Estonia visit to increase awareness of child sexual abuse

A member of staff from the South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust will visit Estonia on 18th to 25th April to help increase awareness of child sexual abuse in the country.

Kay Toon, a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, based in Wakefield, wrote a self-help book, "Breaking Free: Help for survivors of child sexual abuse", with her late colleague Carolyn Ainscough, in 1993.

It has now been translated into Estonian and will be launched on 19th April as "Labimurre". The book will not be sold but 3000 copies have been published privately and will be given away to social workers, judges, hospitals, schools and therapists.

During her trip Kay will give talks and lectures on child abuse, its prevalence and its long term effects, in each of the major cities in Estonia. She will also take part in several press conferences and will appear on Estonian TV.

Kay says, "There are currently no figures for how common child sexual abuse is in Estonia but there is no reason to think it will be less than the 10-20% of the general population (males and females) found in the UK, Republic of Ireland, USA and other countries around the world.

"However there is little awareness of child sexual abuse and its effects on adult survivors and no books in Estonian on the subject. Few psychotherapists know how to work with adults who were abused as children so there is very little help available for the large numbers of people affected by abuse."

Kay combines her part-time NHS work with 3 days per week at The Orchard, a private counselling and complimentary therapy centre in Leeds.