Affiliate Member Organizations and Individuals

The Adolescent Trauma Treatment Project (ATTP) is one of seven programs within the Child, Adolescent and Family Services program at the Mental Health Center of Dane County, Inc. Seeking to improve the quality and availability of services for traumatized adolescents in the Dane County area, the ATTP's focus is on adolescents aged 11 to 17—a group that historically has received less attention in the trauma field compared with younger children. ATTP staff members recognize that each individual adolescent's experience is unique and is influenced by numerous cultural, religious, and socioeconomic factors. The project targets adolescents who have survived interpersonal violence and trauma, who may also have survived other traumatic events including serious car accidents, house fires, tornadoes, invasive and lengthy medical procedures, war, or refugee trauma. The ATTP has offered several evidence based interventions: Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress (SPARCS), and Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS). They have also served children with substance abuse and trauma as co-occurring disorders.

The Strength Builders program, developed by Youth Health Service, serves children and adolescents aged 2 to 17 who have experienced complex trauma and their families in the rural Appalachian highlands, where poverty and child maltreatment and other forms of trauma are prevalent. The program also improves community practices and collaborations for the care of traumatized children and adolescents. Increasing local expertise in trauma-focused outreach, diagnosis, and care with evidence-based interventions for children suffering from posttraumatic stress or traumatic grief, the program builds on the expertise, training, and resources available through the NCTSN to expand the reach of the Network into the rural areas of West Virginia.

The Harborview Child Traumatic Stress Program is located at the Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress (HCSATS), a specialty program of the Harborview Medical Center, a University of Washington teaching hospital. The center serves children and adults affected by child maltreatment, rape and other violent crime, and other traumatic events.

Among its accomplishments as part of the NCTSN, the center: 1) increased its capacity to deliver evidence-based interventions at HCSATS; 2) improved mechanisms for identifying and linking affected children served within the medical center to other services; 3) created a collaboration with specialized community providers serving victims in diverse settings to increase identification, access, and availability of culturally specific treatments; and 4) constructed and managed a website for distance learning that also serves as a clinical resource for practitioners across the state.

The Vermont Department of Mental Health will establish the Vermont Child Trauma Collaborative —(VCTC) twelve sites (eleven community mental health treatment centers and one private group practice) serving Vermont's fourteen counties—which will fully implement and sustain the Attachment, Self-Regulation, and Competency (ARC) framework for complex trauma treatment. The target population is 350 children aged 3-18 who have experienced complex trauma (multiple and/or chronic exposure to developmentally adverse interpersonal victimization) and their families. The VCTC will consult with The Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute for the statewide dissemination of ARC, and with the University of Vermont Connecting Cultures Program on adapting the ARC framework to better serve the VCTC's refugee communities. The VCTC has the support of key stakeholders including the state child welfare system, education system, domestic and sexual violence programs, and public/private mental health providers. The objectives are: 1) establishing a VCTC infrastructure at the local and state levels; 2) creating a Trauma-Informed Interagency Referral Network among child- and family-serving programs; 3) utilizing existing ARC Community Treatment and Services Teams to implement standardized trauma assessment and empirically based trauma treatments using the ARC framework; 4) developing in-state trauma consultation and training capacity for implementation and sustainability of ARC; 5) participating in NCTSN to incorporate lessons learned in trauma service implementation; and 6) developing systematic data collection and evaluation to monitor the quality and quantity of services and treatment.

Center for Safe and Healthy Families at Primary Children's Medical Center improves treatment and services for children who experience trauma related to child maltreatment. It used its grant funds to create and maintain a regional network of child therapists in seven Western states who participated and collaborated in training and consultation. This network is no longer being maintained, but the initiative is being sustained through regional collaboration for training on the prevention, investigation, prosecution, and treatment of child abuse. Safe and Healthy Families continues to use evidence-based trauma treatment practices, maintains active collaboration with other centers, and has developed a protocol to help nurses educate parents about evidence-based trauma treatment practices as a part of forensic medical examinations.

The DePelchin Children's Center Child Traumatic Stress Program delivers screening, assessment, case management, and mental health services to traumatized children residing in four southeast counties in Texas. Services are provided through DePelchin's foster care, adoption/postadoption, residential treatment, outpatient mental health counseling, and home-based therapy programs. DePelchin focuses on children who are the victims of complex trauma or who suffer from trauma related to traumatic loss, abuse (physical, psychological, or sexual), maltreatment, or neglect. As a result of its participation in the NCTSN, DePelchin has integrated an emphasis on trauma-informed practices throughout the agency. DePelchin works with the community to provide information and training on best practices in child trauma treatment, and to increase the availability of and improve access to mental health services in the Greater Houston metropolitan area. DePelchin has also been actively involved in supporting evacuees in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Refunded in 2008, DePelchin will implement the Child Trauma Program (DCTP) to mobilize Houston/Gulf Coast communities to help children and families address and overcome the unwanted effects of trauma. The DCTP will target 1) children affected by trauma and in need of trauma-informed and trauma-focused treatment including referral to culturally adapted services (240 children), 2) children and families impacted by the effects of natural disasters including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (360 children), and 3) children and families of military personnel deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan (100 families). The primary service area is Greater Harris County, Texas, including Houston, parts of the Gulf Coast, and surrounding counties. The DCTP will bring together community leaders serving the target populations to expand access to and expertise in child trauma. Major goals are to: 1) establish a coordinated framework of community services, training, and leadership; 2) expand access to the delivery system of trauma-focused mental health care in the Houston/Gulf Coast area to children and families suffering the long-term effects of natural disaster and deployment trauma; and 3) provide leadership for the dissemination of information on the impact of trauma on children and families and the utilization of trauma-focused interventions.

The Border Traumatic Stress Response (Border TSR) Project at Serving Children and Adolescents in Need (S.C.A.N.), Inc. will continue work from the previous grant period, developing trauma-informed systems of care in Webb County and in targeted child service systems in the Rio Grande Valley and the state of Texas. The project will also maintain a Youth Trauma Coalition and Steering Committee; collaborate with experts from the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, and from Treatment and Services Adaptation Centers and Community Treatment and Services Centers about available practices for border children and adolescents, and specialized service settings and needed adaptations; implement selected project designs addressing strategic plan objectives and the best evidence-based services; and implement a tailored trauma-informed system for the targeted youth that relies on evidence-based services adapted to meet their cultural and linguistic needs. The target population is almost entirely first-generation Mexican Americans or Mexican immigrants who are bilingual or primarily Spanish speaking. Border TSR will serve 300 youth: children and adolescents aged 12-17 with co-occurring substance abuse and trauma who are receiving residential substance abuse treatment at S.C.A.N., and Webb County children and adolescents aged 3-17 who have experienced a traumatic event and who will receive outpatient trauma treatment.