Did you know that trauma is defined as
an experience that is perceived as
life-threatening or a severe threat
to a person's body?
Trauma is common.
30% of people are vulnerable to develop
post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD,
after experiencing a traumatic event.
This includes children.
In our project, we have discovered that 20-40%
of children in the child welfare system
are scoring highly for PTSD.
What does this mean?
Children who score high for PTSD
suffer in many ways.
They are more likely to have endured
more than one trauma,
and also score high for
other co-occurring disorders,
such as anxiety, depression, and ADHD.
These children experience severe
impairments in their functioning,
and often suffer in silence as
avoidance is a hallmark of the disorder,
and their behaviors are misinterpreted
by caregivers and teachers.
In this project, we have trained
hundreds of DCFS caseworkers
to implement our new screening tool:
the TBH.
We have trained foster parents
about trauma and the TBH.
We have trained dozens of providers in evidence-based
psychotherapy to treat PTSD.
And we have educated many types of
stakeholders in the child welfare system.
More information about the TBH screen
and the providers that we have trained
is available on our website at latrauma.tulane.edu
