Mayerson Center

Child Abuse Program

At the Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, a multidisciplinary Child Abuse team - including Cincinnati Children's pediatricians and social workers, Department of Human Services staff, and police officers - conduct all child abuse and neglect evaluations. A trained child interview specialist conducts all forensic interviews, with state-of-the-art video recording capabilities to document medical examinations and forensic interviews.


For over a decade, the core Child Abuse team has worked closely with the Department of Human Services, police and the prosecuting attorney's office. The creation of the Child Abuse Center (CAC) allows the entire team, except for staff from the prosecuting attorney's office, to be situated together for the first time. Following medical forensic evaluation, a clinical judgment is made as to whether the allegations are legally founded. The newly designed CAC will evaluate an estimated 1,650 of the 2,200 children and adolescents seen annually at Cincinnati Children's for child abuse and neglect.

A Proud History

Cincinnati Children's has supported a child abuse program since the mid-1970s and continues to have a strong commitment to the abused and neglected children of its five county area. The Child Abuse Team has proven its commitment to the community it serves, as well as its expertise in the field of child abuse and neglect. The program received Center of Excellence Awards from the State of Ohio in 1995 and 1996, which enabled the team to offer much-needed educational programs to health care professionals in surrounding communities.


The team continues to offer consultation services to the community and concentrates on identification and reporting of abuse and neglect. The team has been developing a teleconferencing program to provide medical outreach to isolated counties and the response has been positive thus far.


The volume of cases assessed by Cincinnati Children's for physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect continues to exceed 2,300 per year. Over 1,100 are reported, and those that aren't reported are referred to community resources for further assistance. Since Cincinnati Children's is the primary provider of emergency service for children in the Greater Cincinnati area, the Mayerson Center and CAC are in a unique position to intervene with victims and families in crisis and to help them deal with their ongoing emotional and physical needs.

Goals and Objectives

The Child Abuse program will continue to focus on offering practical assistance and supports to the victims of abuse and their families, including anticipatory guidance on coping with trauma, short-term counseling and referrals to community agencies. With the support of the Victim Assistance Program and the inception of the Child Advocacy Center, the following are some of the goals and objectives the program plans to address:

Therapeutic Interventions

  • Crisis intervention to assess problems, ensure safety and prioritize needs
  • Anticipatory guidance to victim and family to restore focus of control and begin the process of restoring self-esteem
  • Group sessions for the victims of abuse, including both educational and therapeutic activities directed toward prevention of revictimization
  • Group sessions for non-offending parent or caregiver of the victim
  • Access to individual treatment for traumatized victims and families
  • Follow-up on all Cincinnati Children's reported cases, including outcome of investigation, outcome of interventions, assessment of patient, family adjustment and, if appropriate, encouragement of treatment

Advocacy Efforts

  • Offer practical, concrete support to the victims of physical and sexual abuse who come to us for medical care and consultation
  • Connect the families with the proper community agencies and act as a linkage until the family has stabilized
  • Assist the victim to contribute to the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases
  • Offer guidance with practical problems such as transportation and help in securing appointments
  • Be involved in case staffing: hospital-based, advocacy center-based and through the child welfare system
  • Orient the victim to the court process
  • Accompany the child as needed to court or related interventions
  • Provide emergency financial assistance as needed
  • Provide information and assistance with the crime victim compensation process

Program Development

  • Continue to improve collaboration with prosecutorial and court related services. The advocacy center will assist with this goal.
  • Distribute age-appropriate materials to parents and victims offering guidance on resolution of traumatic situations
  • Continue development on our comprehensive data base collection system to help determine service gaps and future needs, and to track patient outcomes
  • Continue to develop the teleconferencing program to assist isolated communities in diagnosis of child abuse and neglect