Cynthia Lau

Acted as a fully credentialed clinical counselor for the Counseling and Advocacy Program (CAP), providing short-term, solution-focused psychological counseling. Target population included individuals, couples, families, and groups on matters pertaining to family dynamics, parent-child interactions, couples communication, stress reduction, adjustment to military lifestyles, and crisis interventions for Air Force and Navy service members, dependents, and commands.

• Developed and facilitated group treatment programs addressing family needs, including offender and parent groups, enhancing support systems for participants.
• Provided immediate critical incident response and crisis management in support of commands, service members, and families following a traumatic event.
• Coordinate legal, medical, and social services including commands, to assist in treatment and referral.
• Maintains case records, treatment plans, and statistics in accordance with Navy policies and regulations and updates data collection programs as required.
• Performs Family Advocacy Case Management duties, which includes receiving initial reports of suspected child abuse and spouse abuse from military and civilian representatives and taking all steps required under Family Advocacy Program.
• Provide safety planning, case management, treatment planning and education services related to child abuse and spouse abuse.
• Maintained timely records of assessments for effective case management.
• Conducts briefs, workshops, and training related to family violence for clinical staff, Command Representatives, child and youth programs, and departments where appropriate.
• Reports all suspected child abuse or neglect cases to the proper state child protective service authorities in coordination with the Family Advocacy Representative (FAR) for investigation.
• Reports incidents to Military Police, NCIS and Child Welfare Services as appropriate.
• Maintains a collaborative working relationship with all action agencies to include: Medical Treatment Facility, Military Police, NCIS, and Unit Commanders.
• Functioned as a non-voting consultant during the Clinical Case Staff Meeting.
• Provides input to FAP Case Manager in the establishment and implementation of local policies and directives pertaining to the Family Advocacy Program.
• Assists with measures designed to determine program effectiveness.
• Coordinates with local media to publicize information of FAP seminars, workshops, and programs available to the community.
• Conducts briefings on FAP policies, dynamics of domestic abuse, availability of treatment services, procedural requirements for handling both on and off installation domestic abuse cases, state laws, and other pertinent information about family violence.
• Conducts education classes for Family Support Groups and the community on the prevention of domestic abuse.
• Provides education and training as needed to civilian providers of services on military resources and regulations to center staff on resources available to military service members and dependents within the community.

• Functioned as Victim Advocate for the Family Advocacy Program (FAP) to deliver comprehensive assistance and education to victims of spouse/intimate partner abuse and non-offending parents or caregivers, while informing installation personnel about the best responses to domestic violence/intimate partner abuse.
• Screens victims of domestic abuse, evaluates their needs, and provides them with information about domestic violence, safe and confidential ways to seek assistance, their rights as Navy spouses, and the resources and services available to them.
• Updated resources and services information while advising victims on the limited confidentiality rule before disclosure.
• Coordinated with FAP case manager to develop tailored assistance plans ensuring victim and family safety.
• Ensures that the clinical case manager is fully aware of victim's situation at all times.
• When FAP case managers are not on duty, this may involve working with law enforcement and/or sponsoring command.
• Handled decisions related to a variety of difficult and complex problems and services.
• Provides services for victims of spouse/ intimate partner abuse and their families to include the following: crisis intervention; assistance in securing medical treatment for injuries; information on legal rights and resources available through both military and civilian programs education, transportation; pretrial, trial, and post-trial support; and follow-up.
• Assists in conducting support groups for Child Abuse and Domestic Abuse victims.
• Evaluates needs and establishes with the victim a detailed, individualized safety plan and reviews and revises the plan with the victim as necessary.
• Makes referrals to other helping agencies.
• Followed up with all identified victims three months after initial contact to evaluate ongoing needs for support services.
• Provides advocacy services to non-offending parents or caregivers of identified victims of child abuse.
• Facilitated safety planning and resource identification while collaborating with civilian authorities to empower non-offending parents.
• Advocates will have knowledge regarding child abuse within the context of domestic abuse as well as the impact of child abuse on children.
• Advocates for the expressed interests and safety of the victim when providing information to military and civilian courts; the Clinical Case Staff Meeting; and, when accompanying victims to legal appointments and investigative interviews.
• Reports all suspected child abuse or neglect cases to proper state child protective service authorities in coordination with the Family Advocacy Representative (FAR) for investigation.
• Reported incidents to Military Police and NCIS.
• Maintains a cooperative working relationship with all action agencies to include: Medical Treatment Facility, Military Police, NCIS, and Unit Commanders.
• Contributed expertise as a non-voting consultant during Clinical Case Staff Meetings to enhance case discussions.
• Ensures that FAP case manager is aware of victims, situation and makes written entries in the victim's FAP client case record.
• The documentation will be labeled and identified as a 'Victim Advocate Note,' the content of which will be non-clinical in nature.
• Provides input to FAP Manager in the establishment and implementation of local policies and directives pertaining to the Family Advocacy Victim Advocate Program.
• Assisted in implementing measures to assess and enhance program effectiveness.
• Assists the FAR in the conduct of specific activities of the Community FAP education program such as Child Abuse Prevention Month (April) and Domestic Violence Prevention Month (October) and Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month (February).
• Coordinates with local media to publicize information of FAP seminars, workshops, and programs available to the community.
• May conduct briefings on FAP policies, dynamics of domestic abuse, availability of treatment services, procedural requirements for handling both on and off installation domestic abuse cases, state laws, and other pertinent information about family violence.
• Conducts education classes for Family Support Groups and the community on the prevention of domestic abuse.
• Researches and networks with civilian resources such as court appointed victim advocates, shelters and other civilian resources that provide services to victims of domestic violence and/parents of child abuse victims; provides education and training as needed to civilian providers of services on military resources and regulations to center staff on resources available to victims and victim issues within the community.

• Managed non-medical case management for over 600 special needs Navy and Air Force families, ensuring access to essential resources and support.
• Supported families by identifying needs and connecting them with appropriate community services.
• Delivered crisis intervention and facilitated referrals to Family Advocacy Program, chaplains, support groups, and counseling services for at-risk individuals and families.
• Recognizing signs of domestic violence, suicide, child abuse and referring families to appropriate agencies and community organizations for support services.
• Following up with families following crisis interventions.
• Coordinate and network with community agencies and other service support offices to include installation medical and recreational facilities, community service agencies, and private organizations to find resources that are available to military families.
• Collaborate with other departments and agencies to integrate special needs services for active duty service members and their families.
• Establish and maintain cooperative relationships with local Military Treatment Facility Coordinator, School Liaison Officer, and school district to assist military members and their families.
• Knowledge of military organizations, missions, lifestyle, and situations which can contribute to family stress, problems and crisis situations specifically to include knowledge of the impact that special needs families can have on military transitions.
• Schedule and coordinate trainings for Command Point of Contacts to ensure that they are able to provide service members with support as needed.
• Covered shifts for MFSC reception area as needed, delivering clinical, crisis response, and non-clinical life skills services to over 75K active duty and military families across 22 programs.
• On any given day the MFSC center can process as many as 500 customers and clients between three geographically separated facilities.