The Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services of Dearborn, Michigan will implement Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees with trauma-affected refugee and immigrant youth and their families in outpatient and community-based settings in Dearborn, Melvindale, and Allen Park. The project will receive Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees training and technical assistance services from a NCTSI Category II Center – Boston Children’s Hospital, Trauma and Community Resilience Center (TCRC). The project will include refugee and immigrant community and school staff outreach and engagement, skill-building groups for traumatized youth, individual therapy, and family therapy. A total of 480 trauma-affected adolescents aged 10 to 17 will participate in the project over five years. The following five-year outcomes are anticipated:
1. ACCESS clinicians and cultural brokers learn, adapt, and implement Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees (TST-R) evidence-based treatment approach, as measured on Boston Children’s Hospital’s TST-R Training Post-Test
2. 20 school social workers, 30 other school staff, and 25 ACCESS staff, who work daily with resettled refugee children and adolescents report, as measured on Boston Children’s Hospital’s TST-R Community Orientation Post-Test, being more knowledgeable and better equipped to address social environmental and system of care factors that exacerbate youth traumatic stress.
3. Of the estimated 480 refugee and immigrant children and adolescents who receive initial treatment from this project, 384 (80%) will demonstrate, at the end of the 12 group sessions, improved emotional regulation capacities and personal resilience, as measured on the (1) Social Competence Scale and (2) Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale
Of the estimated 120 refugee and immigrant children and adolescents (and their families) who receive intensive treatment and care management assistance from this project, 90 (75%) will demonstrate a decrease in experiences of discrimination, family resource hardship, symptoms of depression, or post-traumatic symptoms and an increase in sense of school belongingness, as measured on pre- and post-treatment administration of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (for youth) and Structured Trauma-Related Experiences and Symptom Screener (STRESS) (for youth and parents).