Take the Stand: Mental health toll on child abuse victims in Oklahoma
Reyna Perez looked her abuser in the eyes after more than a decade of freedom.
She was testifying in court against a man, her grandfather, who assaulted her when she was 8. Perez recalls being angry as she took the stand with three other people to speak up about the actions of the man in front of her.
Perez remembers the defense attorney asking her if she knew her grandfather’s address. She said she remained respectful and told the attorney she did not remember the address because of the time frame, and she was told he had moved since the incident.
“Then he laughs at me,” Perez said. “My grandfather laughs out loud, while I’m sitting on that stand. I was like, ‘I literally can’t believe it. That this is a type of person just lives out in the world.’”
Reyna Perez talks about being on the stand as one Claire Thomas
of the scariest but most empowering moment of her life.
The events that led her to this moment take place over the course of 10 years. Perez said she didn’t tell anyone after it happened because at that age, it is difficult to understand when a situation is wrong. When Perez was 10, her mother found out, which led to a chain of forensic interviews, police calls and case files.
“You don’t know what to do as a parent,” said Kathryn Perez, Reyna’s mother. “This isn’t something that you prepare for. Especially for me, I was alone because my husband was overseas in Afghanistan.”
“Then he laughs at me. My grandfather laughs out loud, while I’m sitting on that stand. I was like, ‘I literally can’t believe it. That this is a type of person just lives out in the world.’”
-Reyna Perez
Reyna said the trial, 10 years later, was one of the hardest things she has ever had to do. She was told to move on with her life, and she did. After more evidence came to light from several other victims, Reyna was asked to testify.
A courtroom can hold some of the happiest Claire Thomas
or worst memories of someone's life.
“[Telling someone] it’s a really hard thing to do,” she said. “Especially when it’s your family member and someone that should love you.”
It took several steps before Kathryn got her daughter into a child advocacy center for a forensic interview. Kathryn and Reyna do a lot of volunteer work for the Saville Center for Child Advocacy in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Kathryn hopes more people realize how important the work is that child advocacy centers do.
“Instead of taking the child into an adult environment, you’re bringing the adults into a childlike environment,” she said. “I think that’s what is really important and unique about a child advocacy center because everybody needs to be focused on causing the least amount of more trauma to that child.”
The Saville Center advocates Claire Thomas
for children across Payne and
Logan counties.
Kathryn is proud of how strong her daughter is. She expressed that Reyna has overcome every challenge thrown at her and will continue to do so, especially with Reyna’s future career path. Reyna is a psychology major with a minor in speech communication at Oklahoma State University. She hopes to get her master’s and her LPC to specialize in trauma therapy. Kathryn talked about Reyna’s passion for the work she will do.
“I think this is definitely going to be more than just a job for her,” she said. “I’m really glad she’s found that. It’s really positive, and I don’t know if she would agree with this or not, but I think that it’s also probably very healing for her to help other people.”
Reyna also thinks her future career will be a part of her healing journey.
“I may be reliving it; I will have to relive it,” Reyna said. “Sometimes it’s going to be really hard. But at the end of the day, someone has to do the job and why can’t it be me?”
Both women were passionate about furthering access to resources for people in the state of Oklahoma and talked about the mental health stigma surrounding society. Their involvement with the Saville Center has strengthened their passion for advocating for mental health in child abuse victims.
“If I can put one more bad guy away with the rest of these women that work at the center, then that’s for the better."
-Reyna Perez
Reyna has also interned for the Saville Center. She said she jumped on the chance because she is so passionate about the work she wants to do.
“If I can put one more bad guy away with the rest of these women that work at the center, then that’s for the better,” Reyna said.
Heather Houle is the executive director for the Saville Center. The center is set to serve more than 415 kids by the end of the year and services cover all of Payne and Logan counties. Houle also comes from a home that is similar to some of the population the center serves.
“I always get to say, ‘I get to help little Heather,’” Houle said. “You know, to be able to have a brighter future and to see possibility and hope is always super impactful for me personally.”
Houle said the Saville Center currently does not have a mental health care provider, so they have to refer children out to several different agencies. This slows the intake process and with the start of the school year, it takes longer to get kids in to where they need to be.
“I think it’s a difficult time right now,” Houle said. “I felt that for quite a few years, probably nine plus years with the mental health. You know, we’re in kind of a crisis where it has just declined quite a bit. The availability for people to get in in a decent timeframe is hard.”
According to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, the state of Oklahoma ranks among the nation’s highest in child abuse and neglect prevalence with 15.9 confirmed cases per 1,000 children. Kathryn Perez said she is looking forward to watching her daughter make a difference in children’s lives and their mental health.
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“That’s one of the best things you could possibly do when it comes to mental health is to openly talk about it,” Kathryn said. “The more you do that, the more you strip the stigma away from it. And as soon as we can get the stigma removed from it, the more we are going to be able to help people.”
Shannon Hiner is the director of victim services at the Saville Center and helps provide court education to families and children who have to testify in court. She talked about how since the center doesn’t have an in-house mental health care provider currently, it becomes difficult when children need counseling right away but are put on a month or more waiting list. Hiner voiced that the most stressful situations, though, come when a family shows up at the center in crisis.
“For example, when a mom and her three children come to the center as a result of abuse that occurred in their home, they become displaced or homeless,” Hiner said. “My job is to help the family find emergency shelter and it can be complex finding placement.”
For the Saville Center, services and aid for families are free. The workers and center often receive grants and donations to be able to give their services to families without cost. Houle stated that this is one of the most rewarding parts of the job.
“I think just knowing at the end of the day that we've helped provide that evidence and keep the child safe or allow them to get justice in the future is probably the most impactful for sure,” Houle said.
For Rockford Brown, the public information officer for the Payne County Sheriff’s Office, mental health resources with the workers in the field is important, as well. Brown spent four years in investigations, primarily in crimes against children, which caused him to work for the Saville Center a lot.
“One big thing that's overlooked is the people who work in those specialty fields,” he said. “Whether they work with people with mental illness or they work, for example, at the Saville Center, where they work in law enforcement, those individuals experience a lot of enormous amount of vicarious trauma, secondary trauma, that people don't realize, and so, they're the other ones that people need to pay attention to, and they need resources because those are extremely stressful jobs to have to deal with.”
According to the National Library of Medicine, Oklahoma remains one the highest counts of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the nation. These numbers are especially prominent in states with a significant rural population. ACEs show up in adult testing, and the state ranks high in the areas of mental illness and substance abuse in people who displayed multiple ACEs.
Wings of Hope, a family crisis services center Claire Thomas
in Stillwater, Oklahoma, has butterflies stationed
around town to signify a safe haven for victims of
abuse to go to when in need.
Departments, including the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, collected data for six ACEs, mental illness, divorce, neglect, child abuse, domestic violence and substance use, on a county level for the state. Potential ACE scores were created by standardizing and summing county rates for every ACE. In the years the data was collected, the scores showed an increase across the state over the time period. Four Oklahoma counties received the highest score of six.
“We definitely need more resources in the state to address the growing mental health crisis,” Brown said. “It’s not going away, and it's going to get worse, especially when people abuse you know, methamphetamines and opiates. That's just going to exacerbate any kind of mental illness that might be there.”
Reyna expressed how happy it makes her that the Saville Center gives needed services to these families and for free. She talked about the importance of the center’s work for people who can’t afford it themselves, and the need for it with the lack of resources from the state government.
Reyna Perez spoke at one of the Courtesy of Reyna Perez
Saville Center's gala fundraisers,
Night at the Derby.
“When it comes to government and law and survivors and victims, there’s a huge disconnect there,” Reyna said. “Because a lot of people are victims of assault, they don’t want to go and tell and get help from the government most of the time because you get the ‘he said, she said’ kind of battle. Then, most of the time, they don’t get the resources when you’re going through battles like that because they don’t want you to have them because they want you to ultimately lose.”
Reyna had to learn to heal, not just her body, but her mind, too. She talked about how everything people do in life involves their mental state. When something as traumatic as an assault happens, it’s violent. It’s extremely violent to your mind. She has learned through her personal traumas that if your mind doesn’t heal, your body doesn’t either.
“My 8-year-old self deserves that. She deserves me to be this strong.”
-Reyna Perez
“Because if you can turn your pain into power, then you’re on a healing path just by doing that in general,” she said.
For Reyna, one of the harder parts of healing is being OK with talking about it. It’s a part of her growth to be able to take the stand at a trial or sit in places and talk about it without backing down.
“My 8-year-old self deserves that,” she said. “She deserves me to be this strong.”
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Courtesy of Reyna Perez
