STRONGER (Supporting Trauma Recovery Opportunities & Nurturing Growing Emotional Resilience) supports trauma-exposed children and families in the Greater Rochester, NY area. STRONGER provides services for unaccompanied refugee, immigrant, and newcomer children, who may experience symptoms of traumatic stress stemming from their experiences. Trauma-responsive mental health services are available for military-affiliated children and families. Addressing the reality of health care disparities, and often limited access to appropriate and sensitive care, STRONGER partners with local child-serving community systems such as child welfare, mental health, early childhood services, refugee supports, school districts, and military-affiliated organizations, to link with our services. Through STRONGER, a total of 750 individuals will be served over the five-year project. We offer Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents (IPT-A), Tuning Into Kids/Teens (TIK/T), and Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees (TST-R) depending on developmental levels and needs. STRONGER draws on resources from NCTSN and SAMHSA to provide psychoeducation and ongoing dialogue regarding trauma-responsive care with community partners and referral sources. STRONGER collaborates with NCTSI-Category II Centers to develop, advance, or adapt trauma-informed interventions. STRONGER enhances availability of culturally-informed evidence-based trauma treatment services and builds on existing collaborative efforts of a multidisciplinary team of community stakeholders, including a Community Advisory Board and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging team working to improve the lives of children and families exposed to trauma.
University of Rochester, Mt. Hope Family Center (Category III)
University of Southern California Adolescent Trauma Training Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine
The University of Southern California Adolescent Trauma Training Center (USC-ATTC) continues to provide virtual and in-person trainings nation-wide and at our project site in Torrance, California focused on the assessment and treatment of complex trauma in ethnically diverse, socially marginalized adolescents using our evidence-based model, Integrative Treatment of Complex Trauma for Adolescents (ITCT-A). Monthly webinars are provided on specific trauma-related topics and include presentations on trauma treatment using teletherapy, attachment and family systems issues associated with ITCT-A, treating risky and compulsive behavior, addressing impacts of racism in trauma treatment, self-care and secondary trauma, supervision within ITCT-A, and treating trauma with mindfulness. Our website: attc.usc.edu includes training webinars, six treatment and implementation guides, assessment measures, tools, and other resources associated with ITCT-A that can be downloaded free-of-charge. Clinicians can also become ITCT-A certified by attending and presenting cases on the monthly nation-wide consultation conference calls.
University of Tennessee Health Science Center: Center of Excellence for Children in State Custody
The UTHSC Center of Excellence (COE) for Children in State Custody is part of a statewide network of five regional Centers of Excellence dedicated to improving behavioral and physical health services to children in or at risk of state custody by providing both consultative and direct services. Services include case review and consultation; psychological, psychiatric, and speech/language evaluation; and educational advocacy. Referral questions may include mental health, physical health, developmental, medication, or placement issues. The COE also provides training to child welfare personnel, foster parents, and mental health providers in the community.
University of Utah, Department of Pediatrics, Center for Safe and Healthy Families
Pediatric Integrated Post-trauma Services (PIPS) developed the Care Process Model for Pediatric Traumatic Stress (CPM-PTS), the first and only empirically-supported model guiding providers in pediatric settings to screen for trauma, identify risk for traumatic stress and suicidality, and provide a trauma-informed approach that guides referrals for at-risk children to evidence-based trauma treatment as well as targeted, brief in-clinic interventions. As of January 2023, the CPM-PTS has been successfully implemented in >94 separate clinical settings in 21 US states, reaching tens of thousands of youth. For the funding period (2022-2027), PIPS activities center on training and implementation strategies for wide-scale dissemination, adoption, and sustainability of the CPM-PTS in diverse pediatric and advocacy center settings through: 1. Establishment of regional Technical Assistance Centers, 2. Development of enhanced implementation strategies for rural and non-rural service settings, and 3. Adaptation of the CPM-PTS for children in foster care. PIPS partners with national professional organizations, large healthcare systems, and the National Children's Alliance (NCA). Ultimately, the goal of the PIPS center is to remediate mental health disparities by supporting best practice identification and response on a national scale for children at risk for traumatic stress and suicide.
UPMC Western Behavioral Health/Theiss Center for Trauma and Early Childhood Behavioral Health
The University of Pittsburgh's Theiss Complex Child and Adolescent Trauma (CCAT) Project expands access to evidence-based trauma treatment for children in Western Pennsylvania. It aims to improve service access and outcomes for high-need, underserved communities including racial/ethnic minority and low-income populations. It places an emphasis on children impacted by complex trauma, particularly those in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. In collaboration with UPMC Western Behavioral Health and its Theiss Center for Trauma and Early Childhood Behavioral Health (Theiss), the CCAT Project's primary goal is to increase access to trauma-related, evidence-based practices (EBPs) in Western Pennsylvania to remediate the impact of complex traumatic stress. This goal will be accomplished by: 1) expanding the age range of Theiss trauma services (up to age 18) through the incorporation of Integrative Treatment of Complex Trauma (ITCT, Child & Adolescent versions); 2) expanding the geographic reach of Theiss by leveraging UPMC's Western Behavioral Health network throughout Western Pennsylvania for the implementation of evidence-based trauma treatments to support children impacted by complex trauma (including ITCT as well as Child Parent Psychotherapy-CPP); 3) facilitating trauma-related training and professional development for the mental health and related workforce (emphasizing the fields of child welfare/juvenile justice); and 4) serving as a resource for high-need, underserved communities by collaborating with local human service agencies to provide prompt clinical consultation and support to meet the complex needs of members of their community experiencing traumatic events.
UT Graduate School of Medicine Center of Excellence
The UTGSM Center of Excellence serves children and families involved with the child welfare system. The Implementing Multi-system Programs to Strengthen Attachment in Children and Families Affected by Trauma (IMPACT) is focusing on young children impacted by trauma. We are working with community mental health centers to train clinicians in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and its adaptations for toddlers and for trauma (Trauma-Directed Intervention). We are utilizing reflective supervision practices and address secondary traumatic stress with clinicians. We also offer the Resource Parent Curriculum with the Child Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE) program for foster and kinship placements, and teach case workers the CARE model for use with the children they work with. We are partnering with other NCTSN sites to enhance screening of young children as well.
Van Den Pol, Rick, PhD
From 2003-2016, Rick van den Pol served as Principal Investigator for the Category II National Native Children's Trauma Center. Rick currently provides post-retirement service for the University of Montana, and he works as a trauma consultant for S. Brite, Inc., an American Indian-owned firm with academic and real-world experience in economic development, public safety, healthcare, social services, and governance.
Van Tassell, Roy, MS, LPC.
Roy Van Tassell MS LPC is the former Director of Clinical Services for Family & Children's Services in Tulsa OK. a Category 3 Treatment Center. He currently is Director Trauma and Evidenced-based Interventions for Centene Health, providing training in trauma informed care and EB interventions for providers working with foster youth in multiple states and an active individual affiliate. He was part of the first cohort of TF-CBT National Trainers, and is also a national trainer for CE-CERT -a model for secondary trauma, and a facilitator for Child Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE). He is co-chair of the Problem Sexual Behavior subcommittee of the Child Sexual Abuse Workgroup having worked with youth with PSB and teens with illegal sexual behavior at the CAT III site. In addition being a TF-CBT trainer to he is also trained and has trained in and or clinical practice in CPP, PCIT, PFA, and CBITS and is a participant member of the Child Traumatic Grief/Traumatic Separation and several other network workgroups. He also participates in Oklahoma's statewide TF-CBT implementation (OK-TFCBT) with the University of OK and OK Dept. of Mental Health as well as clinical consultation for Mt. Arukah, a new residential program in OK for trafficked youth.
Velasco-Hodgson, M. Carolina, MSW
M. Carolina Velasco-Hodgson Is a bilingual clinician with more than fifteen years of experience. She is from Chile where she was trained and practices as a clinical psychologist; after obtaining a Fulbright Scholarship, she completed her master’s in Social Work at Boston College and currently she is a Public Health PhD’s student. She was a social work intern for two years at Child Witness to Violence Project, a family specialist for the first year of Project Dulce; she is also an active member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Translation Review Committee since 2010, an Individual Affiliate to the network since 2014 and has adapted and translated material into spanish for families affected by traumatic experiences. Carolina currently works in Chile as adjunct assistant professor at the School of Social Work, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and she is an infant and child psychotherapist in private practice. Her interests include trauma prevention and intervention, immigration, cultural child development, and child parent bonding and attachment.
Villaverde, Vivien
I am a Clinical Associate Professor in the Field Education Department of the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. I graduated from Columbia University School of Social Work with a Master of Science in Social Work and am currently an EdD candidate at the USC Rossier School of Education. I hold licenses as an LCSW and a PPSC. I worked as a School Social Worker at LAUSD for 10 years prior to becoming an academic. My area of expertise in schools was in collaborative care for multi-systemic youths. As an academic, I became a member of the Treatment and Services Adaptation Center for Resiliency, Hope, and Wellness in Schools and Communities as a Support Specialist. I provided consultation and training on trauma-informed interventions, disaster/crisis response, and trauma-responsive program development. I am a national/international trainer for BounceBack, SSET, TISE, PFA, STAT, and Motivational Interviewing. Additionally, I contributed to the development of TISE and PFA and consulted on the updates for SSET. In June 2021, I became the Program Director for the TSA Center for Schools. I have an extensive background in multi-systems collaboration within education systems. My expertise includes evidence-informed and evidence-based intervention training and consultation with schools and districts. I also support, consult, and coach on trauma-responsive organizational transformation working with school leaders throughout the country in creating and implementing multi-tiered system change strategies. I worked internationally partnering with Canada, the Philippine Department of Education, NGOs, and the National Center for School Mental Health in South Korea to enhance trauma programming and response to crises and disasters. Further, I have made presentations on our trauma-informed work at various national and international conferences and currently partner with the California Department of Education in their trauma-informed projects.