With increasing awareness of the extent to which children are exposed to violence, and the emotional and behavioral consequences of such exposure, the need for intervention is clear. Early intervention offers the promise of reducing symptoms related to traumas already experienced, and enhancing skills to handle extreme stress that might be experienced in the future. Our team developed the Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) program between 1998 and 2001, in close collaboration with partners within the Mental Health Services division of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Our first study focused on recent immigrant children in LAUSD. Latino immigrants who participated in the program reported reduced post-traumatic stress symptoms and depressive symptoms compared to waiting list controls, controlling for baseline levels of symptoms. In a replication in the general school population, we found similar results, as well as improved psychosocial functioning by parent report. But our early work is limited in its reach, since it requires a school-based mental health clinician for implementation. The goal of the present study is to adapt the program for use by regular school staff (such as school counselors) and to develop an implementation support program and implementation planning tool so that it can be used effectively in the average middle school setting. This proposal therefore has four primary aims: 1) To adapt the CBITS program so that can it be used by school staff with minimal mental health training; 2) To develop an implementation support program and planning tool that would make the program feasible in the average middle school setting; 3) To develop a protocol for training school counselors and teachers to implement the CBITS program; and finally, 4) To examine the acceptability and impact of the adapted CBITS program in a pilot study, to set the stage for further refinement of the program and/or dissemination. This work responds to the Research on Children Exposed to Violence announcement, which encourages submissions of exploratory and innovative proposals within the R01 mechanism, particularly ones that test the feasibility of techniques new to the research on children exposed to violence. Specifically, this work falls under the research priority of prevention and intervention programs and services for children exposed to violence listed in the announcement. ? ?
| Jaycox, Lisa H; Cohen, Judith A; Mannarino, Anthony P et al. (2010) Children's mental health care following Hurricane Katrina: a field trial of trauma-focused psychotherapies. J Trauma Stress 23:223-31 |
| Cohen, Judith A; Jaycox, Lisa H; Walker, Douglas W et al. (2009) Treating traumatized children after Hurricane Katrina: Project Fleur-de lis. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 12:55-64 |
| Jaycox, Lisa H; Langley, Audra K; Stein, Bradley D et al. (2009) Support for Students Exposed to Trauma: A Pilot Study. School Ment Health 1:49-60 |
