ScreenTIME (Screen, Triage, Inform, Mitigate, Engage) will improve early identification and support of children suffering from traumatic stress and connection to evidence-based treatment. ScreenTIME will develop and disseminate online trainings in screening best practices tailored for schools, primary care, early childhood, child welfare, and juvenile justice staff. The overall goal is to identify children suffering from trauma as early as possible and connect them with services.
Despite high rates of trauma exposure and the increasing availability of trauma-focused evidence-based treatments (EBTs), the vast majority of children suffering from traumatic stress are not identified and do not receive any treatment. Most children suffering from trauma are not seen in the behavioral health system (where screening and treatment are most available), but are found in schools, primary care, early childhood, and other settings or systems (e.g. child welfare or juvenile justice). In these settings, staff are generally unaware of children's trauma history and trauma screening is rarely implemented consistently. While increasing efforts to adopt a trauma-informed approach are being made across these systems, they consistently struggle with trauma screening, citing barriers around staff training, ability to discuss trauma and manage disclosures, uncertainty about screening tools, organizational challenges such as data sharing and privacy, and how to access EBTs for children screening positive. ScreenTIME will support these child-serving systems with implementing best practices in trauma screening, support, and connection to EBTs.
The primary activities of ScreenTIME will be to 1) create and disseminate free interactive online trainings in screening best practices for staff in five child-serving systems; 2) ensure all materials represent and support child and family input; and 3) disseminate these resources nationally through the NCTSN in a train-the-trainer learning collaborative. ScreenTIME will utilize an Advisory Board and a National Expert Faculty with expertise in child trauma and each of five child-serving systems (schools, early childhood, pediatric primary care, child welfare, and juvenile justice) to develop training. This will result in a general cross-system training module and screening implementation guides as well as five system-specific online training modules. At least 100 staff will complete the ScreenTIME training annually, and they will screen at least 2,000 children and refer at least 200 to EBTs each year.
Youth/family members will comprise 25% of ScreenTIME's Advisory Board, participate as faculty in the learning collaborative, review training materials and co-develop family information materials about screening. Following training development, a train-the-trainer learning collaborative with NCTSN sites will disseminate ScreenTIME across the NCTSN and child-serving settings nationally, including training at least eight ScreenTIME trainers to expand dissemination. By the end of the grant, at least 500 staff will be trained in trauma screening best practices, 10,000+ children will be screened, and 1000+ children will be referred for trauma-focused EBTs.