Study will assess whether therapy to help victims of sex abuse is helpful (From The Northern Echo)
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Study will assess whether therapy to help victims of sex abuse is helpful
11:40am Wednesday 13th March 2013 in News
By Barry Nelson, Health Editor
RESEARCHERS at a North-East university are to assess the effectiveness of a therapeutic service set up to help young people affected by sexual abuse.
The new study, by Durham and Bristol universities, will involve one of the largest randomised trials of this type of therapy to have been undertaken in the world.
The three-and-a-half-year NSPCC-funded study will evaluate the effectiveness of 'Letting the Future In', a therapeutic intervention designed for children and young people aged between four and 18-years-old who have been affected by sexual abuse.
The programme, which is currently offered by 18 NSPCC teams across the UK, uses a range of approaches to help children and young people express themselves including talking, playing and creative activities such as painting, drawing or storytelling.
Participants are offered up to 20 sessions with a trained social worker or therapist.
Their parent or carer may have six individual sessions as well as joint sessions with the child.
Professor Simon Hackett, from Durham University's School of Applied Social Sciences, said: "The research will provide an invaluable opportunity to learn not just about 'what works' for children who have been sexually abused, but also how interventions work."
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