and supportive crisis services.
Clinical services provided to each child include:
- A full psychosocial assessment and family history.
- A comprehensive medical exam, which may include colposcopy (visual examination of the genital area), blood tests, and cultures. If abuse is indicated, photographs of the evidence of are taken.
- Interviews with the child's parent/guardian for a comprehensive family history, which includes: current marital status, sibling status, household composition, substance abuse issues, financial status, domestic violence screening, vocational history, etc.
- A full review of all findings and recommendations as to the treatment, child protective services, legal intervention, and follow-up and referral services needed.
- When appropriate, Special Victims Unit of NYPD, Administration for Children's Services and the Bronx District Attorney's office come to the Butler Child Advocacy Center to work as a multi-disciplinary team with the Center.
Counseling Services provide secondary care for victims and their families, which remains a vital element in the healing process. A psychologist provides therapy sessions for individual children and their families and facilitates groups with other staff. A Clinical Social Worker provides counseling services and works with the psychologist to assess the specific counseling needs of our clients.
Support for teen mothers is available through our Parent Empowerment Program. Created in 1997, this program engages young mothers in a six-month community-based parenting group with a special focus on accessing medical services and building a strong social support system. An important volunteer effort known as the Harriet Feinman Child Protection Project accomplishes effective follow-up of patients and their families. Trained volunteers track children who have been treated by at the Butler Child Advocacy Center to confirm they have received necessary social services and offer a connection to the family in case there is further need for help. Through more than 14,000 follow-up phone calls to agencies and families, the volunteers annually track 3,400 cases.
The Butler Child Advocacy Center provides victims with guidance, information, and assistance in filing claim forms and affidavits regarding compensation from the New York State Crime Victims Board. New York State Crime Victims Compensation, funded by the federal Victims of Crime Act, provides victims of crime, including children who are evaluated at the Butler Child Advocacy Center for sexual and physical abuse, benefits for medical and therapy expenses.
An innovative collaboration project with the New York City Social Work Education Consortium, and the Administration for Children's Services places social work graduate students interns from Columbia, NYU, Hunter, Fordham, and Yeshiva at the Center to receive training. Residents and internsfrom Albert Einstein College of Medicine are trained one-on-one by Butler Child Advocacy Center medical staff to recognize signs of abuse and neglect among their patients in their future practice.
The Butler Child Advocacy Center staff regularly visits schools, hospitals, faith-based organizations and community agencies to discuss abuse and neglect prevention. Lectures and workshops on child protection issues are tailored for specific audiences. Personal safety classes that include “Good touch - Bad touch - Secret touch” lessons are provided to elementary school students, and supportive instruction is provided to teachers, parents association and counselors.
Research
The Butler Child Advocacy Center is dedicated to enhancing and expanding the understanding of child abuse and best medical and services practices. A Center for Disease Control study is evaluating new, sensitive, and less invasive techniques to assess sexually transmitted diseases (STD) in children who are examined for sexual abuse. The results of this research will likely promote and validate the use of improved standards for the diagnosis of STDÂ’s in children and may lead to making minimally invasive procedures available to children who are already traumatized by abuse.
Research analyzing current literature on child abuse/child sexual assault and the impact of physical impairment, developmental disabilities, perceptual restrictions and autistic spectrum disorders has been developed into an online manual accessible on this webpage. Information gathered through interviews, focus groups and close working relationships with professionals-from services providers and experts in medical disabilities and disorders research, criminal and family justice, law enforcement and child abuse-yielded a comprehensive plan for appropriate outreach and services.
Child abuse and domestic violence occurrs in approoximately 60 percent of the cases of families using the Butler Child Advocacy CenterÂ’s services. Based on this information, the Center was able to fully establish a domestic violence screening as part of its protocol for evaluating and helping families at risk.
Administrative Staff:
Karel R. Amaranth, MA - Executive Director
Linda T. Cahill, MD - Medical Director
Carol Perlman, LCSW - Coordinator of Social Work Services
Michele Wittner Kaufman, Psy.D - Coordinator of Mental Health Services
Ina Mendez, LCSW - Coordinator of the Parent Empowerment Program
Lois Pearlman - Adminstrative Supervisor
Denise July, BA - Accountant
JE and ZB Butler Child Advocacy Center (clinical child abuse evaluations)
3314 Steuben Avenue
Bronx, NY 01467
Child Advocacy Center Prevention Services (mental health services and parenting programs)
3380 Reservoir Oval
Bronx, NY 10467
