NH Receives one of 19 National Grants to Treat Children with Emotional Disorders Related to Trauma
The Dartmouth Trauma Interventions Research Center (DTIRC) at Dartmouth Medical School has recently been awarded a 4 year, 1.6 million dollar federal grant for participation in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Stanley D. Rosenberg, Ph.D., a psychologist and professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Family and Community Medicine at the Dartmouth Medical School, heads DTIRC and is the principal investigator directing the New Hampshire grant.
The focus of the grant will be to provide evidence-based treatments to New Hampshire children and their families who have experienced traumatic events and have developed emotional reactions and problems related to the traumas. Studies have shown that by their 16th birthday, 25 per cent of American children are exposed to at least one significant trauma and up to 15 percent of girls and 6% of boys who experience trauma are at elevated risk for serious mental health problems. The funds are going to be used to carry out a specific treatment project called the New Hampshire Project for Adolescent Trauma Treatment (PATT). The grant targets adolescents with severe emotional disturbance who are receiving services at one of the 10 public mental health centers throughout the state. Training for children's services clinicians at the 3 clinical sites of West Central Behavioral Health in Lebanon, Claremont and Newport, New Hampshire has already begun.
As part of the grant, Dartmouth Trauma Interventions Research Center will become a member of a national network of 45 child trauma centers called the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). The Network's mission is to increase access to care and improve the quality of treatment for children who have experienced traumatic events such as sexual or physical abuse, natural disasters, community violence, or terrorism. "We are very pleased that New Hampshire will be part of this national effort to improve the lives of traumatized children," stated Dr. Rosenberg. "We know that exposure to adverse childhood events relate strongly to later psychiatric problems.
This is a great opportunity to reach children early with interventions that work. We are fortunate to have Joe Perry, Director of the Bureau of Behavioral Health of the State of New Hampshire and Paul Gorman, CEO of West Central Behavioral Health as co-directors of this project. In addition, the Project Advisory Board has family and consumer representation on it which will also help assure that services are timely and appropriate.
In a recent interview, Dr. Rosenberg said that "working together, and using the expertise of the national center, we have confidence that we will really see some positive mental health system changes over the 4 years of the grant. We hope that our strategy of first training a core group of mental health providers in effective trauma treatment and then having them train more providers, will help to sustain the improvements in care for our children beyond the 4 years of the grant."
For additional information please contact:
Stanley D. Rosenberg, Ph.D.
Dartmouth Trauma Interventions Research Center
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
1 Medical Center Drive
Lebanon, NH 03756
603-653-0740 voice
603-653-0737 fax
Stan.Rosenberg@Dartmouth.edu