Networking in a rural community focuses on at-risk children

The need to integrate social and medical services to deal with the issues of child abuse prevention and treatment has been documented frequently. In rural areas, referral to the various programs developed to reach the at-risk child is hampered by lack of communication, personal contact, and understanding of the roles and functions among the staffs of the agencies involved. Networking provides an interdisciplinary team approach to foster communication and coordination among the agencies' staffs and increase the effectiveness of their efforts. A model for developing an interagency network in a rural area is presented, eliciting key liaison persons as coordinators.