March/April 2006

NCTSN All-Network Meeting

The NCTSN All-Network Meeting will be at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, on April 18-21, 2006. With the theme “Leading the Field of Child Traumatic Stress,” the meeting will be attended by nearly 300 mental health professionals and their state and local agency partners, as well as by youth and families who have experienced child traumatic stress. The meeting includes plenary sessions highlighting:

• Findings from the NCTSN Core Data Set on the children and families served by the Network, as well as outcomes of treatment;
• Network-wide efforts in response to the Gulf Coast hurricanes, including interventions with evacuees and first responders; and,
• The latest data and an inside view of the impact and challenges experienced by military children and families enduring parental deployments to Iraq.

With almost 40 workshops and small group discussions, the meeting will address topics including the development of trauma-informed interventions for adolescents with substance abuse problems; race and urban poverty; implementing trauma-informed services in culturally diverse schools; the economic impact of child trauma; and the proposed establishment of a new Developmental Trauma Disorder diagnosis.
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Former Grantee Sites:
Gains and Losses

The National Center recently completed a survey of all Network centers that were not refunded during the last SAMHSA grant cycle to gauge the effects of the funding change and to determine their willingness and ability to continue participation in Network activities. 

Centers were asked what specific services or improvements that they implemented as a result of their Network participation were being continued or extended after grant funding ended.  A frequent answer was that sites gained a new focus or approach to services.
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ANM Sneak Preview:
Serving Military Families

Over the past two years, the UCLA Trauma Psychiatry Program, in coordination with the NCTSN, has provided sustained consultation to military providers, both locally and nationally. 

Prompted by the urgent and increasing national need to develop effective family-based interventions for military families that have been impacted by war-related injury, death, or combat stress, Patricia Lester and William Saltzman have been working with the Department of Defense, Walter Reed Army Medical Center and partners from multiple military service branches to assess needs and develop appropriate interventions. 
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