Ohio

A Regional Center of Excellence (COE) for the Treatment and Study of Adverse Childhood Events will train medical and mental health providers of child services to treat traumatized children in their communities in a nine-county region of northeast Ohio. Using trauma-informed and trauma-focused care, the training will prepare communities to screen, assess, and treat traumatized children. Screening for adverse childhood events (ACE) will also be implemented at targeted points of entry into Akron Children's Hospital’s continuum of care. Children who have been exposed to ACEs will be referred for trauma-focused care in their own communities. This therapeutic web is expected to reach a total of 95,900 children/professionals in the region during the grant period through training, screening, assessment, and/or treatment.

The Trauma Treatment Replication Center is part of the Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children, a child abuse evaluation, treatment, and research center located in Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati. The center is focused on acquiring expertise in the replication of child treatment models in community settings. Its goal is to transfer evidence-based child and adolescent trauma treatments from their developers to community-level providers.

The Children Who Witness Violence Program [Funding period: 2002 - 2005]

The Children Who Witness Violence Program and the Transforming Care for Traumatized Youth in Child Welfare program are both projects of Mental Health Services for Homeless Persons, Inc. (MHS) in Cleveland, Ohio. The Children Who Witness Violence Program provides immediate, 24-hour trauma-response services to children and families who have been referred by police officers from participating communities in the greater Cleveland area. Police officers refer families who are involved in domestic or community violence. A crisis intervention specialist is assigned to the family, makes contact with them within an hour or two, and schedules an initial visit to stabilize the situation and provide immediate trauma intervention. Children are referred to therapy if needed.

Transforming Care for Traumatized Children is a collaborative project between MHS and the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) of Cuyahoga County. MHS staff is conducting assessments for 600 children annually aged 4 to 18 believed to be at risk for traumatic stress disorders and is providing evidence-based interventions for 400 of the children. MHS is also training DCFS staff and supervisors to help them integrate trauma-informed practices into their work.

 

Nationwide Children's Hospital (NCH), the largest provider of mental health services to children and adolescents in central Ohio, will create a program [WB2]for children and adolescents who have experienced severe psychiatric disorders and complex trauma. A trauma-informed service system will be developed, which will enable more youth in the target population to receive evidence-based treatment. Goals are to: 1) provide training and technical support in trauma-informed services and evidence-based treatment to 125 administrators and providers from ten child and family servicing agencies; 2) serve 675 youth/families (including a large number of Medicaid clients and African American families), implementing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) with Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) mediation treatment, and care management; 3) find local resources to assist in securing the region's commitment to implementing these practices; and 4) systematically study the need for cultural adaptations to these treatment approaches and implement these adaptations if warranted.

The Cullen Center for Children, Adolescents, and Families provides field-tested and evidence-based, multisensory, trauma-focused therapies to help traumatized youth and their families reduce trauma symptoms, maximize their daily functioning, and restore their abilities to develop and enjoy healthy interpersonal relationships. Serving northwest Ohio, the center offers clinic-based services for youth and families exposed to any type of trauma including community violence, child abuse, traumatic loss, serious illness and injuries, and witnessing domestic violence. Through an outreach program, the center serves youth in the juvenile justice system who have been exposed to trauma and charged with domestic violence. An additional outreach program, funded through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, provides assessment and trauma-focused treatment to families with infants and young children who are exposed to domestic violence. Through its educational, advocacy, and abuse-prevention work, the center helps develop the community's capacity to respond to the needs of children and families exposed to trauma.

Consumers, families, and survivors work in partnership with the center—offering their input at all phases of planning, program development, service provision, evaluation, and community advocacy. Training, support, and other resources are shared with clinical professionals nationwide, so that youth and families exposed to trauma can access evidence-based, trauma-focused services locally, across Ohio, and in other regions of the United States.