Medical – Midwest Regional Children's Advocacy Center

Drug Facilitated Sexual Abuse

Brief Overview: This webinar will discuss the use of drugs in sexual assault cases. Expert Presenter: Nancy is the Medical Director for the Center for Safe & Healthy Children at University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital. Dr. Harper is Board Certified in General Pediatrics and Child Abuse Pediatrics. Dr. Harper graduated from Dartmouth Medical School in 1995, and completed her pediatric residency in 1998 at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in Virginia. After graduation, Dr. Harper served as a staff pediatrician and Child Abuse Consultant for Naval Medical Center Portsmouth and US Naval Hospital Okinawa in Japan. In 2004, Dr. Harper…

Race, Racism, and Medical Disparities

Brief Overview: This webinar will discuss how race plays a part in our healthcare decisions and delivery and how to be more aware of how we serve our patients. Expert Presenter: Stephen Nelson, MD, attended medical school and completed his pediatric residency at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia. His pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship was completed at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Nelson joined the hematology/oncology program at Children’s of Minnesota in 1993. He served as the co-director of the Vascular Anomalies Center before retiring. His interests included caring for patients with sickle cell disease…

The Healthcare Response to Child Trafficking and Exploitation

Brief Overview: This presentation will discuss definitions, risk factors and dynamics of child labor and sex trafficking, before examining the role of the health professional in recognizing child trafficking and contributing to a holistic, multidisciplinary response that is trauma-informed and culturally responsive. We’ll discuss ways health and other child-serving professionals and their organizations can optimize patient/client care through the use of protocols and core competencies. Expert Presenters: Jordan Greenbaum, MD Jordan Greenbaum, MD is a child abuse physician living in Atlanta, GA. She has worked in the field of child maltreatment for over 20 years. She is the medical director…

Beyond First and Last: Exploring Multiple Incidents with Young Children

Brief Overview: This training will discuss strategies for organizing forensic interviews with young children, specifically when multiple forms of maltreatment or multiple incidents are disclosed within the same interview. It will also cover linguistic strategies for interviewing young children. Expert Presenters: Rachel Johnson Rachel Johnson is the Lead Forensic Interview Specialist with Zero Abuse Project. Rachel most recently served as the Program Director for the Minnesota Children’s Alliance and has over a decade of experience in work related to forensic interviewing, multidisciplinary teams, advocacy, child abuse, prevention education, sexual assault and family violence, both domestically and abroad. Prior to Rachel’s…

Moving Beyond Case Review: The Role of the MDT Facilitator

Brief Overview: This recorded resource presentation is based on a collaborative project of the four Regional Children’s Advocacy Centers to develop a conceptual model for MDT leadership. A Regional panel will present information from a recently published TTA Brief, “Beyond Case Review: The Value of the Team Facilitator in the Multidisciplinary Team/Children’s Advocacy Center Model,” and discuss data from a recent inventory of professionals who currently serve in MDT leadership roles. Expert Presenters: Sue Ascione (NRCAC), Vicky Gwiasda (WRCAC), Greg Flett (SRCAC) Sue Ascione is currently a Training Specialist with the Northeast Regional Children’s Advocacy Center (NRCAC). She has served…

A Friendly Intro to Evaluation and Why It Matters

Brief Overview: Do you have a love/hate relationship with data? Do you ever wonder what it’s all for? Are you interested in using data to grow or improve your work but don’t know where to start? This workshop is for you! This session will help participants restore faith in data and reflect on the important role data can play in serving children better. We will introduce you to some simple terms, tools and techniques to help you get started on your data utilization journey. Expert Presenters: Nora Robinson, MSW, strategy director for WithInsight, helps organizations think and act strategically, from…

Implementation of Measurement Based Care at CACs

Brief Overview: Working in a CAC, we know how effective and impactful our services are because we see it every day, but how do we communicate that to others without data? How do we know that some of the recommendations we give to clients are appropriate and specific? This presentation will give an overview of the benefits of using a team approach to utilize screening measures related to client symptoms starting at the forensic interview. Supports and implementation strategies will be shared. Expert Presenter: Dr. Amelia Siders, Ph.D., is the Director of Clinical Practice Development and Education for Children’s Advocacy…

Drug Exposed Children and Infants: Part 1 & 2

Brief Overview: With the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana in many states and the increase in prescription drug abuse, the issue of substance exposed newborns and drug endangered children continues to be in important topic for the many professionals that serve women of child-bearing age, pregnant women and young families. This presentation will provide an overview of the impacts of prenatal drug and alcohol exposure including the latest information about the impact of exposures to marijuana and prescription drugs. It will outline the effects of parental substance use/abuse on mothers, infants, children & families and outline a plan for…

Working with Teen Victims: Tips for the Investigation and Prosecution of Child Abuse Cases

Brief Overview: Cases of child abuse involving a teenage victim presents its own unique challenges for prosecution. Understanding adolescent brain development is important for forensic interviewers as well as investigators and prosecutors. Preparing the case requires not only thorough investigation but thoughtful communication with a teen victim to obtain the facts of the crime and provide essential information about the prosecutor’s role and judicial process. This approach will facilitate building a strong criminal case for prosecution. Expert Presenter: Beth Merachnik, JD, serves as the Deputy Director of the Association of Prosecuting Attorney’s (APA) Child Abuse Prosecution Project. She is the…

Guiding Families Toward Healing and Justice: Aligning Victim Advocacy Services with Standards of Practice

Brief Overview: The role of Victim Advocates in general and within CACs has evolved in scope and complexity over time, striving to be understood and valued as its own unique discipline. The NCA Accreditation Standards (2017) underscore Advocates’ critical role in helping children and families pursue safety, healing and justice. Guidance offered through OVC’s Model Standards has also helped contribute to promoting and sustaining practice excellence and professional integrity for victim service providers. This presentation explores the strengths and challenges in the Victim Advocate role on MDTs in CACs, and discusses strategies for aligning their role and practice with both…

What is Language Access? Why Does It Matter in a CAC?

Brief Overview: Language access encompasses a comprehensive framework of knowledge and practices that remove barriers and ensures meaningful access and effective communication. In this workshop participants will learn why language access matters and how it is connected to the comprehensive provision of victim services. Participants will discuss the importance of removing language barriers and examine what effective language access looks like within a CAC setting. Participants will learn how to design and implement a smooth process for providing language access throughout a CAC/MDT response to child victimization. Expert Presenter: Greg Flett, MSW, has over fifteen years of experience working with…

Elicit and Identify Protective Factors in Domestic Violence Cases Within the Forensic Interview

Brief Overview: This session’s goal is to bridge work of the Duluth Model Coordinated Community Response (CCR) in conjunction with the Child Advocacy Center model. Domestic violence and child abuse maltreatment co-occurrence is exceptionally high in child abuse investigations. These cases are further challenging due to intentional or unintentional contamination of memories ensuring secrecy by a batterer. Multi-disciplinary team members and systems partners may not recognize protective factors utilized by survivors and/or the non-offending caregiver. This session will incorporate research on protective measures and the experiences of domestic violence survivors from focus groups conducted in Duluth, MN. The session will…

Use of Reflective Supervision Groups for CACs

Brief Overview: Reflective supervision is the exploration of the way in which the work that practitioners do every day effects them. Spending time in a very specific type of supervision within the context of a CAC, may reduce secondary traumatic stress and improve the resiliency of the workforce. Additionally, by being more consciously aware of the ways that work in child abuse may illicit strong feelings in providers, providers can continue to do their best work. Expert Presenter: Saprina Matheny, MSW, LICSW completed her Masters degree in Social Work at the University of St. Thomas/College of St. Catherine. She has…

Course Category: Medical