The Center for Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents

Contact Us Links Upcoming Presentations and Trainings About The Center's Founders Disclaimer Information about Childhood Traumatic Grief Center Research Activities The Center's Staff Judith Cohen, M.D. Bibliography Anthony Mannarino, Ph.D. Bibliography CTGWeb Order Book Interview
  The Center's Mission and Goals
Allegheny General Hospital's Center for Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents serves children and families who experience traumatic or stressful events in their lives. This program provides prompt evaluation and treatment of children who have experienced a variety of traumatic life events, including abuse, witnessing violence, death of a family member and/or natural disasters. Major goals of the Center for Traumatic Stress are to alleviate serious symptoms and promote healthy coping responses in traumatized children and their families. The Center is the only one of its kind in the region.
NEW AT THE CENTER FOR TRAUMATIC STRESS IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
CTG Information for Military Families
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) has developed Childhood Traumatic Grief (CTG) educational materials for several consumer groups including parents, school personnel, mental health professionals, etc. but one cultural group's needs have not been adequately addressed, that of children of military famliies. This is an important gap to cover considering the fact that this group is currently experiencing a particularly high rate of traumatic loss. In response to the NCTSN's request for proposals in this regard, Judith Cohen, M.D. and Anthony Mannarino, Ph.D.were awarded funding to develop and/or adapt culturally competent educational materials to better serve children in military famliies who are experiencing Childhood Traumatic Grief (CTG). Intended audiences include surviving parents and other family members of children in military famlies who have experienced traumatic deaths; school personnel interacting wtih children in military families; and medical providers for children in military families. In the very near future, the link "CTG Information for Military Famlies" will be available through the NCTSN website. Please check back for this update.

Drs. Cohen and Mannarino continue their work on their latest SAMHSA study which runs through 2009. The study is geared towards specific goal-oriented tasks including treatment adaptation of their child abuse and traumatic grief models, dissemination of their research findings, resource development, sustainability, and consumer collaboration.

Drs. Cohen and Mannarino continue to solidify their integral roles in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network with their high level of commitment and innovative research in the trauma field.

Check out the recent link to www.musc.edu/tfcbt, our web-based educational aid! It's a revolutionary new tool to train mental health professionals in the use of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT). Free CE credits are available, too! Simply go to our Links page to get started.

In other news, we are pleased to announce the availability of a fresh, novel web-based learning course, CTGWeb. CTGWeb teaches mental health professionals familiar with the TF-CBTWeb course TF-CBT with cases of childhood traumatic grief. Like TF-CBTWeb, this course is free, too. To learn more, please click "CTGWeb" on the menu at the top of this page.

This site was last updated on 12/01/08.

Center Highlights
Judith Cohen, M.D. and Anthony Mannarino, Ph.D. are Co-Principal Investigators of an NIMH-funded grant studying the effectiveness of trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy with children who have been exposed to domestic violence. This study is being conducted in collaboration with the Women's Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh.

In another study, Drs. Cohen and Mannarino were awarded funding from NIMH for an administrative supplement to their domestic violence study. "Community TF-CBT for Children After Hurricane Katrina" is a two year study which has focused on developing a "risk" profile for children and adolescents based on PTSD symptoms and other factors that might predict which intervention would be best for them, and implementing and observing outcomes of two evidence-based models of therapy for trauma in private and parochial schools in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. The interventions are Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS, a school-based intervention for groups of students) and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT, a higher intensity community based model for parent and child).

Drs. Cohen and Mannarino, in collaboration with acclaimed researcher Esther Deblinger, Ph.D., are authors of the book Treating Trauma and Traumatic Grief in Children and Adolescents from Guilford Press. For more information, click to the "Order Book" tab at the top of this page.