Forming a Multidisciplinary Team To Investigate Child Abuse

When a child is the victim of abuse or neglect, it is the responsibility of each member of the child protective service and criminal justice communities to provide a timely and appropriate response. To promote the coordination and teamwork needed to ensure such a response—and to minimize additional trauma to children—a growing number of jurisdictions have established multidisciplinary teams (MDT’s) comprising professionals from law enforcement, child protective services, prosecution, medicine, counseling, and related fields.

Forming a Multidisciplinary Team To Investigate Child Abuse delineates the benefits that an MDT offers and provides advice on forming and operating an effective team. Diverse MDT models are described and keys to making the team a success—confidentiality policies, conflict resolution practices, and periodic review—are discussed.