Mary Bridge, Pierce County mark 20 years of collaborative efforts to protect children with protocol renewal

By MultiCare Health System

Twenty years ago, Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital and Pierce County worked together to develop a protocol to help protect children and hold those who harm them accountable through investigation and potential prosecution.

This effort led to the Pierce County Child Abuse Investigation Protocol, which outlines how agencies must collaborate and cooperate to enhance safety, investigate and prosecute perpetrators and reduce victim trauma.

The Children’s Advocacy Center of Pierce County provides a child-focused, safe place for families to get help and works in partnership with the Mary Bridge Child Abuse Intervention Department and other organizations to prevent, investigate, prosecute and treat child abuse.

Approximately 20,000 children have received direct care in the center over the past two decades, with many more receiving assistance from the center’s social work team.

“What a tremendous impact this has had on the lives of the children and families we have served,” says Carolyn McDougal, leader of the child abuse intervention program in 1998, now CEO of Lindquist Dental Clinic, who spoke at the signing. “All because of the agencies and disciplines involved that were willing, and are still willing, to provide a child-focused safe place, working together as a team and truly being champions for children by putting them first.”

CAID offers medical assistance, family support and general education to empower members of the community to recognize signs of abuse and serve children from birth through age 17.

Services include:

• Medical treatment following sexual or physical abuse
• Forensic exams
• Assistance navigating the legal system and accessing community resources
• Information and referrals for families
• Facilitated access to support services

“The CAID and its community partners are our city’s frontline responders to child physical and sexual abuse,” says Elizabeth Woods, MD, medical director of CAID. “Our CAID and multidisciplinary teams allow us to do what is right for children who have experienced trauma. Children need to know they are not alone.”

State law requires the 89 signatories to revise the protocol every two years and recommit to its objectives. Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist, on behalf of the county, joined MultiCare leaders May 23 at the Mary Bridge Children’s Safe and Sound Building to renew the signature on the protocol and continue the agreement for another two years.

“As we look forward, we have greater work to do,” says Woods. “We need to continue to work to change a culture that often accepts abuse and communicate a culture of safety for our kids as it relates to their minds, bodies and exposures.”

“What we’re doing together makes an amazingly positive difference in the lives of our most treasured assets, our kids,” says MultiCare President and CEO Bill Robertson. “We’ll always be here so long as kids experience some sort of abuse in their lives.”

He also reinforced the value of partnership in maintaining such an effective program, and pledged MultiCare’s continued commitment to the program in years to come.

Help victims of child abuse today donating to the Mary Bridge Child Abuse Intervention Department

Resources on child abuse prevention and programs