MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: December 4, 2014
An independent agency staffed by health professionals was hired to field the sensitive calls.
A new clergy abuse hot line staffed by mental health professionals from a Twin Cities nonprofit was announced Thursday by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
The archdiocese partnered with Canvas Health to staff the 24-hour line, assess callers and refer them to appropriate services. It’s the first time an independent agency has been hired to handle these sensitive calls.
Until now, archdiocese staffers would field such calls and make the first contacts with victims, a process victims’ advocates say often resulted in abuse reports being discounted or stifled.
“We’re not sure how many people have not called because there wasn’t an independent option,” Tim O’Malley, the archdiocese’s director of ministerial standards and safe environment, said Thursday. “And we haven’t had the expertise that Canvas brings.”
The archdiocese has had a victims’ assistance program since 1992. However, it hasn’t been able to identify how many new victims have called the program in recent years, in part because call statistics may include duplicate calls by the same person, church officials said.
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