Community Association of Progressive Dominicans' (ACDP) National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative -- Category III Program will provide evidence-based trauma treatment and prevention services to 400 adolescents and their families living in Washington Heights and surrounding neighborhoods in Upper Manhattan, New York City (NYC), with a focus on Latino and Black individuals, who make up 79% of the service area and the majority of ACDP's client population.
Through this funding, ACDP will add a full range of trauma screening, prevention, and treatment services to their outpatient clinic using evidence-based programs (EBPs). Specifically, ACDP will: 1) implement universal screening trauma and suicide risk though validated screening tools, 2) implement comprehensive assessment inclusive of screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and behavioral health disorders, as indicated, 3) develop tailored service and treatment plans, and 4) provide a range of evidence-based prevention and treatment services that address a combination of immediate (safety planning) and long-term needs. ACDP will provide direct outpatient mental health treatment services and will leverage its own school-based and afterschool programs to recruit clients; and will leverage primary care and additional behavioral health services provided by La Casa De Salud Inc. (LCDS), and outpatient and residential mental health and substance use treatment services provided by Promesa, both of which are Acacia Network.
Over the five-year program, ADCP will achieve the following:
Objective 1: Serve 400 at-risk individuals and their families utilizing evidence-based practices at ACDP's Washington Heights Mental Health clinic.
Objective 2: Among clients participating in the Supporting Students Exposed to Trauma (SSET) intervention, improve skills and techniques to reduce trauma-related stress by 75%.
Objective 3: Reduce current tobacco use by 25% among at-risk youth enrolled in the tobacco cessation program.
Objective 4: Increase the number of individuals scoring medium- or high-risk for toxic stress response or at risk for suicide accessing mental health treatment by 75%.
The program will enroll 40 clients in each of Years 1 and 2, and 100 clients per year in Years 3, 4, and 5. ACDP will also implement the SSET intervention with 60 youth over the life of the program (12 per year).