As part of Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center’s (WRCAC’s) efforts to strengthen the multidisciplinary team (MDT) response in our region and with our partners across the country, I have partnered with Southern Regional Children’s Advocacy Center‘s (SRCAC’s) Program Manager for MDT Development, Lydia Johnson Grady, to more deeply explore the importance of supervision specifically for MDT facilitators. This deeper dive comes from our desire to help empower and help sustain professionals in the MDT facilitator’s role, many of whom have multiple responsibilities within their Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC). Here are some of the core lessons we would like to share:
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In September of 2022, Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center (WRCAC) released a Roundup that focused on how to manage change and transition on the multidisciplinary team (MDT). As so many Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) and MDTs continue to experience elevated levels of turnover, this topic remains relevant for CACs and our partner agencies nationwide. In fact, turnover and changes within the team is one of the main reasons many CACs reach out to us for support. Although we may not be able to control turnover on our teams or within our partner organizations, there are key factors to consider when navigating change and understanding our responses to it. Read More >>

Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center (WRCAC) is committed to helping Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) staff and multidisciplinary team (MDT) members find ways to strengthen their resiliency and focus on their vision and goals. However, as we all know, it is sometimes hard to stay focused on just one goal or task at a time. This Roundup issue looks at how multitasking may impact us in the field and provides some tips for creating space to focus and reduce the sense of overwhelm that can lead to burnout. Read More >>

An array of resources is available to support children’s advocacy centers (CACs) efforts to include military partners in the multidisciplinary team response and ensure that services are coordinated with military systems. Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center (WRCAC) supports MDTs and CACs across the western region through training and technical support and encourages CACs and MDTs to consider their military partners when developing services in their communities. Read More >>

Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center (WRCAC) is committed to strengthening multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) and children’s advocacy centers (CACs) in our region and across the country with our collaborative partners. As part of our work, we are helping CACs in our region understand some of the recent updates to the National Children’s Alliance’s (NCA’s) accreditation standards that went into effect in January of 2023. There are several updates and additions across the ten standards. However, it is important to note that the updated standards reflect an increased focus on the role of the MDT facilitator and the MDT overall. One of the newest additions to the standards relates to the onboarding of new MDT members. Essential Component J under Standard 1 states: “The CAC/MDT provides formal orientation for new MDT members regarding CAC/MDT process, policies and procedures, and code of conduct” (NCA, 2023). Read More >>

As we all know, the world shifted in 2020, and many of us went from being in the office full-time to working remotely and participating in virtual meetings and trainings. In fact, in 2021, Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center (WRCAC) dedicated a Roundup to understanding how to best approach virtual meetings. However, now, many of us are finding ourselves settling somewhere between being fully virtual and fully in-person. For many of us, multidisciplinary team (MDT), case review, and staff meetings have become hybrid meetings. Hybrid meetings involve some attendees participating in-person and others remotely through a web-based platform such as Zoom.  Read More >>

Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center (WRCAC) is committed to strengthening multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) and children’s advocacy centers (CACs) in our region and through our work with our collaborative partners across the country. We provide technical assistance, customized training, and resources to help teams effectively respond to child abuse in their communities. We also work with our regional partners to host quarterly peer forums for MDT facilitators to learn and connect with their peers. Information about these and other learning opportunities is provided at the end of this article. In our most recent peer forum, we covered the topic of boundary spanning. Understanding boundary spanning is a key step to strengthening MDTs and the collaborative approach to child abuse investigations. Read More >>

The Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center has been committed to helping strengthen multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) and children’s advocacy centers (CACs) throughout the thirteen states in our region. Through our work with individual CACs as well as state chapters, we have provided technical assistance, customized trainings and resources to help teams more effectively respond to child abuse in their communities. One of the keys to strengthening MDTs is to understand how important the concept of “purpose” is to both individuals and teams as a whole. Read More >>

Before jumping into this article, take a moment to think of the first word or feeling that arises when you read the word change. What is your initial response? Does it feel expansive or restrictive? Perhaps somewhere in between? We started with this exact question at the MDT Facilitator Peer Forum in June, a virtual space for multidisciplinary team (MDT) facilitators hosted by the four regional children’s advocacy centers (RCACs). The responses were wide-ranging: fear, opportunity, exhaustion, innovation, and resistance are just a sampling of what we heard during the forum. Read More >>

WRCAC’s Telemental Health Resource Center (TMHRC) was launched in 2019 to provide Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) with research and resources to support the implementation of telemental health (TMH) services. Since then, we saw many Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) initiate TMH services, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when information related to the implementation of TMH expanded exponentially. However, as in-person services were re-established, the utilization and engagement with telemental health services appears to have waned. Read More >>

In 2018, Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center began strategic planning related to implementation of telemental health (TMH) services at CACs. With so many rural and frontier CACs in our region, we recognized that developing TMH services would be critical to increasing access to mental health services for children and families being served by Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs). Planning for the Telemental Health Resource Center (TMHRC), a central place to find information and research related to TMH delivery, began prior to COVID-19. WRCAC’s TMHRC was launched in 2019 to provide CACs with research and resources to support the implementation of TMH services. Since then, we have seen many CACs initiate TMH services, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when information related to the implementation of TMH expanded exponentially. Almost 5 years later, we have all learned a great deal about TMH, its benefit for CACs, and the resources CACs might need to launch these services. In this Roundup we’re highlighting some of the specific CAC benefits to utilizing TMH and sharing more about the updated TMHRC. Read More >>

The rapid implementation of telemental health (TMH) services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic produced opportunities and challenges for maintaining mental health services while in-person sessions were suspended. While TMH services were not new, especially for children’s advocacy centers (CACs) and clinicians serving rural and frontier clients, they were often looked at as a less desirable alternative to in-person sessions. This misperception is changing, and TMH delivery is growing as a respected modality in its own right. Read More >>

The Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center (WRCAC) supports children’s advocacy centers (CACs), multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) and state chapters that serve a decidedly rural and frontier population. The thirteen states that make up the western region represent nearly half of U.S. land, but less than one-quarter of U.S. residents. The result is a population density that is half the national average – 42.4 persons per square mile in the west versus 89.5 nationally. While the western region features urban centers such as Los Angeles, Honolulu and Seattle with population densities of over 5,000 residents per square mile, most of the states in the west fall well below the national average and comprise vast, sparsely populated areas. Read More >>

The movement of in-person activities to a virtual environment is one of many ways the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the daily activities of children’s advocacy centers (CACs). From hosting online meetings to offering telehealth services, video conferencing platforms allow us to convene easily with staff, multi-disciplinary team (MDT) colleagues, and clients across distances and from our homes and private offices. However, it can be challenging to translate in-person activities to a virtual environment and keep participants engaged. As a fully remote team, WRCAC has compiled lessons over the past year on hosting effective and engaging virtual meetings and trainings that we share here to assist you in successfully navigating and leveraging virtual space to best serve your CAC. Read More >>

The Western Regional Children’s Advocacy Center (WRCAC) has historically provided training and technical assistance (TTA) to multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) and Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) that provide services to American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth and families. As we shared with you in Issue 8 of the Roundup, over 80 percent of federally recognized Tribes are located in the western region. The advent of the Native Child Advocacy Resource Center (NCARC), with their expertise and knowledge in working with Tribal communities, has strengthened the capacity to support the development of MDTs and CACs that embrace the value of holistic Tribal practices. WRCAC is proud to have NCARC as one of our Victims of Child Abuse Act (VOCAA) partners and we would like to provide an opportunity for you to hear and learn from their history, experience, and knowledge. For this issue of our Roundup, we have asked Jennifer Calder, NCARC Product Development Manager, to share some of what their team feels is important for those working with Tribal communities. This interview has been edited slightly for length and clarity. Read More >>