This Practice Brief explains how Child Advocacy Centers can meet the National Children’s Alliance Accreditation Standard 6, and provides an overview of things to consider when implementing those kinds of treatment models with Indigenous children and families.
This document aims to help Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) to meet the National Children’s Alliance (NCA) Accreditation Standard 6 requirements, which include connecting children and families to licensed mental health providers who have been trained in trauma-focused and evidence-supported clinical treatments. It notes that CACs can offer those services either onsite or through linkage agreements with external providers. The Practice Brief begins with background information on NCA-approved trauma-focused, evidence-supported treatments; it next discusses mainstream evidence-supported interventions and their use with Native American tribal communities, which have unique cultures; it presents some cultural adaptations that meet NCA Accreditation Standard requirements; and provides information on conducting surface-structure cultural adaptations to meet local and tribal community needs. The document also suggests that CACs and multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) might want to include cultural practices or traditional healers in their referral networks, providing contact information for requesting training or technical assistance on any of the topics discussed in the Practice Brief.