MACHIAS – The family division director for the state’s court system visited Washington County on Monday to introduce a new child welfare evaluators program that is being rolled out through the state, one courthouse at a time.

Called CANEP, for Child Abuse and Neglect Evaluators Project, the program was piloted in the District Court in Lewiston in June of last year. It was expanded to the Hancock County courthouses in Ellsworth and Bar Harbor in January and, more recently, district courts in Augusta and Waterville.

Once a judge orders a diagnostic evaluation in pending child protection cases, the CANEP office in Augusta provides approved doctoral-level evaluators who are able to undertake clinical child maltreatment evaluations for the court. The turnaround time is fairly short, six to eight weeks.

The evaluations, which involve parents, guardians, attorneys, caseworkers and the children at risk, are meant to be impartial and comprehensive. They address factors that might increase or mitigate the risk of child maltreatment.

Since CANEP was initiated 13 months ago, the program has handled court-ordered evaluations for 131 children, parents and other caregivers or guardians. These have taken place in Lewiston (91), Livermore Falls (6), Ellsworth (12), Belfast (5), Bar Harbor (2), Augusta (7), Waterville (3) and York (5).

Additional court locations are being added incrementally, said Rau, director of the Family Division of the Administrative Office of the Courts.

“We were in Newport last week, and Machias today,” Rau said. “We are building slowly because we don’t want to swamp our offices.”

Washington County Judge John Romei asked the county’s defense attorneys, guardians ad litem and the Machias staff of the Department of Human Services to hear Rau’s presentation. She was accompanied by Phyllis Merriam, the CANEP coordinator.

The CANEP program evolved when the state’s family division realized that evaluation services for child protective cases were “uneven in quality” around the state, Rau said.

“Timeliness wasn’t important,” Rau said. “There was also the perception that because DHS had arranged the evaluation, the evaluator was inclined to view the DHS position favorably.”

The clinical child maltreatment risk assessments produced by CANEP evaluators can identify risk and protective factors, parental readiness to change, parental capacity to utilize treatment interventions and treatment plans and recommendations that facilitate child safety and welfare.

CANEP currently maintains a list of 28 approved evaluators between Kennebunk and Houlton. Although the single Washington County evaluator listed works out of Vanceboro, Merriam said two more Washington County professionals are on the training track to join the project as local resources.