Modern Times

Jan GreenRiver

Director of Prevention & Programs

Mental Health America of Licking County

Summer time is the time when children are often running free – free from the boundaries of the classroom, free from the chains of homework, free from the confines of home…but are they ever free from the possibility of abuse? In 2008, we are painfully aware that things have changed over the years & children are not free to roam their neighborhoods from dawn to dusk they way they used to. I remember riding bikes all over Heath as a pre-teen/teen or walking to the pool & spending the entire day there. My parents did not need to worry about my well-being the way I worry about my children today.

When I began working for Mental Health America, I began as a CAPP presenter – the Child Abuse Prevention Program. For years we have been trying to help children stay safe in our community. Many times at trainings, conferences, etc., we are asked how long have we been doing the work that we do. While I have only been doing this work professionally for a few short years, I say that I have been working in this field for nearly 20 years – since I became pregnant for the first time. Aside from all the physical & medical prenatal care of my child, I realized that the world this baby would enter was not as friendly as the one I had grown up in. I could do all in my power to give him a safe birth, a safe home, but what happens outside all that?

Now as a professional in the world of mental health promotion and abuse prevention, after going to numerous classrooms to talk with our young ones about personal safety, it’s clear how much more is needed to protect our children.