The Mercy Hospital pediatrician who directs its child advocacy center has won a national award honoring doctors whose work contributes to child abuse prevention.

Dr. Mary Carrasco, who created both the child advocacy center at Children's Hospital and the one called A Child's Place at Mercy won the 2005 Ray E. Helfer M.D. Award given annually by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Alliance of Children's Trust and Prevention Funds.

In addition to the advocacy centers, Carrasco created the first Family Support Center in Allegheny County.

"She is an excellent clinician and a terrific person," said Marc Cherna, Allegheny County's director of human services. "Our community is very fortunate to have her."

Cherna said their philosophies are similar, so they've had a particularly productive relationship since he arrived in Allegheny County from New Jersey in the late 1990s.

Both feel that supporting families and helping parents gain the skills to care for their children properly are the best ways to prevent child abuse.

That is the role of Family Support Centers. Allegheny County has 30 centers where parents can get services such as drop-in day care, parenting classes and help finding housing.

At the hospitals' child advocacy centers, abused children are interviewed by one forensic expert instead of being asked to repeat the story to a police officer, a case worker, a doctor and others.

In addition to directing the center at Mercy, Dr. Carrasco conducts many of the examinations that the center's manager, Joan Mills, said require an extraordinarily gentle expert.

The award is named for the late Dr. Ray Helfer, a pioneer in the prevention of child abuse. He came up with the idea that each state should create a fund to support child abuse prevention.

Pennsylvania's fund, called the Children's Trust Fund, is supported by $10 surcharges on marriage licenses and divorce filings.