New national trauma center to study adolescents

UW–Madison will partner with the Mental Health Center of Dane County, Inc., to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment services provided to adolescents who have experienced trauma.

The effort is part of the center’s newly established Adolescent Trauma Treatment Program (ATTP), which is supported by a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative.

The new program will expand the treatments and services available to adolescents who have histories of abuse; neglect; interpersonal, family or community violence; or exposure to violence or disaster at school or in their community. The effort also will investigate the relationship between trauma and substance abuse.

“Many of the trauma centers linked to the national network focus on the needs of young children, but we will focus on adolescents,” says Lynn Brady, clinical program director and principal investigator.

A key component of the program is the evaluation of the effectiveness of the assessment and treatment process, says Brady. To accomplish this, UW–Madison faculty, staff and students from the psychology department will work closely with the program’s staff and clients to collect and interpret data on assessment tools and treatment protocols.

“This is a really exciting community-university partnership,” says Seth Pollak, assistant professor of psychology, psychiatry and pediatrics, who will lead UW–Madison’s involvement in the trauma program. “Together we will be able to gather important research data about effective treatments for these children while also providing a valuable service to the community. The effort will lead to better local services and a better understanding of this public-health issue.”

While this grant represents a partnership between the mental health center and UW–Madison, Brady adds that it is truly a community-wide effort that also will involve local schools, community centers, treatment and prevention programs, detention centers and other facilities throughout the county.

“The information we gather here in Madison,” says Pollak, “will be shared with the other centers across the country. This will allow us to contribute to scientifically informed national policy decisions about how to best address child abuse issues.”

For more information about ATTP, contact Lynn Brady at (608) 280-2561 or lynn.brady@mail.mhcdc.org. For more information about UW–Madison’s involvement, contact Seth Pollak at (608) 265-8190 or spollak@wisc.edu.