Trauma Victim Treatments Program

Childhood traumas vary from physical and sexual abuse to community and domestic violence, child sex trafficking, life-threatening illness, natural disasters and the sudden loss of parents, siblings and other loved ones. Though children are resilient, they can also be profoundly affected by these experiences. Studies have shown that untreated childhood trauma leads to a higher risk of developing psychiatric disorders such as depression and a greater likelihood of substance abuse. Physical symptoms include abnormal physical responses to stress and even the risk of chronic physical conditions such as heart and lung disease.  Despite the prevalence and far-reaching implications of child traumatic stress, it remains one of our most under recognized public health problems. (National Child Traumatic Stress Network – www.nctsn.org).

The good news is that childhood traumatic stress is one of the most treatable mental health problems of childhood. Children who receive timely and appropriate screening and treatment may not only recover, but gain the tools and capacity to cope more successfully with future stress and to avoid some of the potentially serious consequences of such trauma.

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) was established by Congress in 2000 to bring a singular and comprehensive focus to childhood trauma. The NCTSN has implemented a Learning Collaborative approach that focuses on spreading, adopting and adapting best practices across multiple settings and on creating changes in organizations that promote the delivery of effective interventions and services. The ultimate goal is to provide high-quality training in best practices of trauma focused treatments in diverse settings and to ensure the sustained use of those practices. TCSI is part of the NCTSN’s Learning Collaborative that is working to adapt trauma and grief component therapy to juvenile justice settings, particularly with teen girls who are victims of domestic human sex trafficking.

Harris County has the largest number of juvenile justice involved youth in the state of Texas and has certified more adolescent offenders as adults than the next six largest counties in Texas combined.  Yet recent studies show that the only difference between youth transferred to adult criminal court and those that remain in the juvenile justice system for rehabilitation is the county in which they are convicted. (Dietch, M. (2011). Juveniles in the Adult Criminal Justice System in Texas. Austin, TX: Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.)

Such findings, combined with a series of crises in both state and county juvenile justice systems have opened the door for alternative approaches to certification in Harris County.

Through the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative, for example, the County has been working to reduce juvenile crime by focusing on the mental health needs of juvenile offenders and their families. The local Mental Health Court, Gang Court, Girl’s Court, deferred prosecution program and GED program all emerged from this effort. Subsequent drops in both detention and juvenile crime have encouraged the County to consider other mental health initiatives.