Experiences of Canadian mental health providers in identifying and responding to online and in-person sexual abuse and exploitation of their child and adolescent clients

Abstract

Background: Sex offenders often use the internet to communicate with children to facilitate in-person sexual abuse or to create and distribute sexual images of children. Mental healthcare providers are a major source of referrals to child welfare authorities and are well-positioned to identify sexual exploitation.

Objective: This study investigated the perceived ability of mental healthcare workers to recognize and respond to concerns about online and in-person sexual exploitation of their pediatric clients.

Participants and setting: The authors administered a cross-sectional survey to 209 mental healthcare providers within the public health system of Alberta, Canada.

Methods: The survey contained four sections related to sexual exploitation: two of which can take place online or in-person (grooming and sexual abuse) and two of which require the internet or a digital device (luring and sexual image distribution). Each section asked whether the mental healthcare provider had experience working with clients affected by these concerns, what barriers they encounter, how confident they are in their abilities and whether they have formal training in a topic.

Results: The vast majority of participants (83%) worked with a client impacted by grooming, luring, sexual abuse or sexual image distribution in the last year. Participants reported more training, more confidence and fewer barriers when identifying and responding to sexual abuse as compared to grooming, luring or sexual image distribution.

Conclusions: There is a need to improve mental health providers understanding of how technology is being utilized to exploit children, so that they can respond effectively to protect their clients.

Keywords: Child pornography; Grooming; Luring; Mental healthcare professionals; Online child abuse; Sexual abuse.