Florida

The Children’s Sexual-Related Trauma Advocacy, Response and Treatment Center (C-START), a Community Treatment and Services Center, will build agency and community-wide capacity to deliver evidence-based, trauma-informed, culturally competent treatment interventions in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties for child victims of sexual abuse and for children with sexual behavior problems in the child welfare system. The children and caregivers participating in this program will come from diverse ethnic, racial, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds, reflective of the population of South Florida. A projected 1,446 children will receive evidence-supported treatment during the four years of the project.

The Integrated T3 (Trauma, Training and Treatment) Project will increase access to outpatient trauma treatment through expanding an existing outpatient treatment program. The project will target children and adolescents aged 10–18 who have suffered traumatic events, and who have other co-occurring mental health disorders and/or substance use disorders. Placement will be determined based on the severity of traumatic events—prioritizing those children and youth who are: 1) from military families, 2) at highest risk of substance abuse or dependence, and 3) experiencing problems associated with substance use (e.g., emotional, physical, legal, social familial, academic issues) and who cannot otherwise access such services. The project will offer trauma-focused and trauma treatment services to children, adolescents, and their families/primary caregivers, using a combination of two evidence-based models: Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and the family-centered Assertive Community Reinforcement Approach (ACRA) model. During the lifetime of the grant, Integrated T3 will serve a minimum of 240 children/adolescents, and will offer framing and technical assistance on trauma-focused treatment services to the 23 providers in the Central Florida Cares Health System’s Managing Entity Network

The Trauma Recovery Initiative (TRI) will be developed by the Children's Home Society of Florida, in partnership with the Florida Mental Health Institute. The goal is to demonstrate and evaluate the effectiveness of in-home and in-office Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) as a sustainable, culturally competent, trauma-informed treatment to ameliorate adverse consequences of complex trauma for abused and neglected children aged 2–10 including children of military families. The TRI will particularly focus on using PCIT to promote effective resolution of negative behaviors that are often externalized expressions of trauma issues experienced by this population of abused and neglected children, and their families. The TRI-Center also incorporates innovative approaches to trauma screening, training, and treatment for foster parents, adoptive parents, and relative and nonrelative caregivers; and works to involve biological parents in the intervention Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) in situations with a child welfare concurrent plan.

Through Project ETC.: Enhancing Services to Traumatized Children, Gateway Community Services will expand and enhance its trauma-focused services to children living in Northeast Florida who have symptoms of PTSD, or who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event or series of events producing sub-threshold symptoms of PTSD. The children served through Gateway include 1) young children aged 0-12 accompanying their parent to residential substance abuse treatment; 2) adolescent males aged 12-18 under the supervision of the Department of Juvenile Justice and placed in a secure residential program; 3) adolescents aged 12-18 who are in residential treatment for a substance use or co-occurring substance and mental health disorder; and 4) adolescents who are receiving substance abuse outpatient treatment in a community setting. The project plans to serve 120 youth annually (80 the first year) for a total of 440 for the life of the funding. Goals include: 1) implement and evaluate effective trauma-focused and trauma-informed treatment and services for children at Gateway Community Services; 2) facilitate local use of trauma-informed and trauma-focused services in youth serving agencies in Northeast Florida; and 3) promote community awareness of the need for trauma-informed services for children in Northeast Florida.

Directions for Mental Health, Inc. is a community mental health center in Clearwater, Florida, serving children and adolescents, aged birth to 18, who present with mental health symptoms and a history of trauma. Healing the Hurt is a partnership with Hospice of the Florida Suncoast and Family Service Centers, organizations that provide interventions to children and adolescents who have recently experienced trauma related to death or serious illness of a family member, or from sexual assault. Healing the Hurt works closely with the local school board, Safe Start Initiative, and the juvenile justice system; and participates in a replication of the Child Development-Community Policing program. In addition to expanding services and improving access, Healing the Hurt focuses on increasing community awareness of the effects of trauma on children and on training other providers in the region.