The Center for Child Trauma Assessment, Services, and Systems Integration (CCTASSI) at Northwestern University offers national expertise on addressing the complex, developmental effects of trauma for system-involved youth and developing trauma-informed, child-serving systems and agencies. Our target population includes frontline and other providers in child welfare and juvenile justice and the youth and families served, focusing on minority youth and subpopulations at-risk due to systemic oppression and racial trauma. This includes racial and ethnic minority immigrants and refugees (I/R), multisystem involved youth (MSIY), transition age youth (TAY), and commercially sexually exploited (CSE) youth. Our goals are: 1) Increase awareness, knowledge, and skill of frontline providers to identify and respond to complex, developmental effects of trauma; 2) Develop comprehensive, system-wide trauma-informed services in child-serving settings; 3) Increase capacity for trauma-informed, cross-system coordination for MSIY; 4) Increase providers' awareness, knowledge, and skills to prevent and respond to youth and families impacted by systemic trauma, including oppression, disparities, racism, and other forms of identity-based discrimination; 5) Increase provider understanding of and responsiveness to the unique needs of subpopulations of youth and families impacted by complex, developmental trauma, including I/R, CSE, and TAY. Our activities focus on adaptation and dissemination of evidence-supported, trauma-informed approaches and curricula (including Think Trauma), and specialized training/consultation to support systems transformation. We also work to increase provider knowledge and enhance responses to systemic trauma and oppression through our films on TAY and Race & Trauma.
Network Members
This listing of NCTSN members includes current grantees as well as NCTSN Affiliates, former grantees who have maintained their ties to the Network.
Northwestern University/Center for Child Trauma Assessment, Services and Systems Integration
Novacek, Jill
Jill Novacek is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who graduated from the University of Illinois with her MSW. She has been in the field for over 20 years with experience working with children, adolescents, adults, and families with a variety of counseling needs, including sexual behavior problems and trauma. She has experience with youth and adults involved in the justice and child welfare systems and provided crisis intervention. She is a strong believer that behavior has meaning and there is always hope for a healthy future. She was the Principal Investigator for the 2012-2016 SAMHSA/NCTSN project "The Healing Path" in Gurnee, Illinois. She holds a child welfare license as well as licenses as a Sex Offender Treatment Provider and Sex Offender Evaluator. She is the Program Director at CYN Counseling Center.
Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS)
The Engaging Adversity, Surviving Trauma in Oklahoma City (EAST OKC) project seeks to reduce the impact of trauma in 10 of the city's most trauma-exposed zip codes. This will be accomplished by creating a network of care within the community that is both safe and feels safe to seek services with. A workforce will be built of clinicians in the area that are culturally-responsive to the needs of the community. Access to trauma-focused treatments will be increased and will include Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) and group adaptations of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT). The ODMHSAS will partner specifically with 3 CCBHCs/CMHCs and 1 social service agency that is currently a leading provider of early childhood services in the city. In addition to providing therapy services to impacted children and families, the project will focus on outreach within the community (to families and providers), infant mental health consultation, and training opportunities for service providers.
Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center
The Families Increasing Resilience, Strength and Trust through positive relationships (FIRST) Program will leverage training expertise, program evaluation, and product development to further the NCTSN's mission to positively influence the lives of families impacted by trauma. The program will increase availability of two evidence-based interventions—Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and Sexual Behavior Problems: Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment (SBP-CBT)—delivered with high fidelity to traumatized families. Both PCIT (a SAMHSA-recognized intervention) and SBP-CBT (a comprehensive family-based intervention for children with inappropriate sexual behaviors) can be utilized to address child behavioral problems common among children affected by sexual and nonsexual trauma, and among families dealing with military deployment–related trauma. Implementation methods include innovative telehealth applications and Learning Collaborative strategies. The FIRST Program will expand treatments to military families experiencing deployment stressors and will enhance family resilience. The collaboration will contribute to the Network's understanding of the implementation process for family-based interventions including integrating new research findings from the program’s studies of telehealth-based implementation. Additionally, the program will provide support and leadership to Category III sites and other agencies seeking to expand their portfolio of trauma-informed services. Project deliverables will include: 1) PCIT and SBP-CBT Learning Collaborative models, 2) uniform training methods and materials, 3) telehealth protocols, and 4) development of a model of care for families of children with trauma exposure and secondary behavior management problems.
Olive View UCLA Education and Research Institute
We will provide a care process model for pediatric trauma stress (CMPT) and trauma-reminder focused interventions, including Trauma and Grief Component Therapy for Adolescents (TGCTA), a Family Intervention for Suicide Prevention (FISP), and a Reminder Focused Positive Psychiatry intervention (RFPP) - in collaboration with NCTSN Category II Centers for adolescents with PTSD and their families at Olive View UCLA Medical Center (OVMC). Clinicians and nurses at Pediatric Clinics, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall mental health clinics will achieve trauma-informed skillset and competency to implement. Trauma-informed screening: CMPT will be primarily implemented in pediatric and mental health clinics, screening 1,500 at-risk adolescents for PTSD per year for a total of 7,500 adolescents. Adolescents at risk for PTSD will be evaluated using the Pediatric Traumatic Stress Screening Tool, and based on the adolescent's trauma symptom severity and the presence of functional impairment in the adolescent's life, adolescents with PTSD will be assigned to one of three treatment interventions, including protective – for mild symptoms, - resilient – for moderate symptoms - or restorative – for severe symptoms. Trauma Reminder Interventions: FISP, TGCTA, and RFPP interventions will be implemented at OVMC. The project will provide evidence-based interventions to 210 youth with PTSD and their families per year for a total of 1,050 youth. The population of focus is trauma-exposed adolescents 9 to 18 years old. This includes children of military families, children involved in the child welfare system, children in pediatric clinics, and adolescents with co-morbid substance use disorders across underserved youth in north Los Angeles.
One Hope United Northern Region, The Healing Path: A Trauma Treatment Program for Youth
The Healing Path: A Trauma Treatment Program for Youth provides assessment and treatment of trauma in children into the mental health, substance abuse, schools, and juvenile justice systems in Lake County. An evidence-based approach; Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC) used to treat traumatic stress symptoms in children aged 3 to 18. Medicaid and some private insurance is accepted.
Ozark Center, Inc.,
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Ozark Center, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, has been providing behavioral health services since February 1965 and became an entity of Freeman Health System in 1996. We employ employees in 30 locations across Jasper, Newton, McDonald and Barton counties, and serve approximately 14,000 clients.
At Ozark Center, we continually seek new ways to provide quality services to our clients by exploring new products, services and locations in an effort to provide our clients with quality mental healthcare. We believe that a community-based system is inherently more responsive to the needs of the community and the individuals served.
Since opening, we have continued to expand services and programs in the communities we serve through innovation, pursuit of grants, fundraising activities and passion for providing gold-standard, evidence-based services. This is reflected in our mission statement. To improve the health of the communities we serve through contemporary, innovative, trauma-informed, quality healthcare solutions. As the area™s largest and most comprehensive behavioral healthcare provider, our qualified staff provides effective, caring and confidential services for adults, families and children, including:
Individual, group and family therapy
Psychiatric services/medication management
Residential care
Acute inpatient care
24-hour crisis services
In-home support
Our goal is to assist people of all ages who are dealing with mental illness, addiction, trauma and/or abuse to develop the skills essential for living a life with dignity and purpose. Ozark Center provides a comprehensive system of mental healthcare programs from outpatient to hospitalization.
Packard, Jennifer
Jen Packard in a Licensed Clinical Social Worker specializing in working with youth, adults, families and systems that have been impacted by trauma. She currently serves as the Social Work Coordinator for the Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Program with the Atlanta Veterans Affairs (VA). Jen is a national trainer in Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC) through the Center for Trauma Training, Inc. She is certified in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and is an approved TF-CBT supervisor. In her client-focused work, Jen incorporates her training and experience with evidence-based models such as EMDR, ARC, and TF-CBT, as well as Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Internal Family Systems (IFS) Jen also practices from the paradigms of interpersonal neurobiology, attachment, and mindfulness-based psychotherapy. She incorporates play and art therapy principles and techniques in her work as well as trauma-informed yoga. Jen was previously the Director of Project 180, a SAMHSA funded project through CHRIS 180, a non-profit organization in Atlanta, GA, which aimed to build the trauma-informed workforce, increase access to school-based mental health services, and develop trauma-informed schools. Jen was also a clinical supervisor, trainer, and therapist at CHRIS 180. Jen earned her BFA in Contemporary Dance from University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 1999 and earned her MS in Social Work from Columbia University School of Social Work in 2008.
Parrinello, Brittany, MA, LSW
Brittany Parrinello, MA, LSW previously worked as a clinical case manager for the Kovler Center Child Trauma Program, providing culturally adapted, evidence-based individual and group therapy, as well as case management to immigrant and refugee children and youth. Brittany currently works as a clinical psychotherapist in a group practice in Chicago Illinois.