Here you will find a wealth of information, tools, and resources about various issues affecting MDTs, CACs, and Chapters around the country.
Need help? Reach out to Kia Kehrer, if you experience any difficulty downloading the referenced materials, are in search of additional resources, or have other questions.
Click on each arrow to see the resources in each category, then click on each title to open or download the document.
Honoring Culture and Mitigating Bias in the Forensic Interview
Forensic Interviewers have a universal goal across protocols of being unbiased and neutral when speaking with children. However, protocols often do not include a practical approach towards being unbiased, especially pertaining to issues of identity and culture. To address this issue, Children’s Advocacy Centers of Michigan (CACMI), Midwest Regional CAC, representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Child Victims Service Unit and a team of experts partnered to develop training and resources that would help forensic interviewers improve their practice pertaining to honoring the culture and diversity of lived experience among the children with whom they work. The following resource outlines an exercise that is meant to be practiced before every interview to help the professional consciously and intentionally approach children and families. This practice should both help ensure the quality of forensic interviews and allow CACs to be more culturally responsive for children and families in follow-up and wrap-around services.
Case review is one of the most important venues in which issues of equity and inclusion can be navigated — however, CACs regularly report that these discussions are ignored, avoided, or sometimes harmful to the partners at the table. This new tool offers a number of options to center these concepts for CAC leaders, MDT facilitators, and MDT representatives. This framework can help to better utilize case review meetings to ensure equitable access to individually and culturally relevant services.
As children are increasingly connected to the world by cellphones, computers, streaming devices, and other tools and platforms, many become exposed to inappropriate material as a consequence. Medical providers are in a unique position to help educate families — this tool is designed to provide you with guidance and support as you talk with parents, caregivers, and patients about the dangers associated with social media use and other online risks to youth.
When working with survivors of child sexual abuse who are Indigenous, it is imperative to understand the culture and beliefs of the child and family. This document outlines the importance of providing a culturally sensitive medical evaluation for this population, taking into account their rich culture, while still delivering excellent medical care. It covers multiple areas of focus, including proper terminology to use, considerations for the CAC regarding Tribal MOUs, healthcare disparities and barriers to care this population faces, and how to provide a culturally appropriate and safe environment to best serve these children and families.
Building and Sustaining Your Children's Advocacy Center's Medical Program
This toolkit is designed to help you establish and maintain your medical program to serve victims of child abuse. As a CAC, one of many key roles you play is making available and/or providing medical services to your clients. The medical component is part of the National Children's Alliance Accreditation Standards, and the medical provider is a critical piece of the multidisciplinary team. This tool will help you determine where your center falls along the spectrum and how to both establish and improve your center’s medical programming.
The resource is divided into several sections with embedded documents to help best serve you in developing your programming. Several of the items listed in the Medical section below are included, as well as dozens of additional tools; sample documents, forms, and protocols; job descriptions; equipment lists; considerations for diversity, equity, and inclusion; and multiple others. The sections span a variety of topics, including initial foundational logistics and considerations, professional development of CAC staff, meeting accreditation requirements, and continuous quality improvement of your program.
Overall, this tool will help support you as you work to provide medical evaluations that are competent, child-centered, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed to best meet the needs of the kids and families you serve.
Key Resource: CAC Medical Toolkit
Building and Sustaining Your Children's Advocacy Center's Medical Program
This toolkit is designed to help you establish and maintain your medical program to serve victims of child abuse. As a CAC, one of many key roles you play is making available and/or providing medical services to your clients. The medical component is part of the National Children's Alliance Accreditation Standards, and the medical provider is a critical piece of the multidisciplinary team. This tool will help you determine where your center falls along the spectrum and how to both establish and improve your center’s medical programming.
The resource is divided into several sections with embedded documents to help best serve you in developing your programming. Several of the items listed in this section are included, as well as dozens of additional tools; sample documents, forms, and protocols; job descriptions; equipment lists; considerations for diversity, equity, and inclusion; and multiple others. The sections span a variety of topics, including initial foundational logistics and considerations, professional development of CAC staff, meeting accreditation requirements, and continuous quality improvement of your program.
Overall, this tool will help support you as you work to provide medical evaluations that are competent, child-centered, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed to best meet the needs of the kids and families you serve.
CAC Director Resource: Orienting Your Medical Provider to the CAC and Multidisciplinary Team
This document is designed to assist the CAC Director in orienting the medical provider who will be conducting medical evaluations for children seen at their center either on-site or off-site and as an employee, through a linkage agreement, or through a contract. It is not uncommon for a new medical provider to think that their only task is to provide medical examinations. It is important that they understand the full scope of their responsibilities so that they understand what they are taking on in this capacity as part of the Multidisciplinary Team (MDT). This document is a high-level outline of the different responsibilities they may be asked to undertake and can be added to in greater detail to help to orient them to the other multidisciplinary team members in the context of your community.
Equity and Inclusion for CAC Medical Providers: The Impact of Disparities
The fact sheet draws on current research to outline the basics of health disparities, the factors that impact them, and several of the specific populations that are adversely affected. It also covers five domains of the social determinants of health that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. The remainder of the document then focuses on why this knowledge of health disparities is important for medical providers, how it is relevant for CACs, and foundational steps for CACs and their medical providers to continue working towards countering and eliminating these disparities.
Access to Medical Evaluations in Cases of Child Sexual Abuse
This tool, developed by the Midwest Regional CAC and our Child Abuse Medical Advisory Council, is designed to assist Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) and State Chapter organizations assess the gaps in medical care for child sexual abuse victims and provide steps for improving this care along the continuum. Because of geographic location, availability of medical providers with expertise in child abuse, and budgetary constraints, centers will fall along the spectrum of meeting the National Children’s Alliance (NCA) Medical Standard for Accreditation. This tool can be utilized to implement all criteria in the “Meets Standard” category to be in compliance, but suggests additional components to implement, thus providing the child and their family with the most desirable medical care possible.
Access to Medical Evaluations in Cases of Child Physical Abuse
This tool can be utilized by individual CACs and Chapters to help in shaping medical programming to address child physical abuse. Not all children’s advocacy centers (CACs) will see child physical abuse victims, for those who are either considering and/or actively seeing physical abuse cases, the contents of this tool can help guide the types of services your center may be interested in/able to provide. The different levels of practitioners are defined. Guiding questions are also included to help make decisions surrounding the types of services your site is able to provide. This is followed by the Spectrum of Services to see the continuum.
Medical Provider Guidelines: What is the Role of the Medical Provider for Children Under 12 with Problematic Sexual Behaviors (YPSB)?
This document, developed by the Midwest Regional CAC and our Child Abuse Medical Advisory Council, is designed to assist Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) and State Chapter organizations assess the gaps in medical care for child sexual abuse victims and provide steps for improving this care along the continuum. Because of geographic location, availability of medical providers with expertise in child abuse, and budgetary constraints, centers will fall along the spectrum of meeting the National Children’s Alliance (NCA) Medical Standard for Accreditation. This tool can be utilized to implement all criteria in the “Meets Standard” category to be in compliance, but suggests additional components to implement, thus providing the child and their family with the most desirable medical care possible.
The Importance of the Medical Exam: What MDT Partners Need to Know
The Northeast Regional Children's Advocacy Center created an orientation video to the medical exam for both current and incoming multidisciplinary team (MDT) members. The training highlights the importance of the medical exam, the importance of specialized providers, and why normal results are normal. NRCAC has also created a medical fact sheet to accompany the video training.
Telemental Health Resource Center
Western Regional Children's Advocacy Center has created a curated a number of resources to assist CACs interested in providing telemental health services.
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
This site provides a number of resources for parents, lay people, and specialized mental health providers around trauma and mental health.
2023 NCA Revised CAC Accreditation Standards
A complete description of the most recent revision of the 10 standards of accreditation.
2017 NCA Revised CAC Accreditation Standards
A complete description of the previous version of the 10 standards of accreditation.
Online Accreditation Bootcamp
Includes expert interviews; presentations by Teresa Huizar, Executive Director of the National Children’s Alliance; and supportive documents for each of the standards, including sample cultural competency plans. You will need to have an account on NCA Engage to access the course.
Child Abuse Library Online (CALiO)
CALiO is one of the largest professional resource collections available today, providing access to published knowledge, educational materials and resources related to child maltreatment, as well as online search services, topic-specific annotated bibliography creation, resource package development.
Beyond Case Review: The Value of the Role of Team Facilitator in the Multidisciplinary Team/Children’s Advocacy Center Model
Developed as a collaborative project by the four Regional Children’s Advocacy Centers, this training and technical assistance brief is intended to clarify and elevate the role of the Team Facilitator and explain its value to the efficacy of the MDT model.
Victim Advocacy Toolkit
This toolkit, developed by the National Children's Advocacy Center, guides Victim Advocates and CAC Directors in the establishment of a peer support process, which offers ongoing opportunities for building a community of practice inclusive of professional growth, networking, sharing of resources and research, and self-care. The Toolkit provides guidelines regarding core components in the development of Victim Advocate Peer Support groups. Recognizing that there is no “one size fits all” process, the guidelines are simply that – guidance, considerations, tips and resources for CACs and State Chapters to use to meet their unique needs and resources.
Victim Advocacy Guidelines
The Regional CACs have created Victim Advocacy Guidelines to help CACs provide specialized advocacy services to the children and families in your communities and to help CACs meet the Victim Advocacy Standard for Accreditation for National Children’s Alliance (NCA). This is one tool to assist in your development. Additional support can be found within the document Putting Standards into Practice: A Guide for Implementing the 2017 Standards for Accredited Members.
Building a Better Case Review Together
The intent of this template is to help you expand and enhance your Case Review process. It was developed by the Northeast Regional Children’s Advocacy Center (NRCAC). These guidelines, along with an online training in 2019, will help your staff and MDT plan and evaluate your case review process.
Child Victim Web
Child Victim Web is a multimedia, online training resource designed for professionals from all disciplines who work with children and adolescents who have experienced or witnessed serious violence. This course describes the prevalence and characteristics of different forms of victimization often experienced in childhood, their psychological, behavioral, social, and health consequences, and implications for practice. Assessment strategies, an evidence-based approach to treatment planning, trauma-informed case management skills, and information about evidence supported treatments are presented. Child Victim Web is FREE and provides 8 hours of Continuing Education Credit.
NCTSN-Curated Child Sexual Abuse Resources
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network has compiled a number of useful resources regarding child sexual abuse as well as other types of child trauma.