Safe Place: The Center for Child Protection and Health

Overview

Over the last 40 years, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has developed the region's — and one of the nation's — most comprehensive programs to address the critical issues of child abuse, neglect and placement in substitute care.

Safe Place: The Center for Child Protection and Health at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is an interdisciplinary, family centered health care program for children who have experienced child abuse or neglect. Its mission is to provide evidence-based clinical care, using a multi-disciplinary model, to children and families dealing with child abuse or neglect. Our team comprises physicians, social workers, and psychologists. The CARE (Child Abuse, Referral and Evaluation) Clinic provides assessment and treatment of a child’s physical and behavioral health needs, supports parents (biologic and foster) in the care of these children, and is the key clinical service at CHOP for this population. The Center is a national leader in providing training and research to further knowledge and to support policy changes to improve the quality of life for maltreated children and families.

Clinical services

Our clinical mission is to provide comprehensive interdisciplinary evaluation and healthcare for maltreated children and those in substitute care. We provide:

Within the hospital, early identification of children at risk, coupled with appropriate home support referrals, improves the outcome of patients. The team's efforts at prevention have expanded with the development of a statewide education program for primary care physicians to increase early recognition and reporting of child abuse.

We collaborate with biological, foster and adoptive parents, as well as child welfare professionals and agencies, to ease the process of finding a permanent home for every child.

Education

Safe Place provides education for physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals. To further our goal of improved outcomes for children, we offer a number of educational programs for foster parents and for child welfare and law enforcement professionals. Our staff is nationally renowned for its expertise, teaching and educational programs.

Safe Place fosters an educational environment for training of the next generation of leaders in child abuse pediatrics, child welfare, trauma informed treatment, and legal advocacy. Our faculty provides education in child maltreatment at the local, regional and national levels. Our educational commitments include:

Medical education

Perelman School of Medicine
CHOP Residency Program
CHOP Child Abuse Pediatrics Fellowship

Social work and psychology education

Internships in social work in the assessment, management, and family support of suspected child maltreatment
Internships in psychology in the use of evidence-based treatment models for maltreated children

Other interdisciplinary education at the University of Pennsylvania

Field Center at the School of Social Policy & Practice
Department of Bioengineering
School of Nursing
School of Law

Regional and national education

For health, child welfare, legal and law enforcement colleagues

Research

Safe Place has a strong commitment to advancing the medical community's understanding of child maltreatment, its consequences, prevention, and the impact on children in substitute care. The Safe Place faculty is known for leading studies on the clinical epidemiology of child abuse, as well as community-based and health services research that has informed the policies and practices for maltreated children residing in the child welfare system. Aligned with the PolicyLab and the Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness within the Division of General Pediatrics, there is an active research infrastructure to support innovative child maltreatment research across a broad array of clinic, health services and policy related topics.

Current research interests:

Improving the medical evaluation of maltreated children

Advocacy

Safe Place provides patient, community and legislative advocacy for maltreated children by:

Providing leadership for national child maltreatment organizations; including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Ray E. Helfer Society, Academy on Violence and Abuse, Academic Pediatric Association.

  • Print
  • Share

Contact Us