The Childhood Trauma Task Force (CTTF) of the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) recently issued their annual report, "Identifying Childhood Trauma: Recommendations on trauma identification practices in child-serving organizations." The report highlights TEAM UP for Children's effective implementation of screening tools in integrated behavioral health practices.
The CTTF studies and makes recommendations on improving the Commonwealth's response to children who experience trauma. The report results from two years of research and Task Force discussions about trauma identification and referral practices in child-serving organizations across sectors.
The report recommends universal trauma screening in pediatric primary care citing TEAM UP's work:
In Massachusetts, Team UP for Children at Boston Medical Center is an example of an initiative that works to increase the capacity of community health centers to deliver trauma-responsive integrated behavioral health care to children and their caregivers.
The program does so by:
- Training teams to map out ways to support children and their families by using a strength-based approach
- Adopting a trauma-responsive lens when using screening tools to identify children at risk of behavioral health and developmental issues or trauma-related concerns
Focusing on the various developmental needs and issues children of different ages can have and how those can present differently when young children are impacted by trauma (see Team UP’s BRANCH program).
