NCTSN Resource
Complex Trauma: Facts for Educators
Type: Fact Sheet
Helps educators and school staff recognize the signs and symptoms of complex trauma and offers recommendations on how to help students heal.
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Children's Mental Health Awareness
May was first declared as Mental Health Awareness Month in 1949. In 2006, Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day was chosen as a special day during this month to focus on the mental health needs of children. Since 2006, May has been a time to acknowledge the importance of children's mental health, show that positive mental health is essential to a child's healthy development from birth, promote positive youth development, resiliency, and recovery, along with the transformation of mental health service delivery for youth, adolescents, and their families.
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) has compiled a list of helpful resources for parents and caregivers, children, mental health providers, child welfare and juvenile justice professionals, healthcare providers, educators and school staff, military families, and policy makers.
A list of external resources related to children's mental health awareness is available here.
NCTSN Resource
Medical Traumatic Stress: What Health Care Providers Need To Know
Type: Special Resource
Provides a brief overview of medical traumatic stress, the D-E-F protocol (Reduce Distress, Promote Emotional Support, and Remember the Family) and traumatic stress reactions.
NCTSN Resource
Complex Trauma: Facts for Caregivers
Type: Fact Sheet
Helps parents and caregivers recognize the signs and symptoms of complex trauma and offers recommendations on how to help children heal.
NCTSN Resource
Complex Trauma: Facts for Service Providers Working with Homeless Youth and Young Adults
Type: Fact Sheet
Offers information to service providers on how to support teens and young adults who are experiencing homelessness with a trauma history.
NCTSN Resource
Complex Trauma: Facts for Shelter Staff Working with Homeless Children and Families
Type: Fact Sheet
Guides shelter staff in offering support to children and families who are experiencing homelessness and who have experienced trauma.
NCTSN Resource
Impact of Complex Trauma
Type: Fact Sheet
Offers information about complex trauma. This fact sheet details the impact of complex trauma, the effects of complex trauma, the long-term health consequences, and the economic impact of complex trauma.
NCTSN Resource
Family Trauma Assessment: Tips for Clinicians
Type: Fact Sheet
Details the importance of a trauma assessment when families have experienced a trauma and guides clinicians in the assessment process.
NCTSN Resource
Early Childhood Trauma
Type: Resource Guide
Offers details on how early childhood trauma is unique, the scope of the problem, as well as the symptoms and behaviors associated with exposure to trauma at an early age.
NCTSN Resource
Questions and Answers about Child Physical Abuse
Type: Fact Sheet
Offers parents, caregivers, and providers answers to commonly asked questions about child physical abuse.
NCTSN Resource
It's Okay to Remember: General Information Video on Child Traumatic Grief
Type: Video
Features a first-person narrative illustrating how a family can move through the pain of loss and go on to heal. The family shares their personal experiences of the traumatic grief experienced by one daughter after her sister's sudden death.
Partner-In Resource
Medical Events and Traumatic Stress in Children and Families
Type: Special Resource
Offers information to providers about the impact of traumatic medical events.