CALICO’s Team Attends Multi-Disciplinary Academy

In mid-September, CALICO sent a six-member team to the Northern California Multi-Disciplinary Team Academy, an intensive four-day training designed to strengthen team work and collaboration among agencies involved in child-abuse investigations. Alameda County’s team consisted of representatives from CALICO, Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, Highland Hospital, Oakland Police Department, Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services and Alameda County Social Services Agency’s Department of Children and Family Services.

CALICO is fortunate to work with dedicated professionals willing to travel to Sacramento and commit a week to discussing child-abuse investigations and the multi-disciplinary-team model used in Alameda County. During the training, the team pooled their expertise to brainstorm how CALICO and its multi-disciplinary team (MDT) could reach even more children in need. They came home with a written action plan that was immediately put into motion, including an analysis of data by jurisdiction to pinpoint where CALICO needs to conduct additional outreach.

CALICO’s team came to the training, aware of the difficulties in serving a large and diverse county with a high number of referrals each year. They left the training with a renewed appreciation for the impressive level of knowledge, commitment and skill of Alameda County’s partner agencies, as well as their flexibility, camaraderie and cooperation. As Deputy District Attorney Casey Bates stated, “Participating in the MDT training was a terrific opportunity to build personal relationships with other members of the team. It also provided us with time to reflect on our strengths and weaknesses and then develop a plan to act thereafter. We all left the training energized and with a new sense of purpose.”