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The National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative is designed to address child trauma issues by providing federal support for a national effort to improve treatment and services for child trauma. In addition, the initiative expands availability and accessibility of effective community services and promotes better understanding of issues relevant to providing effective interventions for children and adolescents exposed to traumatic events. The first 18 grants for this initiative were awarded in the fall of 2001.

"These programs are essential to help children deal with the attacks of Sept. 11 and other traumatic events," Secretary Thompson said. "These children should not have to suffer for the rest of their lives. These grants signify our ongoing commitment to substantially improving mental health services for children and adolescents exposed to violence or disasters to initiate physical and emotional trauma recovery."

These grants funded by HHS' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will add to a network of centers funded to identify and develop effective treatment and services; collect clinical data on child trauma cases and services; develop resources on trauma for professionals, consumers, and the public; and develop trauma-focused public education and professional training.

"Traumatic stress can result from many incidents -- experiencing natural and human-caused disasters, child abuse, rape or other dangerous crimes, as well as witnessing such trauma happening to a loved one," said SAMHSA Administrator
Charles G. Curie. "This initiative will increase our understanding and help provide the best interventions for children and adolescents."

This initiative is made up of three components: the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, which was funded in the fall of 2001; Intervention Development and Evaluation Centers; and Community Treatment and Service Centers.

The Intervention Development and Evaluation Center grantees will identify, support, improve or develop effective treatment and service approaches for:

(1) Different types of child traumatic events, including witnessing or experiencing interpersonal violence or life threats; traumatic loss of family; sexual assault and abuse; medical trauma, including injuries from accidents and invasive medical procedures; natural and human-caused disasters; and war, displacement and refugee trauma.

(2) Developmentally appropriate trauma treatment and intervention for children and adolescents of all ages.

(3) Identification, assessment and appropriate treatment and services for children in specialty child service sectors, such as schools, the juvenile justice system, the refugee service system and the child welfare and protective service systems.

Awards were made to:

• Children's Hospital and Health Center, San Diego, Calif. ($600,000 per year for three years) -- will use its large and culturally diverse community service environment to explore the most effective treatments that cross trauma types from child abuse and witnessing intimate partner violence, to child accident victims or those experiencing painful medical procedures.

• Child Abuse Trauma Treatment Replication Center, Cincinnati, Ohio ($600,000 per year for three years) -- will implement effective community level treatment services necessary to positively change the life-course of large numbers of traumatized children and adolescents by providing a Replication Package of training, tools and strategies for the deployment of proven child abuse treatments.

• National Children's Advocacy Center Inc., Huntsville, Ala. ($588,307 per year for three years) -- will collect information on existing and promising approaches to treatment and services for victims of child maltreatment and their families or caregivers.

• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa. ($1,791,828) -- will develop interventions for preventing and treating traumatic stress related to pediatric illness and injury, and will establish a resource center for training and dissemination of state of the art information on pediatric traumatic stress for parents and providers. *

• New York University, New York, N.Y. ($1,730,064) -- will focus on the assessment and treatment of children who have been physically abused, assaulted, as well as those who have witnessed domestic or family violence. Data collection and management will enable the identification of new assessment and treatment trends in the field of childhood trauma. *

The Community Treatment and Service Center grantees will implement and evaluate effective treatment and services in community settings; collect clinical data on traumatized children receiving treatment services; provide expertise on effective practices, service financing and other service issues; and develop and provide training on child trauma for service providers in the community and for staff in child service sectors.

Awards were made to:

• Directions for Mental Health Inc., Clearwater, Fla. ($309,347 per year for three years) -- will develop treatment protocols that can be replicated at other sites; collect data to test the efficacy of these interventions; develop training and community education materials; and implement professional training and distribution of information.

• Los Angeles Unified School District, Van Nuys, Calif. ($339,519 per year for three years) -- will primarily focus on children who have been exposed to a wide range of community violence and other traumatic events, such as school shootings, suicides and disasters. This site will also focus on immigrant and nonimmigrant ethnic minority children who have been exposed to trauma.

• Central Washington Comprehensive Mental Health Center, Yakima, Wash. ($79,306 per year for three years) -- will obtain information in three phases concerning types of trauma experienced by Medicaid-eligible children who go to a community mental health center for treatment; provide educational presentations to systems which provide services to children; and provide evaluation assessments for post traumatic stress disorder.

• Mental Health Services for Homeless Persons Inc., Cleveland, Ohio ($340,000 per year for three years) -- will expand to new communities the 24-hour trauma assessment and intervention services that are provided for children, and work with other centers to develop new treatment approaches.

• Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Ore. ($299,703 per year for three years) -- will expand services to traumatized children from war-affected countries and the most severely affected local populations, Hispanics and African-Americans, using the model of an ethnic mental health counselor teamed with psychiatrists.

• Westchester County Health Care Corp., Valhalla, N.Y. ($117,331 per year for three years) -- will offer coordinated evaluation and treatment services for children and adolescents who experience the most severe emotional and behavioral disturbances and the most challenging family circumstances, which place them at the highest risk for removal from their homes, schools and communities.

• University of Missouri - St. Louis, St. Louis, Mo. ($340,000 per year for three years) -- will serve victims of family and community violence and expand upon services, training and research work provided by Children's Advocacy Services of Greater St. Louis and the Center for Trauma Recovery.

• Chicago Health Outreach Inc., Chicago, Ill. ($340,000 per year for three years) -- will provide comprehensive community-based mental health services in a linguistic and culturally appropriate manner for up to 180 traumatized refugee youth.

• Maine General Medical Center, Augusta, Maine ($288,259 per year for three years) -- will demonstrate a decentralized model suited to the needs of children and adolescents who have experienced or witnessed traumatic events including children in the foster care system, in rural and small town service settings.

• La Clinica del Pueblo Inc., Washington, D.C. ($675,381) -- will provide linguistically and culturally appropriate primary medical care, mental health care, social services, comprehensive HIV care, interpreter services, education and advocacy to Spanish-speaking immigrant Latinos in the D.C. Metro area. *

• William Wendt Center for Loss and Healing, Washington, D.C. ($1,014,294) -- will offer expertise in death-related therapeutic trauma services to children and families toward the goal of improving trauma treatment and services for all children in the U.S. *

• Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, New York, N.Y. ($1,020,000) -- will develop, improve and systematize trauma focused assessment and treatment services for underserved traumatized children from low income and racially diverse neighborhoods seen at the inpatient and outpatient services of one of the country's largest nonprofit mental health and social service agencies. *

• Children's Crisis Treatment Center, Philadelphia, Pa. ($955,278) -- will develop and implement mental health treatment services for West African children and preadolescents in Philadelphia who have experienced traumatic events and are struggling with issues related to acculturation. *

*These awards represent estimated funding from the Public Health Service Emergency Supplemental fund for a total of three years.

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