New NCTSN Steering Committee Roster

We are pleased to announce a new roster of NCTSN Steering Committee members. The mission of the Steering Committee is to guide the development of the Network to improve treatment and services for all children and adolescents in the United States who have experienced traumatic events. The committee has expanded in size to 16 members including representatives from the former grantee cohort. The current membership of the NCTSN Steering Committee includes:

• Robert Abramovitz, Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services Center for Trauma Program Innovation
• Lucy Berliner, Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress
• Barbara L. Bonner, Indian County Child Trauma Center
• Lynn A. Brady, Mental Health Center of Dane County, Inc., Adolescent Trauma Treatment Project
• John Fairbank, National Center for Child Traumatic Stress
• Luis E. Flores, SCAN’s Border Traumatic Stress Response
• Malcolm Gordon, Emergency Mental Health and Traumatic Services Branch, CMHS / SAMHSA
• Robert Hartman, DePelchin Children’s Center Child Traumatic Stress Program
• Donna Humbert, Trauma Intervention Center for Children & Adolescents, Family & Children's Services
• Steven Marans, Childhood Violent Trauma Center, Yale Child Study Center
• Robert Pynoos, National Center for Child Traumatic Stress
• Barbara Ryan, Chadwick Center for Children and Families Trauma Counseling Program
• Benjamin Saunders, National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Medical University of South Carolina

• Glenn Saxe, Center for Medical and Refugee Trauma, Boston University Medical Center
• Bessel van der Kolk, The Trauma Center at JRI, New England Trauma Services Network
• Nancy S. Widdoes, Delaware Child Traumatic Stress Center

The nominating group of the Steering Committee, with input from SAMHSA, worked hard to put together a committee whose members come from all grantee cohorts and are diverse in terms of their cultural backgrounds, geographic representation, and types of trauma focus.

The new Steering Committee held its first face-to-face meeting in Los Angeles, from February 28 to March 2, where members reviewed their vision for the future direction of the NCTSN, the role of the Steering Committee, and the early results from the NCTSN Core Data Set. They identified several critical issues for future Steering Committee focus, including Network infrastructure, dissemination, and diagnosis and screening.

Six States Receive over $22 Million for Hurricane Katrina Crisis Counseling

SAMHSA has announced the award of $22.3 million to the states of Mississippi, Arkansas, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, and Utah for crisis-counseling assistance in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.  These grants are awarded through a long-standing partnership between SAMHSA and FEMA.  These grants enable states to address ongoing counseling needs of persons adversely affected by the hurricanes, regardless of whether they are residing in their home states or are resettling in other areas.  The crisis counseling program will hire and train people locally to provide outreach to survivors of the hurricanes who need mental health services.  More information about these grant projects can be found here.