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SCAN Program
The Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect (SCAN) Program at SicKids is managed by a team of healthcare professionals at the hospital who offer care, support and assessment to children and teenagers who may have been maltreated, and their families.
The SCAN Program provides a link between SickKids and community doctors and hospitals, Children's Aid Societies, law enforcement and other community agencies.
What we do
SCAN offers a number of services, such as:
- Medical assessment of children who are suspected of being maltreated. This includes patients in the hospital, or those referred by the community.
- Physically examining children or teenagers to evaluate concerns of child maltreatment.
- Providing children who have been maltreated and their families with support and referrals to people and agencies that can help.
- Providing counseling to children/youth and their caregivers
- Providing a psychosocial, forensic assessment of sexual abuse concerns for young children who have been referred by police and/or child welfare authorities.
SCAN provides community doctors and hospitals, Children's Aid Societies, Police, and other community agencies with the following:
- Consultation on management of cases where a concern of child maltreatment arises
- Emergency telephone consultation 24 hours a day
- Education on child maltreatment issues
- Collaboration and working together with other organizations to develop strategies for the prevention of child maltreatment
Who we are
The SCAN team is an interprofessional team that includes Child Maltreatment Pediatricians, Nurse Practitioners, Social Workers and Child Psychologists. On the SCAN team, there are health care providers with expertise in child maltreatment including physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect. The medical team provides direct and indirect consultation, clinical assessment, management and intervention. Social workers and psychologists provide caregiver support services, and short- and longer-term mental health services.
Many SCAN team members are cross-appointed with the University of Toronto and many have professional affiliations with child maltreatment organizations both nationally and internationally.
Research activities
Members of the SCAN team are engaged in various research and quality improvement activities. The SCAN team has many publications and active research studies. SCAN team members are affiliated with the Sickkids Research Institute.
The SCAN team members provide both formal and informal educational sessions to medical and psychosocial clinicians as well as non-medical partners in the community. Please contact the SCAN program to request an education session for your group.
Fellowship training in Child Maltreatment Pediatrics is available through the SCAN program/University of Toronto. The fellowship training program is accredited as an Area of Focused Competency Diploma through the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
In collaboration with the Child Maltreatment Paediatrics section of the Canadian Pediatric Society, the SCAN program is a regular host site for a national symposium for clinicians working in the area of child maltreatment.
Contact SCAN
Our referral system
Please contact the SCAN Program to discuss all referrals with a clinician. An appointment for a clinic visit will be booked in a timely fashion. Due to the nature of the services provided by SCAN program, self-referrals will be accepted.
For medical providers: Please DO NOT send referrals via fax, eCHN or EPIC.
Phone: 416-813-6275
Fax: 416-813-5846
Address & location
6th Floor, Black Wing
555 University Avenue
Toronto, ON
M5G 1X8