Evaluation of New Mental Health Diagnoses After Pediatric Traumatic Injuries at a Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center.

Background: Traumatic injury is associated with significant mental health morbidity. To evaluate the need for implementation of active-post injury mental health screening at a Level 1 Pediatric Trauma center, we aimed to characterize all new mental health diagnoses after injury and evaluated for patient or injury factors that may aid in targeting of future screening.

Methods: A single-center retrospective analysis of trauma patients aged 6-18 years presenting in 2022 was performed.

Screening for symptoms of childhood traumatic stress in the primary care pediatric clinic.

Background: Childhood traumatic experiences may result in post-traumatic stress disorder. Although pediatricians are encouraged to address these traumas in clinical encounters, measures of childhood traumatic stress have not been adopted by primary care clinicians. In this study, we describe the feasibility and potential utility of the UCLA Brief Screen, a validated screener for childhood traumatic stress symptoms, in pediatric primary care clinics.

Utilizing screening as a trauma-responsive approach in pediatric health care settings.

Given the widespread impact of child trauma, it is important that child- and family-serving systems adopt trauma-informed care. Because of their integral relationships with families, pediatricians and family medicine physicians play critical roles in disrupting negative societal and developmental cascades for trauma-exposed youth through their potential for early identification and intervention. When implemented alongside organization-wide trauma-informed care practices, trauma screening is one concrete trauma-informed care practice that has shown both feasibility and positive impacts on pediatric healthcare.

The Utah psychotropic oversight program: collaboratively addressing antipsychotic use within youth in foster care without prior authorization.

Objectives: Fostered youth have increased risk of exposure to trauma. Antipsychotic medications are often utilized within the foster care system, potentially to address problematic behaviors that may be associated with trauma. The Utah Psychotropic Oversight Program (UPOP) was formed to support prescribers and encourage evidence-based treatment approaches for fostered youth.

Traumatic stress symptoms and PTSD risk in children served by Children's Advocacy Centers.

Purpose: Children who experience maltreatment are at high risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Children's Advocacy Centers (CACs) can facilitate access to treatment following maltreatment allegations. We describe PTSD symptoms and intervention decision-making for children served by CACs.

Associations between teamwork and implementation outcomes in multidisciplinary cross-sector teams implementing a mental health screening and referral protocol.

Purpose: Teams play a central role in the implementation of new practices in settings providing team-based care. However, the implementation science literature has paid little attention to potentially important team-level constructs. Aspects of teamwork, including team interdependence, team functioning, and team performance, may affect implementation processes and outcomes.

Implementation of A Care Process Model for Pediatric Traumatic Stress in Child Advocacy Centers: A Mixed Methods Study.

Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) are well-positioned to identify children with mental health needs and facilitate access to evidence-based treatment. However, use of evidence-based screening tools and referral protocols varies across CACs. Understanding barriers and facilitators can inform efforts to implement mental health screening and referral protocols in CACs.

Evaluation for Bleeding Disorders in Suspected Child Abuse.

Bruising or bleeding in a child can raise the concern for child abuse. Assessing whether the findings are the result of trauma and/or whether the child has a bleeding disorder is critical. Many bleeding disorders are rare, and not every child with bruising/bleeding that may raise a concern for abuse requires an evaluation for bleeding disorders.

Team Functioning and Performance in Child Advocacy Center Multidisciplinary Teams.

The quality of teamwork in Child Advocacy Center (CAC) multidisciplinary teams is likely to affect the extent to which the CAC model improves outcomes for children and families. This study examines associations between team functioning and performance in a statewide sample of CAC teams. Multidisciplinary team members ( = 433) from 21 CACs completed measures of affective, behavioral, and cognitive team functioning.

Assessing and Responding to the Trauma of Child Maltreatment.

Child maltreatment is a significant risk factor for severe psychiatric outcomes in childhood and contributes to problematic symptoms that direct parents, teachers, or other invested parties to seek psychiatric intervention. With ongoing workforce shortages, much of the pediatric psychiatric care to this population is delivered by generalists. Child maltreatment and trauma can critically alter a child's development trajectory, affecting potential success in school and other important life pursuits.

Feasibility of a randomised trial of Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT) with refugee youth: results from a pilot of the Swedish UnaccomPanied yOuth Refugee Trial (SUPpORT).

Background: Although post-traumatic stress is prevalent among unaccompanied refugee minors (URM), there are few evidence-based psychological interventions for this group. Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT) is a brief, manualised intervention for trauma-exposed youth, which has shown promising results in exploratory studies. The aim of the present study was to assess the feasibility of conducting a randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the use of TRT among URM by investigating key uncertainties relating to recruitment, randomisation, intervention delivery and data collection.

Behavioral and pharmacological interventions for the prevention and treatment of psychiatric disorders with children exposed to maltreatment.

There is a well-established relation between exposure to child maltreatment and the onset and course of multiple, comorbid psychiatric disorders. Given the heterogeneous clinical presentations at the time services are initiated, interventions for children exposed to maltreatment need to be highly effective to curtail the lifelong burden and public health costs attributable to psychiatric disorders. The current review describes the most effective, well-researched, and widely-used behavioral and pharmacological interventions for preventing and treating a range of psychiatric disorders common in children exposed to maltreatment.