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The Herald (Glasgow) Trying to give the right help for survivors of child sexual abuse WE ARE writing in response to your report (March 6) stating that the Royal College of Psychiatrists had called for the withdrawal of our booklet, Can of Worms, about child sexual abuse. We are pleased that the royal college has since clarified that it has not asked for the booklet to be withdrawn. We plan to meet the royal college to discuss its concerns, but also feel it is important to make our position clear in light of your publication of Jim Fairlie's letter (March 8) and the unfortunate emphasis on "false memory" and "recovered memory" in your report. The Can of Worms booklet was written as an accessible guide to good practice for staff and volunteers likely to be working with people who have been sexually abused. It was written to remind workers that some of their service-users may have a sexual abuse history, and to improve their skills and confidence sensitively and appropriately to respond to disclosures of sexual abuse. The tone and content of the booklet took into account the consistent findings of quality academic research, as well as views gathered through consultation with adult survivors of child sexual abuse. The booklet was also sent out for consultation with a range of professionals at an early draft stage, and their comments were taken into account. The booklet describes some problems which, according to consistent research, have a known correlation with experience of child sexual abuse. It states: "Of course, there are often other or additional reasons for these problems" and "being sexually abused does not mean people will necessarily suffer the problems below", making clear that we are not suggesting that child sexual abuse is the sole cause of a range of mental health problems, but that we do believe it is often valuable for mental health and primary care services to conduct a full assessment which includes questions about childhood trauma. We believe that asking the question is not the same as assuming the answer will be yes. Concerns which have been expressed primarily relate to "false memory syndrome", and the potential for misguided professionals to suggest a sexual abuse history to vulnerable clients. We welcome the royal college's statement that terms such as "false memory", "recovered memory" and "memory retrieval" are unhelpful. We do not suggest that professionals at any level should assume that sexual abuse is the cause of an individual's distress, nor should they plant this idea in people's minds. The booklet at no stage asks professionals to "retrieve" memories from vulnerable service-users and to suggest that it does is a serious misrepresentation of the facts. However, by asking appropriate questions during assessment, we believe that some individuals will, for the first time, be enabled to disclose their experience of abuse, thus informing the way they are treated by professionals. This is what we say in the booklet. We hope that publication of the booklet will enable professionals adequately to support survivors of child sexual abuse to disclose their experience and seek appropriate help. This is a goal we should all be able to support. Sarah Nelson
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