The Royal, in partnership with the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, announced the launch of Prevention Global, an online resource hub that showcases seven programs from around the world that target child sexual abuse perpetration prevention.
Dr. Michael Seto, the director of the Forensic Mental Health Research Unit at the University of Ottawa Institute for Mental Health Research (IMHR) at The Royal and Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health are directors of Prevention Global.
Since 2021, Seto, Letourneau, and their team have been assessing over 40 high-potential perpetration prevention programs. After a systematic review, seven showed encouraging signs of effectiveness and potential for scale, translation, and adaptation. They include online, in-person, and youth- and adult-focused programs.
The hope is that rigorous evaluations of each, conducted in close collaboration with respective program developers, will inform policy, practice, and funding to support more effective efforts to prevent child sexual abuse worldwide.
One of the programs highlighted by Prevention Global is Talking for Change. Spearheaded by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and funded by Public Safety Canada, Talking for Change provides support and treatment through an anonymous helpline and free psychotherapy. The helpline and chat support are available to people of all ages across Canada, with psychotherapy available in most provinces and territories for adults over 18.
Dr. Ainslie Heasman is a clinical forensic psychologist at the Sexual Behaviours Clinic at CAMH in Toronto and is one of the founders of Talking for Change, the only Canadian program on Prevention Global’s list.
Heasman expressed immense pride in the program's recognition and hopes that it will increase visibility and awareness of a service that is couched in secrecy and silence.
“Stigma and shame are the most significant barriers that prevent people from asking for help,” says Heasman. “Reaching individuals who could use our services and our program has been one of the biggest challenges throughout our existence. How do we message, how do we reach, where do we reach the individuals who might need our services and are struggling but don't know where to turn?”
Research shows that one of the main reasons people don’t get help prior to an offence is that they simply don't know where to get help.
Between its launch in 2021 and May 2024, Talking Change has facilitated 582 conversations through its helpline with individuals who were concerned about their attractions and behaviour, or about somebody they knew. The majority of people who call the helpline are adults, but Heasman has observed an increase in the number of youth who have reached out for help. “They are recognizing that their age of interest is not growing up with them, as it is with their peers. Imagine how isolating and scary that can be as an adult; imagine being a teenager and trying to figure that out.”
The seven programs selected by the Prevention Global include:
- Prevent It – Karolinska Institutet
- ReDirection – Protect Children
- Responsible Behavior With Younger Children – Moore Center [external evaluation]
- Stop It Now! UK & Ireland – Lucy Faithful Foundation
- Talking For Change – Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
- Troubled Desire – Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
- What’s OK – Stop It Now! USA
Evaluations of all seven programs are to be completed in the coming 18 months, with results and lessons learned posted to the Prevention Global website and shared broadly.
While Seto is pleased to see perpetration prevention programs receive more attention as a comprehensive response to preventing child sexual abuse, he emphasizes the need for a truly global response.
It is estimated that one out of every twelve boys and one out of every five girls experience some form of child sexual exploitation or abuse. Recent research indicates only one in three child sexual abuse incidents are reported to a parent or trusted adult, and only one in five are reported to police[IG8] [AT9] .
While the team behind Prevention Global will be advocating governments to support the programs that show the best evidence of effectiveness, Seto says there needs to be an extra effort made to ensure findings are available to international audiences, including those in different economic and socio-political environments. Translation and cultural adaptation will be a key factor in making the information accessible and relevant to diverse communities around the world.
Seto stresses the importance of evidence and advocacy in engaging wider society to champion perpetration prevention efforts.
“There has been a huge increase in new interventions in the past decade, but the public, policymakers, and survivors and their advocates need to be sure that these interventions work,” says Seto. “We will be able to carry out high-quality evaluations to generate evidence that will support the growth of these programs and move us closer to the goal of eliminating child sexual abuse.”
Prevention Global is funded by a US$10.3 million investment by the Oak Foundation.
For more information about Prevention Global, go to prevention.global.