Courthouse Dogs in Santiago, Chile
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Courthouse Dogs in Santiago, Chile - by Ellen O'Neill-Stephens “Can you come to Chile?” wrote Cecilia Marre, the director of service dog organization Bocalan, Confiar. http://www.bocalanconfiar.cl/. “We are giving a course to veterinarian students at the Universidad Mayor about assistance dogs helping physically disabled children and we would also introduce the concept of courthouse dogs to them.”
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Cecilia Marre, Oliver, Isard, May Rivera, Julio Vásquez, Andrea Pais<, Peseta, Alejandra Santelices
Absolutely, I thought and immediately called Celeste about this proposal. We had met Cecilia at an Assistance Dog International Conference several months earlier and she had expressed interest in our program, but we never imagined that our presentation would result in an invitation to her country. Yes, we could definitely go to Chile.
http://www.courthousedogs.com/santiago.html[21-12-2009 14:43:49]
Courthouse Dogs in Santiago, Chile
Class at Universidad Mayor
Being back at college was fun and the students were fantastic. In Chile, many veterinarian students become certified dog handlers that assist physical therapists. The use of the term “therapy dog” in Latin America and Europe has an entirely meaning than the American definition. With the handler acting as a facilitator, these dogs seamlessly work off leash with a physical therapist and do such things as retrieve an item thrown by the child and put it in a toy box or patiently sit in front of a bowl of dog kibble while the child painstakingly dips a spoon into the bowl to collect the food, bring the food to the dog’s mouth and then hold the spoon while the dog delicately eats from it. However our trip to Chile may have had an even greater impact than teaching the students how courthouse dogs emotionally assist children. Cecilia also made arrangements for us to meet with PDI - Policia de Investigaciones de Chile (Family Crime Investigations Unit) and Servicio Nacional de Menores (SENAME) of the Ministry of Justice of Chile - Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Organization to find out if they would be interested in implementing a courthouse dog program. An adversarial criminal justice system is very new to Chile and has only been operating in that manner for a few years. It has been modeled on the US system and Chileans feel very passionate about making this system successful in their country. The major difference between our systems is that there are no jury trials in Chile, a panel of three judges listens to the evidence and make the decision of guilt or innocence. Ellen talks to Policia about child abuse investigations
Not only were the police, forensic interviewers, a family court judge and therapeutic counselors interested in the use of courthouse dogs to assist children through a sexual abuse investigation and prosecution they were also very interested in reexamining their procedures in which children are interviewed by different individuals several times over a period of several months before a case goes to trial. In the USA we have tried to only interview the child one time. Meetings to discuss this practice were scheduled for the week after our departure.
http://www.courthousedogs.com/santiago.html[21-12-2009 14:43:49]
Courthouse Dogs in Santiago, Chile Chile is a beautiful country and the people are delightful, progressive and open-minded. Who would have thought that assistance dogs could possibly have such an impact on the way child sexual abuse cases are investigated in another country.
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http://www.courthousedogs.com/santiago.html[21-12-2009 14:43:49]
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