Housed in a quiet building off Wesley Street is what many might consider one of the most important organisations in Bermuda -- the Institute of Child and Family Health.

Within its pristine walls, valuable work is done to address many of the problems affecting Bermuda's children and their families.

"The Institute involves a lot of programmes, and was set up and financed by the Coalition for the Protection of Children in response to a variety of needs of parents and children in the community,'' executive director Mrs. Sheelagh Cooper said.

"We are a private, non-profit agency funded entirely by corporate donations, and we have a general mandate which includes research, public education, treatment and programmes for children and their families.'' A sliding fee scale for the Institute's services is based on the client's ability to pay, though no-one who is unable to pay is turned away.

Among the programmes the Institute offers are clinical services to children, weekly group sessions for non-offending parents whose children have been victims of abuse, group therapy for adult survivors of abuse, and parent effectiveness training.

The Institute also sponsors seminars designed to advance the skills of teachers, school counsellors, social workers, Police officers, clinicians and other professionals whose work involves services to children.

"The seminars provide an ongoing professional development opportunity, and we have found them to be very useful,'' Mrs. Cooper said.

This summer, the Institute plans to run a training course in mediation and conflict resolution for people who work with children, which will involve guidance counsellors and children.

"People who graduate will have certificates as trainers in conflict resolution and mediation training,'' Mrs. Cooper said. "This is an area in which we have gotten involved with a number of schools and we are very excited about the kinds of things that have happened there.'' At the moment, the Institute is conducting a pilot programme in peer mediation at three of the Island's schools -- St. George's Secondary, Francis Patton and Southampton Glebe -- with very encouraging results.

"First, we run a two-to-one programme for the teachers which gives them a wide range of problem solving, conflict resolution skills, and we teach them some approaches to mediation. The school then selects about 25 peer mediators who represent a cross-section of the school body.

"Students are not necessarily chosen for their academic excellence but because of their communication skills,'' the director noted.

Indeed, she said that children who were perceived as disruptive and troublemakers often became the best peer mediators.

"Because they already have good communication skills, negative leaders can become extremely effective, positive peer mediators with proper training and a higher level of self-esteem,'' Mrs. Cooper assured. "Self-esteem is really what it is all about.'' The peer mediation programme came about as a result of the Institute's anti-corporal punishment stance, which caused a furore at the time it was enunciated.

"We felt there was no point in saying you can't hit the kids unless you give people other ways of cutting the conflict, so we decided that we needed to approach the problem differently,'' Mrs. Cooper said.

"We wanted to look at ways to give people a wider range of alternatives to corporal punishment so they would go through a number of other steps before they ever got to that point -- which hopefully they never reach.'' Thus far, the results have been so encouraging that the Institute hopes the programme will be extended to other schools.

The Institute's Adult Survivors of Abuse group is a self-help group offering 10-week courses under the direction of Dr. Denise Patton King.

"American data suggests that as many as one in five women have been abused, and indications are that that is probably a fairly accurate figure for this community as well,'' Mrs. Cooper said.

"We find that memories of sexual abuse only surface in the conscious memory when people are in their 30s and 40s, and it is at that point that they look for help. They are always surprised to find just how many people just like them have had similar experiences, and it is comforting to have a community of people with whom they can seek support.'' Because of the demand, much of the Institute's focus is on the treatment of children who have been traumatised by either sexual or physical abuse. Its staff of trained therapists uses a mixture of play and other therapy to help children heal psychologically.

"Up to now there has been very little if any treatment available for children who have experienced some psychological trauma,'' Mrs. Cooper said. "That includes children who have experienced a death in the family, witnessed violence in some context, or who themselves have been directly affected by violence, either at home or in the community.'' Children with behavioural problems arising out of a traumatic experience also benefit from this form of treatment.

"Our therapists are specially trained to do play therapy with the children.

It is an excellent way of communicating with them and allowing them to work through the events that may have traumatised them, because the effects of trauma only get worse if left untreated,'' Mrs. Cooper said.

She also dismissed as "completely erroneous'' the prevailing myth that, if left alone children will naturally forget any physical or sexual abuse they have suffered.

"They may suppress the memory and perhaps consciously forget the abuse, but its impact very much remains with them. Left untreated, the effect of the trauma gets substantially worse as they get older,'' Mrs. Cooper assured.

As part of its treatment facility, the Institute also has a one-way mirrored observation area which can be used either for training purposes or by the Police in an investigative capacity.

A lending library contains a collection of books and resource materials related to the assessment and treatment of children, as well as literature on child abuse.

Most of its work with children is by referral from school counsellors, medical practitioners, social workers, parents, teachers, the Child Protection Team and the Department of Social Services. Parental permission is required for the treatment of children.

Better parenting skills are taught through the Institute's twice-weekly Parent Effectiveness Training courses.

Each course lasts 10 weeks, and there are two groups per week, each led by Mrs. Angela Hayward.

"What characterises this course is: How to talk so that your children will listen, and how to listen so your children will talk,'' Mrs. Cooper said.

Participants learn communication and conflict resolution skills, as well as how to negotiate with teenagers.

The Institute for Child and Family Health offers services between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For further information on any of them telephone 292-7675 or fax 295-2430.

MRS. SHEELAGH COOPER, Executive Director of the Institute for Child and Family Health -- "Our mandate includes research, public education, treatment and programmes for children and their families.''