LifeHouse Child
Advocacy Center is a fully accredited member of the National Children's
Alliance.
National Children's Alliance Standards for Accredited membership
include:
Child Focused Setting
CACs must maintain warm, welcoming physical environments as the primary location for children to receive services including forensic interviews and advocacy. Each CAC facility is designed for children of all ages and ethnicities and includes interview and observation rooms, conference areas for team and family meetings and family-friendly waiting areas. CAC locations may include refurbished houses, custom-built facilities or separate, designated, contiguous space within an existing structure.
Multidisciplinary Team
(MDT)
CACs must facilitate a
multidisciplinary team comprised of the core disciplines - law enforcement,
child protective services, prosecution, medical, mental health, victim
advocacy, CAC staff - that have developed written protocols for the handling of
child abuse cases in their community and formally executed an inter-agency
agreement that commits their agency’s support of such protocol. This document
must clearly outline how case collaboration is initiated, how information is
communicated between agencies and how confidentiality is protected.
Cultural Competency and
Diversity
CACs must meet the needs
of all children and families throughout the intervention process. Cultural
competency is addressed through a formal cultural competency plan, written
policies and procedures, physical environments, training for team members and
case discussions to ensure there are provisions for clients of all cultures
throughout investigation, medical and follow-up services.
Forensic Interviews
CACs utilize specially
trained professionals to conduct forensic (investigative) interviews of
children that are non-leading, legally sound and non-duplicative. The purpose
of a forensic interview is to obtain factual, accurate details regarding the
abuse allegation in a manner that minimizes the trauma to the victim.
Investigative team members observe and may provide input into the interview,
thus reducing the number of times a child must explain the details of his/her
abuse experience
Victim Support/Advocacy
CACs must designate a
victim advocate for each family to provide crisis intervention, education about
the investigation and legal process, assessment and identification of needed
community resources and linkages to medical and mental health services.
Advocates provide up-to-date information and on-going support to children and
their families throughout the investigation and criminal justice process and
ensure services are in place to support the child’s family in resolving the
abuse crisis.
Medical Evaluation
CACs must provide
children specialized medical evaluations, either on-site or through an
affiliation with a partner agency. Providers of medical exams must have
training and continuing education in both pediatric and child abuse expertise.
The purpose of the medical evaluation is to assess the child’s overall health,
collect and preserve physical evidence (if present); identify and treat any
injury or infection and reassure the child and family about any concerns
related to the child’s physical health.
Mental Health
CACs must provide children
specialized trauma-focused mental health treatment either on-site or through
affiliation agreements with a partner agency. Timely therapeutic intervention
is critical to facilitate the child’s healing from trauma. Mental health
providers must have training and continuing education in child abuse treatment.
Case Review
CACs must coordinate routine (no less than once a month) case review
sessions engaging all disciplines in facilitated discussion and information
sharing regarding the investigation, case status and services needed by the
child and family. Case review maximizes information-sharing among all parties
and promotes better decision-making based on the involvement and expertise of
many disciplines.
Case Tracking
CACs must maintain a
case tracking system to collect and report client demographics, referrals made
to families and to track case outcomes including DCF disposition and criminal
justice outcomes. The CAC’s case tracking system becomes a repository of case
information that minimizes cases “falling through the cracks.”
Organizational Capacity
CACs must maintain organizational capacity as a private, nonprofit
incorporated agency or governmental entity and employ designated staff to
manage CAC operations, secure adequate funding to support CAC services,
demonstrate sound administrative practices and have policies in place to
carefully screen the train organization’s employees and volunteers.