HJBR Jan/Feb 2025

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE I  JAN / FEB 2025 11 wrong and then being able to, if they don't have the specialized area, refer the chil- dren to individuals who do. Editor T he majority of our children in Loui- siana are on Medicaid. Do you think there's enough time in a typical doctor's appoint- ment for this uncovering to happen? Sen. Barrow My truthful answer is no. Fifteen minutes to rush in — if it's 15, but I think that's the allotted time — is not enough, especially if you don't have a re- lationship. If you have a relationship with that patient, then I think that physician can immediately tell. I have met some wonderful physicians in this arena who can tell, and I know that they really care. Then, you have those who just “do their job.” They come in, ask the questions that they typically ask: "Is anything going on," or, "Do you feel like killing yourself?" The child says, “No,” and they're just like, "Oh, OK," and they walk out the room. We don't do enough from my perspective, from Re- gina's perspective. That's why this was so important to me. When I see how we try to protect adults who have inflicted dire situations on children whose lives will never be the same — I don't care what hap- pened, their life will never be the same — and then give the adults an excuse, that is what really forced me to actually move to something that some considered drastic measures. I was like, "We keep doing the same thing expecting different results and that is not going to happen"; and people were saying, "Oh, you can't do this, you can't do that. It really is not going to curtail crime. It's not going to stop those perpe- trators because it's about power." I said, "It will to some degree, because they're not going to be able to inflict the level of hurt that they're doing to this child today. And in addition to that, “How are you taking up for them? What about the child whose life will never be the same and the men- tal anguish that they go through? And if they don't have a good support system at home, then that thing becomes multiplied by many things that happen — getting into abusive relationships looking for love, us- ing drugs … the list can go on and on. What about their lives?” So, I'm very passionate about it. When I was ridiculed, I thought about it for a moment. And the very day that I brought this bill, there was a gentle- man who was caught that had molested … I forgot the age. I don't know if he was 12 or 14, but come to find out, he had raped a 5-year-old. And I was like, "That's it. I am so done." I can go into a whole lot more things. I serve on the Child Death Review Panel. First of all, let me just say this: I've to defend these cases. They change often. A person can be in the court system forever, and most people, depending on the age, parents included, just don't want to deal with the trauma of it so then they let the case go because it's taking too long to get through the process. Editor There's a lot said about how we are retraumatizing victims, especially of sexual assault. I would think, especially with chil- dren, that we could get a lot of people who need testimony in the same roomor watch- ing behind glass and being able to ask ques- tions through a counselor or S.A.N.E nurse with an earpiece, so the kid doesn't have to tell the story over and over and over again. It has such dire consequences on both the long- and short-term mental health of that child. Sen. Barrow That's right. Editor You have the ear of the healthcare industry right now. What should a health- care provider look for specifically about sexual abuse that might happen to a child? You can pretty much, I think, tell if a girl has been raped, but you might not have the DNA to prove who did it if it happens ear- lier. Are there tells? Sen. Barrow I think that there are, but one of the things that I think is really important is the level of relationship that you have with the physician. If a child sees their physician often, they should be able to pick up immediately if there are withdrawal symptoms — if that child was bubbly be- fore and now, all of a sudden, they are very quiet. I think that's one part of it in terms of the level of relationship that the physician has with the patient. On the clinical side, in questioning them — eye contact, watch- ing body language — I think physicians are trained with certain things that they already should know automatically to say, "Something has happened here. Let me go a little further. Let me go a little deeper to find out what has happened." In some in- stances, some trauma is so horrific that it's buried. The mind is so amazing to me, in terms of how it protects itself. So, it would take a series of things sometimes to un- cover, depending on who it is, and most of the time, it's people that they know — fam- ily members or neighbors or someone they trust, someone the family trusts — that has committed this who then ultimately either threatens them or talks about what's going to happen if they tell. This level of trauma causes a person to go into a very secluded place. I believe that physicians should, and most of them do, have this automatic training of knowing when something is to do was leave enough discretion that judges can tell because when someone is in your court, you can tell by their body language, eyes, all those things, how much is actually true. I don't care what people say — the body will defy you every time. You could say one thing, but your body is going to tell the real story, and judges can tell. So, I wanted to make sure that I left discretion with judges so that they can pick up on what may not be written or stated.All of these descriptions of how an individual can fall under this law are in current law, and the judge can make the determina- tion that they can be surgically castrated — I need to say “surgically” because we already have chemical castration, which has not been utilized and which is another concern. Editor Oh, interesting. Sen. Barrow Yeah, that's what I said, too. Editor How is childhood sexual abuse prov- en? If a child says, "Someone touched me here," how is that proven in a court of law? Sen. Barrow I'm not an attorney, but as I understand it, there is a series of things that happen before an individual can be charged. A child goes to a doctor, sees a psychologist or someone who's able to evaluate their testimony. From there, they are able to determine whether or not it's true.One of the things that really bothers me is the fact that the proof of what ac- tually happened ends up really being the burden of the child — of a victimmore than the perpetrator. There's so much credence given to what the perpetrator said versus what the victim said that you have a hard time proving it. There are cases that are re- ally solid. I will tell you, victims have been through a lot. That, within itself, needs to change. People will say, "Well, if a 5-year- old makes a description of something, there are certain things that at 5 years, they're not going to know … 8-year-olds are not going to know … 10-year-olds are not going to know, unless it has happened to them." Oftentimes, to be able to prove that is very difficult.It's my understanding there's a series of things that happen. They go to the doctor and there's the physical evaluation, which to me should be enough within itself, but sometimes it's not. Then, they have to go through the psychological evaluation as well to be able to prove that it did happen.Then, you have to have the at- torneys. Our system still needs a lot of help because I feel that oftentimes, too many of our children still don't get the voice that they need. We don't pay our attorneys, our public defenders, enough money to be able