COUNTYWIDE : Counseling Services Face Funding Cut

For one Ventura County couple accused of abusing their children, it was during court-ordered counseling that they learned the difference between discipline and child abuse.

“They realized for the first time that it is not OK to hit your kids,” said Jane Shrout, who coordinates the Child Abuse Intervention and Prevention Service that provided counseling to the couple.

“That in itself was a huge step, because once you make that realization, it leads you to ask about other ways to discipline your kids that are not abusive,” Shrout said.

Yet fewer couples will benefit this year from the counseling service provided by Interface Children Family Services of Ventura County because of a $32,000 cut in state funding, agency officials said last week.

Although the $32,000 is a small portion of the agency’s $2.5-million budget, the funding cannot be easily replaced because of the need to continue support for the agency’s 21 programs, Shrout said. Although Interface plans to continue offering the counseling program at least through midyear, clients will now have to pay for the service.

As a result, at a time when reported child-abuse cases in Ventura County are on the rise, fewer parents will be able to afford counseling with what is billed as the only free parent education program in Ventura County.

Reports of child abuse increased by 50% between 1987 and 1992, said Sally Allen of the county’s Children Services Division. Last year, the state reported 11,592 cases of neglect, 1,219 cases of physical abuse and 624 cases of sexual abuse in Ventura County.

The loss of state funding will cripple the agency’s parenting program, which served 900 clients during the last six months of 1992, said Sally Danenberg, the program’s director.

She cited how difficult parenthood is for couples struggling with outside pressures, economic stress or a history of being abused themselves as children.

“That’s why there is a generational effect,” Danenberg said. “Abuse breeds abuse. The only way to break the cycle is through education.”

For more information, call Interface at 485-6114.