The National Child Traumatic Stress Network

We have added a link to our home page for The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. This network was created in 2000 and is funded by funded by the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, US Department of Health and Human Services through a congressional initiative: the Donald J. Cohen National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative.

Their mission is to raise the standard of care and improve access for families that have trauma.

“A long-term goal of NCCTS is to help graduate training programs in social work, psychology, medicine, nursing, marriage and family therapy, and related fields to incorporate trauma-focused training (through the Core Curriculum) into their curricula.” I think I see a standard developing…

They are in the process of putting together a Resource Parent Curriculum that “aims to teach basic knowledge, skills, and values about caring for children and adolescents who are in foster care and who have experienced traumatic stress.” Though they do not mention international adoption, this is likely very applicable to that population as well.

A discussion of a 16-hour trauma training program can be found here . This really should be a requirement for all prospective adoptive parents and any adoptive parent who is in need of postadoption support for their child.

You can read about their goal to have trauma-informed systems in this brief.

REFORM Puzzle Piece