School Working Group Descriptions

SITE NAME(S) PROJECT DESCRIPTION Jewish Board of Robert Abramovitz JBFCS is part of the CATS Consortium, a cooperative multi site Family and (Chair of School treatment study performed by eight independent teams in collaboration Children’s Working Group) with the New York State Office of Mental Health. The Child and Services, Adolescent Trauma Treatments and Services Consortium (CATS) was New York, NY created in the aftermath of the World Trade Center (WTC) attack. It has become the largest youth mental health service and evaluation project in New York associated with the September 11th World Trade Center disaster. The project was established to deliver scientifically validated treatments and services for trauma to youth throughout New York City who were affected by 9/11 and to evaluate the implementation processes and outcomes associated with delivery of EBP trauma treatments. The CATS Consortium agreed to provide evidence-based assessments, treatments, and services at no cost to youth and families. Therefore, across all of the CATS provider sites covering all five boroughs made available, a range of comprehensive services that are currently being provided. These include assessments, individual psychotherapy, case management, referral, medication consultation and family support. In addition, these services are offered in a variety of settings, including inpatient and outpatient psychiatry, community-based mental health programs, and school-based health and mental health clinics. The aims of CATS were identified and agreed to by the Consortium. They are: (1) to use evidence-based assessments to identify children and adolescents affected by September 11th or other traumas; (2) to provide age-appropriate evidence-based treatments and services (described below) to youth with moderate to severe traumatic symptoms; (3) to rigorously examine with a common cross-site evaluation protocol the outcomes associated with receipt of these trauma treatments; and (4) to identify key contextual factors (e.g., organizational culture, climate, work attitudes, therapist fidelity, alliance) that affected delivery of these services. National Crime Rochelle Hanson The Child Abuse School Liaison (CASL), developed by the Dee Norton Victims (Co-Chair of School Lowcountry Children’s Center in Charleston, SC is one of the core Research Working Group) projects of the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center’s and Michael de Arellano Service Systems Models IDE. The main goals of this program are to Treatment increase awareness of child abuse among school personnel; increase Center, educators’ understanding of their responsibilities as mandated reporters; Charleston, and increase the ability of school personnel to provide high-quality, SC actionable reports to child protective services and law enforcement. To achieve these goals the CASL provides in-service training to educators and ongoing consultation about child abuse cases and issues to school personnel. This program has developed a training manual, written and videotaped materials, and an implementation manual. Evaluation results indicate that through this program educators gain substantial knowledge about child abuse and child trauma, better understand their role as mandated reporters, have a greater knowledge of how and when to make a report of child abuse to authorities, and make significant use of the consultation service. This program currently is being replicated and further evaluated. Evaluation results will be presented as well as findings regarding the implementation process. School Working Group Descriptions

SITE NAME(S) PROJECT DESCRIPTION National JoAnn Plucker We’re looking forward to learning about other programs and sharing Children’s information about The Circle Project, a school-based collaborative Advocacy initiative that we provide in three school districts. The Circle Project Center, provides mental health counseling as well as many other services. Huntsville, AL Aurora Mental Denis Radigan I am the Director of the School Based Therapy Program at AuMHC. Health Aurora Mental Health School Based Therapists provide the following Center, mental health services in the school. Aurora, CO  Individual, group, and family therapy  Medication evaluations, and medication management services  Classroom consultation to teachers.  Conduct emergency evaluations to assess danger to self and others.  Case management services to the child and their family.

Presenting Problems

Aurora Mental Health School Based Therapist work with a whole range of presenting problems.  Depression  Anxiety  Family conflict and dysfunction  Trauma and PTSD  Poor school performance  ADHD

Types of Interventions

These interventions are provided either in combination with each other or as distinct interventions depending upon the needs of the child and family.  Trauma Focused CBT  Solution Focused Therapy  Structural Family Therapy  Play Therapy  Art Therapy  Medication

Funding

School Based Services are funded through various sources.  Medicaid Capitation  School District Funding for Uninsured Students, and Trauma Victims  Private Insurance Fee for Service School Working Group Descriptions

SITE NAME(S) PROJECT DESCRIPTION Childhood Violent David Schonfeld My research is in the area of school-based risk prevention research (I Trauma am currently funded by NICHD to conduct a randomized, controlled trial Center, of a four year intervention beginning in 3rd grade to decrease the onset New Haven, CT of risk behaviors by utilizing an enhanced social development curriculum); prior research has focused on young children's understanding of and adjustment to serious illness (e.g., AIDS and cancer) and death. My clinical work of most direct relevance to the network is through the School Crisis Response Initiative of the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence. This initiative, which began in 1991, helps school systems develop their internal capacity to plan for and respond to crisis events affecting their school community. Wendt Center for Susan Ley We have had extensive involvement in the Washington, DC public, Loss and Dottie Ward-Wimmer charter, parochial and private schools that has included school grief Healing, groups (leading, training and consulting with mental health school staff, Washington, DC crisis response). School Working Group Descriptions

SITE NAME(S) PROJECT DESCRIPTION We are also members of the DC Children’s Grief and Loss Network which as a specific focus on addressing the grief/loss issues of DC youth through school interventions, training of school personnel, helping develop crisis response protocols, advocacy, etc. Our school grief group mode, Three Dimensional Grief, has been published and disseminated widely…I was formerly the director of a school based mental health program for several years. We’ve been doing grief groups in schools for 7 years. A model integrating psychodynamic, play therapy, gestalt, cognitive and behavioral theories that we call Three Dimensional Grief was published four years ago and serves as the basis for our continuing work. It has been evaluated and recently described in the book, Analysts in the Trenches (Ed. B Sklerew) and we continue to evaluate the model with the help of the National Research Center for Child and Family Services at Catholic University. ------At present, we serve as consultants to the DC Department of Mental Health Schools Program, The DC Public Charter Schools Student Support Services Center and the Christ Child Society each group providing counselors to schools within their jurisdictions. We train about grief, trauma and the group model and offer on going monthly consultation to counselors running grief groups. In addition we train and supervise volunteers who go out to the schools to help in these groups. It’s so exciting to be able to share what the children and counselors have taught us and to learn from others in the network. Healing the Hurt Ann Kelley We have staff in seven elementary schools full time who do – Directions prevention/intervention work. They use the TESI to screen individual for Mental children and use that to guide referrals. We have a fulltime staff person Health, Inc., who does CBITS in afterschool programs for middle-school aged Largo, FL children. We have presented during “School Improvement Days” to teachers and various school staff (primarily school social workers and psychologists) attend the workshops we hold featuring Network staff who address various trauma-related issues. Our trauma treatment specialist also accepts referrals from the schools. SAMHSA, Janet Zinn Rockville, MD Children’s Ben Atchison  Environmental changes Trauma Mary Blashill - lighting Assessment Yvette D. Hyter - sound Center, Love Schlage - temperature Kalamazoo, MI - visual look of the classroom  Parental involvement - information sharing meetings - assessment of students through rating scales - periodic contact to gain feedback

Intervention strategies include:  Sensory regulation through use of tactile and oral manipulators, body movement, and massage  Structure provided through classroom agreements such as, disallowing of physical or verbal harm in the classroom, use of problem solving as a means of resolving conflicts, sharing control of classroom with students when appropriate, referrals to community School Working Group Descriptions

SITE NAME(S) PROJECT DESCRIPTION resources when needed School Working Group Descriptions

SITE NAME(S) PROJECT DESCRIPTION  Intervention Strategies Bank (to be completed)  Working with parent(s) to understand and solve problems  Environmental changes - lighting - sound - temperature - visual look of the classroom  Parental involvement - information sharing meetings - assessment of students through rating scales - periodic contact to gain feedback

Intervention strategies include:  Sensory regulation through use of tactile and oral manipulators, body movement, and massage  Structure provided through classroom agreements such as, disallowing of physical or verbal harm in the classroom, use of problem solving as a means of resolving conflicts, sharing control of classroom with students when appropriate, referrals to community resources when needed  Intervention Strategies Bank (to be completed) Working with parent(s) to understand and solve problems

Activities of SIP project:  Twice weekly implementation of SIP curriculum in two Kalamazoo Public School classrooms: a middle school resource room and a self-contained EI, later elementary classroom  SIP teachers and team meet once per week to discuss critical incidents, referrals for needed services, and plan curriculum  SIP graduate assistants and school interventionist meet once per week to discuss progress, challenges, and plan curriculum  SIP graduate assistant and school interventionist revise and coordinate the SIP curriculum prior to each classroom intervention  SIP team members meet every other week to discuss major changes within the classrooms  Continued evaluation of SIP program through written reflections, discussions with school staff, possible survey of participants and others  SIP interventionists in collaboration with teachers initiate needed referrals for SIP students

Some of the outcomes after 20 weeks of SIP: Students at the middle school are assisting each other and offering help when classmates become dysregulated or express strong emotions. One student, who refused to participate in the SIP interventions for many weeks, now engages in many of the activities. The middle school principal told the SIP team that he believes the SIP students are more easily engaged by staff in problem solving when there are problems. Students have requested daily community meetings and are now facilitating these meetings.

The principal of the elementary school indicated that the SIP classroom is calmer and the students are experiencing fewer “meltdowns.” She School Working Group Descriptions

SITE NAME(S) PROJECT DESCRIPTION requested SIP assistance in another special education classroom where the students are having significant dysregulation. One SIP student, who required almost daily restraint last year, has been restrained only four times during the first four months of school.

Next Steps:  Continue implementation in elementary and middle school classrooms for the remainder of this academic year  Begin to develop transition processes for the school teachers involved with SIP for this year  Potentially implement a school wide program at the elementary pilot school  Develop intervention strategies bank The Greater St. Ally Burr-Harris Trauma Recovery for Youth (TRY) program: The Center for Trauma Louis Child Recovery (CTR), a subcenter of the GSLCTSP, implemented school- Traumatic based group therapy services for high school students exposed to Stress violence or traumatic bereavement in January, 2004. This program is Program, currently in its third semester of operation. CTR provides group therapy St. Louis, MO for children and adolescents experiencing moderate to severe distress as a result of a traumatic event. Services are provided in the school setting at no cost to the students or school. Eligible students have experienced a traumatic event such as exposure to violence (e.g., victim or witness of shooting, domestic violence between parents, physical abuse, assault) or the traumatic loss of someone close (e.g., murder of family member). The group meets for one class period on a weekly basis. Length of treatment can range from 10 to 14 weeks, depending on number of optional modules included. The group format is appropriate developmentally for middle school or high school students. The program utilizes a cognitive-behavioral and resiliency-building framework, and components of TF-CBT, CBITS (Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools), the UCLA Trauma/Grief Program are included. The manual is currently being revised to better meet the treatment needs of inner-city African American youth, which is our primary target population. In addition, modifications are being made in order to better meet the needs of those who experience a high level of ongoing trauma exposure in the community. The program is currently being piloted in the Normandy School District in St. Louis, Missouri and has recently been expanded to include a total of four clinicians, with two groups being conducted per semester. Staff members involved are as follows: Ally Burr-Harris, Ph.D., TRY project director, CTR psychologist Tyree Miller, MSW, social worker, Normandy High School Corine Hyman, MA, group therapist Keisha Ross, MA, group therapist The Institute for Joshua Mandel Here is a brief description of the work our center is doing in the schools. Trauma and This component of our center is named the School-Based Intervention Stress, NYU Program: Child Study Center, The School-Based Intervention Program of the NYU Child Study Center New York, NY provides on-site services to seven schools in Lower Manhattan, all in close proximity to the site of the World Trade Center terrorist attack. The schools we service include 3 lower, 3 intermediate, and one high school. Our staff provides one or more of the following services at each of the schools: a. General Wellness for School Communities (Resiliency and Skill School Working Group Descriptions

SITE NAME(S) PROJECT DESCRIPTION Building Programs) - In this effort, the SBIP develops, performs, and evaluates large scale projects that reach entire grades in the schools we service. In doing so, both children who would and would not receive mental health services are reached and provided with information and skills that will help them manage the trauma they have experienced.

b. Clinical Services - The second component of the SBIP is direct clinical service to those in the school community who were exposed to 9/11 and are now experiencing heightened distress. Through individual or group therapy with one of our clinicians, and/or medication management with our staff psychiatrist, we provide expert mental health services to children and their families, in the setting of the school. In addition, in these cases we work collaboratively with those involved in the child's care, including parents, teachers, and other school staff, to ensure the child receives the most complete set of services possible.

c. Training, Teaching, and Consultation - We strive to work closely with the parents, teachers, administrators, and other school personnel who work with students affected by the tragic terrorist attacks on 9/11. Our parent education and outreach efforts allow parents to more fully comprehend the effect of trauma on youth, allowing them to monitor their children for the development of adverse symptoms, to seek treatment when these symptoms arise, and to learn effective strategies in dealing with these youngsters. Through our on-going consultation with school personnel we impart skills, strategies, and techniques that will guide them in their work and increase their effectiveness with these students. As they gain insight and understanding of the effects of trauma on students and become knowledgeable of effective therapeutic and classroom interventions, the school faculty are better able to identify and refer students in need of therapeutic services, develop a classroom structure that promotes academic and emotional success, and reinforce therapeutic intervention strategies with students who are receiving individual counseling services. School Working Group Descriptions

SITE NAME(S) PROJECT DESCRIPTION Safe Horizon- Carole Patterson Saint Vincent’s Child Trauma Care Initiative, New York, NY NRC, NCCTS Steve Williams I'm joining the call because schools come up in so many projects that Durham, NC cross my desk that I want to keep up with what our schools group does. Also, I coordinate the Network's Parents and Caregivers Webpages Advisory Group, and parents in that group have numerous school issues they'd like to see explored and so would like to have contact with the schools group.

My background: Former special ed teacher (psychiatric hospital school), former masters level psychologist w/state of North Carolina (worked in substance abuse center), experience writing about state-level school policy issues, former newspaper and magazine editor-in-chief. Allegheny Judy Cohen At this point we consult to schools on a PRN basis in response to "crisis General situations, as well as providing in service trainings each year with regard Hospital to PTSD and identifying and referring traumatized children. Center for Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents, Pittsburgh, PA DePelchin Lou Ann Mock Our agency (DePelchin Children's Center) as a whole has extensive Children's contact with area school districts, including parenting programs, in-house Center Child clinicians, psychology interns doing consultation, assessment and Traumatic counseling, and post-internship fellows spending up to 2 1/2 days in the Stress schools. Program, Our Trauma program includes a School Work Group as a part of our Houston, Community Network, which meets on a quarterly basis to share TX information about services for traumatized kids in the schools. We have scheduled Scott Poland, a nationally recognized expert in school crisis response, to talk to our Community Network in the spring. We have developed a brochure specifically for schools on trauma and kids, which is being distributed to area schools, to compliment the brochure we developed for parents. A brochure for teens to be distributed through the schools is almost complete. RAND, Arlington, Lisa Jaycox VA Harborview Lucy Berliner The Harborview Network Program planned to implement CBITS, a Center for Junko Yamazaki school-based intervention for children affected by trauma. Harborview Sexual entered into collaboration with Asian Counseling, a community based Assault & agency with a long history of delivering mental health and peer advocate Traumatic services in the schools and two Seattle middle schools. Members of from Stress, the LAUSD Network program provided on site training. During the past Seattle, WA school year a group was successfully delivered in one school and this year it is hoped to deliver a group in both schools. School Working Group Descriptions

SITE NAME(S) PROJECT DESCRIPTION The Asian Counseling Program also provides school based Teen Peer Advocate Program that is a youth dating violence prevention/education project which includes training of high school female students to become Peer Advocate to outreach and educate other teens. This project also provides weekly support group at schools for victims of sexual assault, dating violence and domestic violence. Mental Health Kristen Esbensen The Adolescent Trauma Treatment Program has implemented the Center of James Van Den CBITS intervention in six Madison Public Schools. Since September Dane Brandt 2004 we have screened about 600 5th-8th graders for exposure to County, Inc. community violence and symptoms of PTSD. We have also worked with Adolescent one rural and one urban high school to pilot the Columbia Teen Screen Trauma with an added trauma screen for those kids whose Columbia score Treatment indicates the need for an interview. In addition, we provide in school Project, mental health services to children at risk of suspension/expulsion Madison, WI through school/Mental Health Center collaborative teams called Positive Behavioral Support Teams. Furthermore, through our Southeast Asian Teen Villages project we provide in school group counseling services to primarily Hmong, Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese middle school girls. The Villages program also includes community based mentoring and a “homework club” that provides academic assistance to participants. Finally, we provide social skills training, bullying prevention, and anger management interventions to elementary and middle school kids by teaming with school social workers, psychologists and counselors to run these group interventions.