FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact:

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Sheila Champlin - (901) 448-4957, schampli@uthsc.edu

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Receives $1.6 Million Grant to Improve Services to
Youth in Foster Care Who Have Experienced Trauma

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Memphis, Tenn. (Jan. 8, 2013) -- Foster children often are traumatized before they are placed with a family. A four-year, $1.6 million grant will help the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) provide these children with the specialized services they need. The funds from the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services will increase access and improve services for youth in foster care who have experienced trauma.

The grant was awarded to psychologists at the UT Center of Excellence for Children in State Custody (UT COE) at the UTHSC Boling Center for Developmental Disabilities. The grant designates the UT COE to serve as a Community Treatment and Services Center in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. The project funded by the grant is titled the Tennessee Network for Trauma-Informed and Evidence-Based Systems (TN-TIES).

The goals of the TN-TIES project are to develop an integrated system of screening, referrals and communication, disseminate treatment models and resources among health care providers, and propel agency and state policies to include trauma-informed practices. Resources includingCaring for Children Who Have Experienced Trauma: A Workshop for Resource Parents (Resource Parent Curriculum; 2010) and the Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit (2008), both developed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, will be utilized to train foster parents and child welfare staff in trauma-informed practices.

Through collaboration with the national organization's experts, TN-TIES will also develop a Regional Breakthrough Series Collaborative involving teams of community agencies. These teams will develop individualized and comprehensive protocols for screening and assessment of trauma. This will help with identifying and referring youth for specialized services as well as put in place a system of communicating about youths' progress as they transition to other placements or service providers. In addition, mental health clinicians will be trained in Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy by certified trainers utilizing the Learning Collaborative model.

TN-TIES will also advocate for agency-level and state-level policies to incorporate trauma-informed practices. The UT COE initially will partner with Camelot Care Centers, Inc., and Child and Adolescent Services and School Behavioral Health, Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, Fort Campbell, Ky.

The Boling Center for Developmental Disabilities (BCDD) is one of more than 60 University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities in the United States established by the federal government to develop interdisciplinary training, service, and applied research related to developmental disabilities. A unit of the UTHSC College of Medicine, the BCDD is now one of the most comprehensive facilities in the nation dedicated to improving quality of life for people of all ages with developmental disabilities and their families.

As the flagship statewide academic health system, the mission of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is to bring the benefits of the health sciences to the achievement and maintenance of human health, with a focus on the citizens of Tennessee and the region, by pursuing an integrated program of education, research, clinical care, and public service. Offering a broad range of postgraduate and selected baccalaureate training opportunities, the main UTHSC campus is located in Memphis and includes six colleges: Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. UTHSC also educates and trains cohorts of medicine, pharmacy and/or allied health students -- in addition to medical residents and fellows -- at its major sites in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Nashville. Founded in 1911, during its more than 100 years, UT Health Science Center has educated and trained more than 53,000 health care professionals in academic settings and health care facilities across the state. For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu.

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This study quantifies the economic impact of the UTHSC on the economy of the state of Tennessee for FY2010.

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