Child maltreatment coordinating committees for effective service delivery.

A study of the most common mechanism--the community coordinating committee--is reported and recommendations to help communities determine readiness for coordinating committee formation, most appropriate committee type and focus, and most effective operating conditions are offered.

Abstract

Previous research suggests the importance of multidisciplinary, interagency approaches in creating effective and efficient community service delivery systems for the prevention of child maltreatment. Despite both federal and state mandates for communitywide approaches to service coordination, however, multidisciplinary approaches have generally been untested or underutilized. This article reports a study of the most common mechanism--the community coordinating committee--and offers recommendations to help communities determine readiness for coordinating committee formation, most appropriate committee type and focus, and most effective operating conditions.