Resilience in Crisis: Bridging Frontline Practice and Research in Pediatric Child Maltreatment

In pediatric medical settings such as emergency departments, cases of child abuse and neglect present acute crises that demand immediate intervention while also laying the groundwork for a child's long-term recovery and resilience. Social workers and health professionals in these settings must ensure safety and address trauma even as they strive to support the child's inherent strengths and capacity for adaptation under dire circumstances. Resilience in the context of child maltreatment is multifaceted not just an individual trait but a process bolstered by family, community, and systemic support and it can be both nurtured and hindered in the aftermath of abuse. Understanding how resilience can be fostered at the bedside and how it may be complicated by ongoing adversity or systemic barriers is critical to improving outcomes for vulnerable children. Yet practice and research often approach these challenges from different angles, underscoring the need to bridge acute clinical care with broader child welfare perspectives and evidence. This roundtable convenes a pediatric emergency department social work supervisor, a child protective services practitioner, a pediatric ER social worker pursuing a PhD, a doctoral candidate focused on participatory methods and family voice in child welfare, a clinical instructor with over two decades of pediatric emergency social work experience, and a child maltreatment researcher and assistant professor focusing on trauma and resilience. Together, they offer multifaceted perspectives on how resilience is defined, supported, and complicated in cases of child abuse and neglect. Drawing on their experiences, topics will range from clinical practice during acute crises implementing trauma-informed, resilience-focused interventions with children and families in emergency situations, and collaborating with child protective services to ensure immediate safety to emerging research on the biological and behavioral impacts of early adversity and pathways to recovery. The discussion will critically examine how evidence-based knowledge aligns or diverges from front-line practice, attending to systemic obstacles such as racism, poverty, bias, and institutional mistrust that can impede both immediate and long-term support for families. Moreover, the panel will emphasize the importance of family and community voice in shaping interventions and policy, exploring how lived experience can guide more effective and equitable responses. Following brief opening reflections by each panelist, a moderated interactive discussion will engage the speakers and audience in examining these issues in depth. By integrating empirical insights with practice wisdom, this session will enrich the social work knowledge base in practice, policy, theory, and research methodology related to child maltreatment and health. The interactive format combining structured opening reflections from each panelist with moderated dialogue among panelists and attendees will yield actionable implications for future work. Anticipated outcomes include strategies to operationalize resilience across healthcare and child welfare settings, recommendations to bridge gaps between research and practice in supporting maltreated children, and guidance to address systemic barriers while centering family voice. By highlighting collaborative, multidisciplinary perspectives, the roundtable aims to inform the development of trauma-informed, resilience-oriented approaches that ultimately enhance the safety, healing, and well-being of children and families in crisis.