This toolkit’s goals are to support practitioners in setting up medical programming documents for serving child victims of abuse, to help practitioners determine their service limitations and capabilities, and to help establish and improve their centers’ medical programming.
This medical services toolkit is the medical component of the National Children’s Alliance (NCA) Accreditation Standards. The toolkit aims to serve as a starting point for practitioners in setting up their child advocacy center (CAC) medical programs to serve child victims of abuse by providing information and links to the necessary documentation; it also aims to help individuals determine their medical programs’ service limitations and capabilities, and to establish and improve their centers’ medical programming. The document is divided into four sections: the first offers an overview of what should be in place to provide medical services to children and youth, and contains two helpful tools, a Medical Access Spectrum for both child sexual and physical abuse; the second section addresses several logistical components and considerations for setting up a medical program, including samples from previous CAC medical programs, protocols and standards of practice, exam room equipment lists, and others; the third section discusses professional development of CAC medical staff, including accreditation requirements on training guidelines and continuing education; and the fourth section outlines expectations for continuous quality improvement, including information from the NCA Medical Standard for Accreditation regarding abnormal exams, Advanced Medical Consultants, and Expert Review, as well as sample review logs.