What is an MDT?

A multi-disciplinary team, or MDT, working within a Child Advocacy Center is a team of professionals that come from different disciplines and agencies to provide cohesive services to the child and family. These professionals work together to coordinate services such as medical exams, forensic interviews, victim advocacy, counseling, investigation, prosecution, and more. The hope of providing these services in a coordinated and collaborative way is to provide support for the child and their family throughout every step of the process and aid them on their path to healing.

The MDT approach to child abuse investigations provides many benefits, including:

  • Lowering the amount of trauma to the child because they only have to tell their story once versus re-telling it to each professional.
  • Teamwork and shared ideas can lead to better treatments and interventions for the client
  • Enhanced quantity and quality of referrals made
  • A larger support system