Discovering New Ways to Identify, Treat and Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect

Since 2000, the Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children has been an advocate for abused and neglected children. Beyond the immediate horror of abuse, childhood trauma can have a critical and lifelong impact on a child’s development, physical and mental health, educational success and happiness.

Our goals are to help keep children safe, identify those children who have been harmed, prevent child abuse and neglect from occurring and improve the outcomes of children exposed to trauma and violence. The research we conduct informs our interventions, assessments, treatments and teachings.

Our team of researchers is small but mighty and dedicated to improving the health and safety of our children. Through our leadership and studies, we have helped to define the national standard for the evaluation and treatment of victims of child abuse and maltreatment. Using the Child Advocacy Center model, we work with our partners to provide the best care and outcomes for children and families.

Our Research

Since our inception, research has played a vital role in the clinical care of our patients. Areas of research have included such things as interventions and best practices for conducting effective, low-stress child forensic interviews, improving medical evaluations to correctly identify victims of abuse, and using parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) to reduce behavioral issues in trauma-exposed youth. Our findings inform patient care and treatment throughout Cincinnati Children’s, helping to implement trauma-informed care into everyday practices.

In addition, our research helps to advance knowledge of our field and is used to train hospital staff, state and local law enforcement, children services case workers, school administrators and teachers, and other adults who work with children in our community.

Our Impact

Our research and training have led to the implementation of new evidence-based interventions and treatments.

The development of our child-adult relationship enhancement (CARE) interaction model and our studies in parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) and abusive head trauma have improved the care we provide at the Mayerson Center and across the globe. The CARE model has been proven effective in primary care settings as well as examination rooms. We have been involved with research to validate a clinical decision rule that improves recognition of physical abuse in children who present with bruising. And the trauma-informed care practices tested through our research are being implemented throughout Cincinnati Children’s—ensuring children and families are not retraumatized while being cared for.

Looking beyond the hospital, the Mayerson Center started and continues to lead Joining Forces for Children, a coalition of organizations working to prevent and reduce the impact of trauma in the greater Cincinnati area. Here, our research has led to multiple positive outcomes, including:

• Community engagement techniques that uplift the lived experience of our neighbors
• Best practices for sustainable and ethical academic-community partnerships
• Innovative new tools such as the Family Wellness Survey

Furthermore, Strong Resilient Youth, our online trauma-informed skills training developed in collaboration with McKinsey Health Institute, has garnered international attention. Available in English, Spanish and Czech, our training has helped supportive adults, as far away as the Ukraine, in understanding the impact of trauma on children. These tool provide relevant skills to support children and families in the moment.