In today’s episode, we speak with Dr. James Herbert, senior research fellow at the Australian Center for Child Protection, the first Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) in Australia. Now, for those of us in the CAC movement or on multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), we sometimes take our work together for granted. The teamwork, the support—the conflict!—and the difficult decisions we make together to protect children. But imagine for a moment coming to that work completely fresh and as a research scientist, as Herbert did, and truly trying to unpack what makes it work.

Now, we know that research has established that MDTs create better outcomes in child abuse cases. But what is that secret sauce that does make it work? How do teams make their decisions in these high-stakes cases? And what research is still needed to help us better leverage the combined knowledge and skills of the team? Most importantly, how does improving the understanding of the MDT model help us better serve abused children?

 Topics in this episode:

• Getting into child abuse research (1:33)
• A lack of research on multidisciplinary teams (7:20)
• Current research on MDT effectiveness (9:34)
• Barriers to service (what caregivers say vs. what CACs say) (21:35)
• Government funding for child advocates (27:47)
• Other research needs (31:24)
• The EU and the Barnahus model (42:47)
• Our next episode (45:12)

Links:

James Herbert, Ph.D., is a senior research fellow at the Australian Centre for Child Protection at the University of South Australia

“Better together? A review of evidence for multi-disciplinary teams responding to physical and sexual child abuse,” Herbert, JL & Bromfield, L (2019), Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 228–15.

Barnahus model

For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. Or visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org. And join us on Facebook at One in Ten podcast.

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