Blog

Meeting the Needs of Kids in Crisis

Aubree Vance, Thomas Grieb, Megan Bryant, Annie Harrison, and Alex Brace from Small Talk in Lansing, Michigan

Above, left to right: Megan Bryant, Thomas Grieb, Aubree Vance, Annie Harrison, and Alex Brace in the room at Small Talk where, pre-pandemic, the multidisciplinary team would meet.   When… Continue Reading

Teleboxes for Telehealth

Paula Condol, seated, and Heidi Tupa, onscreen, demonstrate North Dakota's telemental health program.

Above: Dakota CAC Executive Director Paula Condol, MS, LPCC, (seated) and Red River CAC’s Heidi Tupa, MSW, LICSW, (onscreen) demonstrate how the telehealth system works.   Long before the pandemic… Continue Reading

What’s Next for Telemental Health?

For Michelle Miller, NCA’s mental health project coordinator, her proudest moment from 2020 was seeing our field come together in a crisis, everyone mobilizing at once to keep services available… Continue Reading

Keeping Kids Safe for the People Who Protect Us

The CAC-military team that serves military-affiliated families in Norfolk, Va.

Teaming up to help kids, above from left to right: Jen Howe, CHKD forensic interviewer; Quiana Bradley, CHKD therapist; Brandy Etter from McDonald Army Hospital; Jackie Johnson, CHKD case manager;… Continue Reading

Our Statement on Political Violence

Reflection of the US Capitol in lightly windswept water

It’s not often we make public statements about news events not directly related to our work of serving child victims of abuse. Yet what took place here in Washington, D.C.,… Continue Reading

Now more than ever, prevention matters.

Kids and families need our support in stressful times.

Welcome to April. As I normally do in April, I want to focus on the fact that it is National Child Abuse Awareness Month—but this year, under these extraordinary circumstances,… Continue Reading

Family Engagement Starts with Screening and Assessment

Family time: a woman and girl are smiling as they use a tablet computer together. Photo by Michael Morse from Pexels.

For Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs), family engagement refers to the process of family members accepting a referral for mental health treatment, then attending and participating in that treatment to successful… Continue Reading

Engaging Families in Treatment: Whose Responsibility Is It?

A family of four, with a little boy and little girl, walk hand in hand.

The original mission of Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) was to improve a community’s response to the investigation of child abuse. The advances in our knowledge of trauma and the availability… Continue Reading

Work with and for Survivors to Promote Healing and Keep Children Safe

Photo showing legs and feet of children sitting on a bench

Every year, Child Abuse Prevention Month pushes us to focus on the ways in which we can engage our communities to better protect children—in the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) world,… Continue Reading

Listen Deeper, and Act on What You Hear

Photo of a smiling girl in her mom's arms

Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) work through the strength of partnership—no single professional or agency can counter child abuse on their own, and survivors need and deserve support when abuse comes… Continue Reading