Marshfield Child Advocacy Center

Marshfield Child Advocacy Center Mission

The Marshfield Child Advocacy Center (MCAC) is a community-based, child-friendly and trauma-responsive facility that coordinates a multidisciplinary response to allegations of child maltreatment.

The MCAC brings together a multidisciplinary team (MDT) to gather information about suspected abuse and provide a coordinated, comprehensive response to child victims and their caregivers. The MDT includes:

• Child protective services
• Law enforcement
• Forensic interviewers
• Medical personnel
• Victim's advocate

The mission of the MCAC is to facilitate and enhance interagency cooperation in the investigation of child abuse and neglect and promote healing of child abuse through the collaboration of representatives from community agencies.

Benefits of using the MCAC

This thoughtful, coordinated approach to child abuse investigations has many benefits, including:

• Providing a safe, child-friendly, and trauma-responsive environment that creates a 'one-stop-shop', minimizing the number of interviews and evaluations the child will be subjected to Improving information sharing about the investigation between multidisciplinary team members
• Creating an environment for informed and collaborative decision making about the investigation
• Promoting cross-discipline education about child abuse
• Allowing for self-reflection and analytical thinking by the MDT members about the response to child abuse
• Stimulating improvement in the community response to child abuse
• Facilitating a pathway for healing and resilience building for the child, non-offending caregivers, and the community response team

Referrals to the MCAC

All children brought to the MCAC for concerns of abuse and/or neglect are part of an active investigation with child protective services and/or law enforcement. Only investigators from these agencies are able to make an appointment for evaluation at the MCAC.

If you are concerned that your child has been a victim of abuse and is not currently part of an investigation, it is recommended that you make a report to child protective services and/or law enforcement.