IT'S CATS MEOW FOR ABUSED KIDS.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY

The walls are covered in colorful murals to make the children who come here feel safe and warm. They show a park filled with animals, flowers, trees, and smiling youngsters in the protective shadow of a female police officer.

It's a room that exudes comfort. And a far cry from the room where abused and molested children used to have to come in the San Fernando Valley.

``The police officers would take them to the nearest hospital emergency room, where they would often wait five or six hours in hectic surroundings because the doctors were busy caring for heart attack and auto accident victims,'' nurse Kathy Adams recalled.

``With the trauma these kids just suffered, it was an inhuman way to treat them.''

Yes, it was. And that's exactly what Dr. Ed Lowder, an emergency room physician at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, told the hospital's board of directors in 1996.

``No one in the Valley was dealing with these kids. The emergency room doctors didn't have the expertise, and they didn't want to get involved in having to go to court to testify.

``I felt, rather than send the children over the hill to Childrens Hospital (Los Angeles), we should have our own program in the Valley for them, so I took the training myself, and brought in some nurses to help me,'' Lowder said.

That first year, in 1997, 112 victims of sexual assault and abuse were seen by Children's Assault Treatment Services. Last year, the CATS team helped 777 victims.

Not because there's more sexual assault and abuse today, but because police officers in the Valley aren't bringing victims to the nearest hospital emergency room anymore. They're bringing them all to CATS.

One of the keys to the success of the program is Christine Schaeffer. While Lowder and his nurses were busy gaining the expertise to treat sexual assault victims, and testify about it in court, Schaeffer was out beating the bushes to fund the program.

Her family's business - Meissner Manufacturing Co. in Chatsworth - kicked in $100,000 and she began writing successfully for grants to get CATS off the ground.

``What struck me was how these poor kids were being hot-potatoed place to place, and had to tell their story three or four times to different people,'' Schaeffer said Wednesday.

``They needed a one-stop shop, a comprehensive program, and it wasn't out there. Never in my wildest imagination did I think it would become so successful.''

Schaeffer will be honored this weekend by the Golden Hour Guild of Northridge Hospital Medical Center for her work with children.

But the real heart of CATS, she says, is Kathy Adams, the chief examining nurse.

``The incredible job she is doing for these victims, and the help she is giving law enforcement and the justice system is one of the Valley's best-kept secrets,'' Schaeffer said.

No one saw this coming - certainly not Lowder, Schaeffer, or Adams - but the fallout from CATS has been to put a big dent in the number of sexual assault cases going to trial.

``When the victims were taken to hospital emergency rooms, the exams weren't that thorough because the doctors were so busy. But we look at every case, knowing that it will wind up in court,'' Adams said.

With meticulous medical records and expert testimony waiting for them in court, more and more defendants are opting to plead guilty rather than go to trial.

``The best thing is it saves the victims from having to testify, and relive the whole, ugly thing over again,'' Adams said.

A fund-raising guild - ``CATS Meow'' - has been formed to help CATS grow and serve more victims. For information, call June Waugh, president of the Northridge Hospital Medical Center Foundation, at [phone].

Dennis McCarthy, [phone]

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Murals cover the walls of the pediatric exam room, in which registered nurse Kathy Adams, seated, and Christine Schaeffer, one of its chief backers, spend their time.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer