Clinical Intervention Program

The Crisis Intervention Program provides on-site crisis intervention and short-term counseling to both the child victims and their non-offending parents/caregivers. This program addresses the victim’s emotional crisis and the difficulties of non-offending parent(s) to create a supportive, protective home environment. A full-time licensed clinical social worker and a part-time licensed mental health counselor, both with many years experience working with child abuse victims, provide these onsite services to victims and their non-offending family members:

• Crisis counseling.
• Short-term counseling for up to six months (may be extended).
• Personal advocacy services.
• Transition assistance to longer-term therapy, if indicated.
• Follow-up with the victim and family.

A new aspect of the Clinical Intervention Program is a pilot program called Stabilization in Placement (SIP). This program provides an assessment of needs and referral for interventions to ensure stability of placement when a child is removed from their caregiver. The Clinical Intervention Coordinators provide immediate assessment of needs and crisis intervention to children and their placement caregivers by:

• Identifying and addressing any behavioral issues, including the emotional distress related to the placement and the reasons for placement.
• Assessing the child’s needs to include mental health, educational, medical, etc. with appropriate referrals. This step does not replace any existing referrals or services.
• Educating for the placement caregiver on how to help the child; and
• Assisting the child and caregiver in identifying and putting into practice appropriate behavioral expectations.

Case Tracking Program

Any miscommunication, or lack of follow-up, can short-circuit a case and put the child victim at greater risk of further abuse, or even death. The Case Tracking Program ensures that no child victim referred to the CACB gets lost in the complex system of investigating and assessing child abuse allegations. Agency representatives review the same information to eliminate gaps in knowledge that could result in a child not receiving appropriate services or being re-victimized. Each case of severe abuse is tracked as part of the multi-disciplinary team protocol while the case is pending in the child protective and criminal justice systems. Agency representatives meet bi-weekly at the CACB and review all new cases referred to the Advocacy Center in the previous two weeks.