Aging out or continuing on? Exploring strategies to prepare marginalized youth for a transition to recovery in adulthood.

Objective: This study aimed to improve our understanding of how to best assist marginalized youth during their transition to adulthood, and how to provide them services that help them achieve independence within existing public systems of care.

Method: Using purposive sampling methods, 17 direct service providers and supervisors of a large behavioral health organization participated in individual interviews and focus groups.

Results: A team of analysts identified eight primary themes: (a) the primacy of consistent and caring relationships with adults; (b) working with youth and family concurrently; (c) the complicated dance of autonomy and independence; (d) engagement of alumni and peers in service delivery; (e) transition navigator: an active not passive approach to becoming an adult; (f) youth as the drivers of treatment and recovery; (g) provider training and resources to address the unique needs of transition-age youth; and (h) broadening the definition of treatment.

Child Trauma Exposure and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Identification in Community Mental Health Clinics.

We examined the identification of trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in help-seeking urban children (=157) presenting for care in community mental health clinics. Children and their parents completed a standard intake assessment conducted by a community clinician followed by a structured trauma-focused assessment conducted by a study clinician. Clinicians provided ratings of child functional impairment, parents reported on internalizing/externalizing problems, and children provided self-reports of PTSD symptom severity.

Sanctuary in a domestic violence shelter: a team approach to healing.

For survivors of domestic violence, the ongoing effects of trauma are compounded by the context of their abusive experience. Injury caused by a person one has loved and trusted damages beliefs about oneself, other people, and the world. Staff members of various disciplines and educational backgrounds who work in domestic violence shelters are dealing with this damage as well as the impact of trauma on shelter residents.