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Safe Start Promising Approaches Communities
ERIE, PA
Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) of Erie County, Inc.
1527 Sassafras Street
Suite 100
Erie, PA 16412
814.451.0202
Purpose
To implement an integrated program that reduces the impact of exposure to violence on children from birth to 8 years of age.
Interventions
Developmental screening: The CAC pediatrician and case manager provide screening and in-depth assessment of children exposed to violence to determine areas of risk, guide appropriate treatment, and oversee the referral process.
Integrated treatment program: Staff representing multiple systems of care provide an integrated program to children who have been exposed to violence. The integrated treatment program includes case management and parenting education as well as child, parent, and family mental health interventions.
- Case management: A team of providers develops safety plans and provides support and crisis management services. They also link families to early interventions, provide support and crisis counseling, assist with court-related activities, and offer mental health services. This team of providers meets weekly to review each family’s progress.
- Parenting Education: Parents complete a psycho-educational course consisting of weekly 1.5 hour sessions lasting 12 weeks. The goals of these psycho-educational groups are to expand parent knowledge, improve parent/child bonding, and provide child management and child protection skills.
- Child, parent, and family mental health interventions: The program provides mental health interventions based on the needs of the family during 16 onsite, in-home, or at-daycare visits. Child-focused interventions focus on reducing the impact of exposure to violence. The interventions use a parent-child dyadic with infants to re-establish bonding, and utilize play therapy and expressive art approaches with children from 2-6 years of age. Mental health interventions with mothers focus on identifying and addressing the dynamics and behaviors set into motion by exposure to violence, and seek to address those issues that continue to leave the child at risk. Family therapy is used to address issues such as blaming the child for the loss of a home or family, divided loyalties among siblings, and difficulty in managing child behavior.
Promising or Evidence-Based Practices
Child Advocacy Model: Multi-site Evaluation of Child Advocacy Centers. Lisa Jones, PhD. Crimes against Children Research Center (CCRC), University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH.
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