Talking to Children About War
This updated fact sheet offers information for caregivers on how to talk to children about war. This fact sheet includes the potential impact and considerations when talking to children about war, how to start the conversation, understanding media coverage, and how to foster resilience.
After a Crisis: Helping Young Children Heal (in Arabic)
Offers tips to parents on how to help young children, toddlers, and preschoolers heal after a traumatic event.
After a Crisis: Helping Young Children Heal (In Hebrew)
Offers tips to parents on how to help young children, toddlers, and preschoolers heal after a traumatic event.
New Translations in American Sign Language (ASL) Available!
In partnership with Gallaudet University Deaf and Hard of Hearing Child Resilience Center, these new video translations in ASL provide information to help children and teens cope after mass violence.Coping After Mass Violence (In ASL)
Offers information on coping after mass violence. This video provides common reactions children and families may be experiencing after a mass violence event, as well as what they can do to take care of themselves.
Talking To Your Children About the Recent Shootings (in ASL)
Provides information on how to talk to children about mass shootings. This video describes ways to talk to children about mass violence events that involve a shooting. It gives tips about how to start the conversation, common reactions children may have, and how to seek help if needed.
Age-Related Reactions to a Traumatic Event (in ASL)
Describes how young children, school-age children, and adolescents react to traumatic events and offers suggestions on how parents and caregivers can help and support them.
For Teens: Coping After Mass Violence (in ASL)
Offers information for teens about common reactions to mass violence, as well as tips for taking care of themselves and connecting with others.
New Webinar! Grounding a Teen Experiencing a Flashback
In this webinar, viewers experience how therapists handle critical turning points during dramatized therapy sessions and then watch multiple therapists review those sessions in case conferences. The topics covered in this series are layered and complex, with no “right answers.” They are a starting point to open up discussions on how to help children and families. This webinar includes a dramatized therapy session where Dr. Gilda Rodriguez helps a young adult with PTSD cope with a flashback by engaging in a variety of grounding techniques.
Mental Health Practice With Immigrant and Refugee Youth
This book provides a framework to guide mental health providers who work with refugees and immigrants. The authors describe the unique needs and challenges of serving immigrant and refugee youth, and offer concrete steps for providing evidence-based, culturally-responsive care. Using the socioecological model, the authors conceptualize the developing child as living within concentric circles that include family, school, neighborhood, and society, embedded within a cultural context. Mental health providers identify and provide targeted support to combat disruptions within any or all of these ecological layers.
The Pride Justice Resource Center
The Pride Justice Resource Center provides training and technical assistance opportunities for juvenile justice practitioners and stakeholders to enhance their capacity, knowledge, and skills to improve and strengthen overall outcomes for justice-involved Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, and Two-Spirit plus youth. These resources include supporting system change, family engagement, and acceptance, identifying gaps in knowledge related to LGBTQ2S+ and the intersections of multiple identities.
Trauma, Stress and Caregiver Wellbeing
This new training module from the University of Kentucky Center on Trauma and Children was designed for those who would like to deliver a training for resource parents on the topic of secondary traumatic stress and caregiver well-being. It contains general information on trauma with a specific focus on caregiver stress including how hearing about the traumatic experiences and seeing the aftereffects of trauma on children can impact caregivers. It provides concrete strategies to help address these impacts and to support well-being for caregivers.
Sexual Behavior in Children and Youth (SBCY) Series
This webinar series addresses normal sexual behavior in children in addition to exploring cautionary and problematic sexual behavior (PSB) that children may display. Various factors associated with children’s sexual behavior are identified in order to assist clinicians in understanding the appropriate assessment and disclosure processes involved when problematic symptoms are present.
RECENT JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS
Mental Illness Following Physical Assault in Children, authored by Étienne Archambault, - Simone N. Vigod, Hilary K. Brown, Hong Lu, Kinwah Fung, Michelle Shouldice, and Natasha Ruth Saunders, examines the risk of incident health record diagnoses of mental illness among children who experienced assault compared with children who did not. This population-based matched cohort study used linked health administrative data sets in Ontario, Canada. Children aged 0 to 13 years who experienced an incident physical assault between 2006 and 2014 were age-matched (1:4) to children who had not experienced assault and followed up for a minimum of 5 years. Data were analyzed from January 2020 to March 2022. A total of 21,948 children unexposed to assault and 5487 exposed to assault were included in the study with a mean (SD) age of 7.0 (4.6) years. In this population-based matched cohort study, children who experienced assault had, on average, a 2 times higher risk of receiving a mental illness diagnosis and were more likely than children who had not experienced assault to present to acute care for mental illness. Early intervention to support mental health of assaulted children is warranted, particularly in the first year following assault.
The Feasibility and Utility of Trauma Screening for Children Involved in the Juvenile Justice System, authored Jason M. Lang, Brittany C. L. Lange, Christian M. Connell, and Tracy Duran, explores staff perceptions about the feasibility, utility, and potential for distress associated with trauma screening. Childhood exposure to potentially traumatic events and adversity is highly prevalent and linked to adverse outcomes. Many children suffering from symptoms related to traumatic stress are not identified or do not receive appropriate trauma-focused treatment, including evidence-based treatments. Trauma screening is a promising strategy to improve identification, but many child-serving staff members have concerns about asking youth and caregivers about trauma. Between 2014 and 2019, the Child Trauma Screen was used in 1,272 trauma screenings completed by juvenile probation officers or mental health clinicians as part of routine practice with youth in the juvenile justice system. Staff completed a brief postscreening survey about the feasibility and utility of the screening and the perceived level of child or caregiver distress. Across staff roles, trauma screening was deemed to be feasible and worthwhile to practice, with very few staff members reporting that children or caregivers appeared very uncomfortable as a result of screening, although some differences in feasibility and utility by staff role did occur. Trauma screening measures appear to be useful and practical in juvenile justice settings when appropriate support is provided, including when administered by nonclinical staff. Nonclinical staff may benefit from additional training, consultation, or support with trauma screening.
Looking for Trainings?
Visit the NCTSN Training Page on LinkedIn
Not on our mailing list? Click here to sign up.
This project was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The views, policies, and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of SAMHSA or HHS.
