Pennsylvania county offers children trauma-informed care

Key Takeaways

When Pike County, Pa. District Attorney Ray Tonkin was appointed to serve on the state’s Victim Service Advisory Committee, he discovered the benefits of child advocacy centers and made plans to build a new program in Pike County.

The care centers help reduce the impact of traumatic experiences by supporting families through cross-agency cooperation and by simplifying the child interviewing process.

Child Advocacy Centers bring together mental health services, law enforcement, victim services, criminal justice professionals, family advocates and the District Attorney’s office under one “tent” and together they work as a Multidisciplinary Investigative Team (MDIT). The MDIT helps bridge the gaps between agencies to better protect child victims of physical, mental and sexual abuse.

Tonkin said the CAC is a “child-focused and trauma-informed center” that conducts one forensic interview between agencies instead of each agency asking the child to relive potentially harmful memories.

“The main purpose behind a Children’s Advocacy Center is that a child comes to a child-friendly environment where they can be interviewed by a forensic interviewer to determine any disclosure they might have about the report of abuse,” Tonkin said.

The forensic interviewer works closely with the MDIT to ask the right questions. The conversation is recorded with both video and audio and the recording is then used in court in place of testimony from the child. The CAC also networks with mental health agencies to begin the healing process of working through traumatic experiences. Their shared network makes the situation easier for families to navigate the complex system of victim services, justice systems, healthcare and more.

CAC programs have been around since 1986, according to the National Children’s Advocacy Center, and have expanded across the country, with more than 1,000 facilities. Since 2011, the Pennsylvania Legislature has made it a priority to create funding sources for the program leading to the creation of many The Pike County facility opened in 2016 and has continually grown ever since. Tonkin said the Pike CAC is part of the county instead of an independent collaborative non-governmental organization (NGO), giving it access to support, funding and structure that other CACs might not receive or be entirely responsible for.

Originally, the Pike County CAC began as a partnership with a local NGO known as Safe Haven before moving into a county facility temporarily and finally into their own building, the Dickson House.

The Pike County Dickson House has partnered with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to conduct medical exams for sexual abuse victims.

To date, the Dickson House has cared for 530 children.

Tonkin encouraged other counties to seek out the resources of state CAC associations as well as the National Children’s Alliance and the National Children’s Advocacy Center.

The National Children’s Alliance provides accreditation as well as grant funding to create, train and expand CAC programs.