NCTSN: THE NETWORK NEWS
Dateline: June 28, 2002
Vol. 1, Issue 5
Network Site Spotlight
Steering Committee
Featured Site: The Mental Health Corporation of
Denver's Family Trauma Treatment Program
serves the city and county of Denver by providing
a wide array of mental health services for children
and adolescents aged birth through 17 years.
Their programs include a day treatment
preschool, day treatment for children ages 7-13,
intensive home-based services, and outpatient
services. Services are provided in clinics, at
schools, in youth detention facilities, and in youth
shelters for homeless youth or children in social
services custody. The MHC of Denver serves
approximately 1500 children per year including
many who are poor and have few resources. The
primary ethnic groups served are AfricanAmerican, Latino and Caucasian. MHC of Denver
also includes a Deaf Counseling Services
program for families with a child and/or parents
who are deaf or hard of hearing.
We are very excited to announce that the first
meeting of the NCTSN Steering Committee was
held in Durham, NC on June 21-22. Present at
the meeting were Steering Committee members
Judy Cohen (AGH Center for Child Abuse and
Traumatic Loss), Robert DeMartino (SAMHSA),
Angela Diaz (Mount Sinai Adolescent Health
Center), John Fairbank (NCCTS-Duke), Kevin
Gully (Child Trauma Treatment Network Intermountain West), Dennis Hunt (Center for
Multicultural Human Services), Sandy Kaplan
(North Shore Adolescent Trauma Treatment
Development Center), Cheryl Lanktree (Miller
Children's Hospital Abuse and Violence
Intervention Center), Alicia Lieberman (Early
Trauma Treatment Network), Steve Marans
(Childhood Violent Trauma Center), Bob Pynoos
(NCCTS - UCLA), Glenn Saxe (Center for
Medical and Refugee Trauma) and Bessel van
der Kolk (Trauma Center, Massachusetts MHI).
Karen Mallah, Project Director, states that the
Family Trauma Treatment Program will provide
services at three outpatient sites. One major
program objective is to evaluate the effectiveness
of Allegheny Hospital's (Pittsburgh, PA) traumafocused cognitive behavioral therapy protocol by
randomly assigning half of the new clients with
trauma symptoms to clinicians using the CBT
Manual, and half to clinicians using treatment
methodologies already in place. Pre and post
testing, as well as a six-month follow-up will be
done to assess the effectiveness of the CBT
Manualized approach. Grant funding will be used
to 1) train the clinicians in the use of the CBT
Manual, 2) fund the ongoing assessment and
research efforts, and 3) disseminate best
practices information regarding child traumatic
stress across the entire child and family
department. MHCD's Family Trauma Treatment
Program hopes to have its own Community
Advisory Council in place this fall.
Ranga Krishnan, Chair of the Duke Department
of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and Rob
Califf, Director of the Duke Clinical Research
Institute, welcomed the participants and offered
the support of Duke University to the NCTSN.
Observers included: Christine Guthrie, Malcolm
Gordon and Ken Curl from SAMHSA; Cynthia
Binanay, Brian McCourt and Susan Silva from
Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI); Janis
Kupersmidt, Jenny Kozik, and Elizabeth Ezell
from Innovation Research and Training (IRT);
Alan Steinberg and Jenifer Wood from NCCTS UCLA; and Andy Broughton and Judy Holland
from NCCTS - Duke. Don Meek, a consultant to
the National Center with Clearview Partners,
made a presentation on the development of a
Network "identity" and moderated several
meeting sessions. Catherine Gruetze from DCRI
and Thérèse Murdza from NCCTS-Duke provided
invaluable administrative services in planning and
coordinating
meeting
activities,
providing
materials, and in taking minutes of the meeting.
Steering Committee Accomplishments
The Steering Committee took the following
actions:
1) Adopted a Mission Statement for the National
Child Traumatic Stress Network
To raise the standard of care and improve access
to services for traumatized children, their families,
and communities throughout the United States
2) Established a process for finalizing the
Network Vision and Strategic Priorities, and
3) Endorsed the use of Short Interval Planning
(SIP) as a way to plan and monitor cross-Network
activities.
Other Discussion Topics
1) Governance - The Steering Committee
engaged in a lively discussion about governance
of the Network and the roles of the Steering
Committee, Network committees, task forces and
the Executive Committee. The scope of oversight
of the Steering Committee was discussed as
extending to those Network policies, procedures,
and activities that require "buy-in" by the Network
and/or have Network-wide impact. National
Center staff will propose a process for initiating
new Network activities that incorporates the role
of the Steering Committee in setting strategic
Network priorities.
2) Training - Ideas about both topics for training
and priorities were discussed and will be given to
the Training Committee as a starting point for its
first meeting in late July.
3) Growth and Expansion - The challenges and
opportunities of integrating the new sites was
discussed. The Steering Committee has asked
the National Center to convene a Network
meeting for all member sites in December 2002.
Steering Committee Meetings and Minutes
1) The Steering Committee will have monthly
telephone conference calls beginning in August.
2) Face to face meetings of the SC will be held
twice yearly, one at the same time as the annual
Network meeting.
3) Minutes from all SC meetings will be available
on the Web, on the Network member site.
Minutes from the June meeting will be posted by
July 22, 2002.
Network Expansion
SAMHSA has announced additional support for
18 new sites. Six sites will join the Network on
July 1, 2002 and the remaining twelve will be
added September 1, 2002. We will then have ten
Category II sites and twenty-five Category III
sites. Please see the attached SAMHSA press
release for more details on the new sites. In order
to welcome these new sites, the National Center
is preparing a Network orientation package,
including a CD-ROM containing the program
presentations made by each site at the February
Kick-off Meeting. The National Center has also
organized an intra-network growth advisory group
to assist in the development of detailed plans for
the integration of new sites, including site visits,
regional meetings, and the establishment of a
"buddy system."
NCTSN Website
On July 1, all Project Directors will receive an
announcement about the launch of the NCTSN
Web site. The Web site will have a public portion
and private member access to chat rooms,
message boards, and other materials for Network
discussion. The introductory email will include
instructions on how to use the chat room and
message board, will provide a basic orientation to
the features and content of the new sites, and will
include login id's and passwords for the
members-only site.
Upcoming Meeting/Conference Highlights
14th International Congress on Child Abuse &
Neglect
July 7-10, 2002
Denver, CO
Sponsors: International Society for the Prevention
of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN), Kempe
Children's Foundation, and Kempe Children's
Center
Contact: www.kempe.org
Please
contact
Frank
Bennett
FrankBennett@aumhc.org or Karen Mallah
kmallah@mhcd.com if you are planning to attend
the ISPCAN conference.
Developing Local Systems of Care for Children
and Adolescents with Emotional Disturbances
and their Families: Training Institutes
July 10-July 14, 2002
Sponsor: National T.A. Center for Children's
Mental Health, Georgetown University
This conference is a major child mental health
training event. NCTSN will have a poster session
featuring the Child Traumatic Stress Network
Washington, DC
Contact: Institutes2002@mindspring.com
Please
email
Judy
Holland
jholland@psych.mc.duke.edu if you are planning
to attend the Training Institutes.
Victimization of Children and Youth: An
International Research Conference
August 4-7, 2002
Family Research Lab & Crimes Against Children
Research Center, UNH
Sheraton Harborside Hotel & Conference Center
Portsmouth, NH
Contact: www.unh.edu/frl or Melissa Averill Hurd
maverill@cisunix.unh.edu.
*Complex Psychological Trauma: Its Correlates
and Effects
November 7-10, 2002
Baltimore, MD
Contact: http://www.istss.org/ or Deb Pederson at
847/480-9028 or conference@istss.org
Sponsor: International Society for Traumatic
Stress Studies
The NCTSN is co-sponsoring two pre-meeting
institutes. NCTSN members are presenting
several symposia and workshops.
Call for Papers
"Psychosocial Reactions to Terrorist Attacks" Call for papers deadline July 26, 2002
Innovations in Disaster Psychology Conference
September 29-October 1, 2002
Sponsor: Disaster Mental Health Institute
Rapid City, SD
For
more
information:
http://www.usd.edu/dmhi/conf02/
Items of Interest
Websites
1) A new website, http://www.GovBenefits.gov, is
designed to help people determine if they qualify
for some federal benefits programs, including
health programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the
State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
2) The National Health Law Program, NheLP,
seeks to provide a seat at the table for
representatives of low-income people, to protect
consumers in the emerging managed care
systems, and to find creative financing solutions
that also preserve government's responsibility as
provider of last resort. NHeLP also produces the
Capital Communique which reports briefly on
recent and forthcoming developments relating to
federal health policy. http://www.healthlaw.org
New Resources
1) "Providing Language Interpretation Services in
Health Care Settings: Examples from the Field,"
is a nationwide survey of interpreter services in
various health care settings and offers
recommendations for how to expand those
services. The study was co- written by NHELP
and the Commonwealth Fund. A free copy can be
obtained by calling 212-606-3800 or downloading
it
from
http://www.cmwf.org
or
http://www.healthlaw.org.
2) HHS's revised "Providers Guide to Quality and
Culture," adds a new section on the health care
needs of Muslims, to help practitioners provide
culturally
sensitive
care.
Contact
http://erc.msh.org/quality&culture
3) A new research brief summarizes what is
known about the outcomes of child maltreatment.
The Multiple Dimensions of Child Abuse and
Neglect: New Insights into an Old Problem draws
on available data and recent research studies to
summarize what is known about the outcomes of
child maltreatment in several critical areas --
physical and mental health, cognitive and
education attainment, and social and behavioral
development. The authors of this research brief
are Child Trends in partnership with several
foundations.
For
more
information,
see
http://www.childtrends.org/PDF/ChildAbuseRB.pd
f.
Funding Opportunity Information
1) National Children's Alliance, under a
cooperative agreement with the Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP),
U.S. Department of Justice, will administer
$4,989,000 in federal funds for the establishment
and expansion of children's advocacy centers
(CACs) during 2003. CACs provide a
comprehensive approach to serving children who
are abused through coordination of investigation
and intervention services. Grants are available for
team and leadership training and for program
development and support, including tribal
program development. The RFP and grant
application is now available . Competitive
applications are due by September 6, 2002.
Grant information is available at <http://www.ncanline.org/grants.html>. All current and sample
forms related to grants are available at
<http://www.nca-online.org/funds1.html>.
2) Good information about seeking funding from
foundations, including a list of websites compiled
by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is available
through the listserv
4-The-Child@yahoogroups.com. This listserv is
part of the Caring for Every Child's Mental Health
Campaign, CMHS, DHHS.
As always, please send Network News feedback
and information to Judy Holland,
919/687-4686
x
302
jholland@psych.mc.duke.edu
I'm
especially
interested in comments about content and length
of the newsletter.