Easterseals Michigan project Building Healthy Futures and Resilient Youth is an approach to address have psychological trauma as result of the pandemic and resent mass violence incidents. - TITLE: Easterseals Michigan Building Healthy Futures and Resilient Youth an approach to address the needs of students and caregivers who have experienced psychological trauma exacerbated by pandemic and incidents of mass violence. Easterseals Michigan is a leading provider of behavioral health services with a long history of supporting vulnerable children and families in Michigan. Through this project, we are proposing to address the needs of students and caregivers (Preschool-12) who have experienced psychological trauma that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic for the past 3 years and recent mass violence incidents that devastated our community in the last 14 months. The program will include outreach, screening, assessment, and evidenced based treatment. In addition, ESM will provide professional development, and trauma informed consultation for school partners. This program will be implemented in three Michigan counties: Genesee (school districts of Grand Blanc Community Schools and Fenton), Wayne (school district of Westland) and Oakland (school districts of Berkley, Birmingham, Clarkston, Holly, Oxford, Lake Orion, Hazel Park, Huron Valley, Novi, West Bloomfield, Walled Lake and Waterford) with 15 school partners representing both urban and rural geographic locations schools to serve students. Decades of research on other incidents of collective trauma suggest many individuals will suffer psychological impacts of the current COVID-19 pandemic, including posttraumatic, somatic, and other mental health disorder symptoms (Itzhaky, Weiss-Dagan, & Taubman-Ben-Ari, 2018; Loeb et al.,). For many students, the COVID-19 pandemic is compounding traumatic experiences for diverse reasons, including potential increased incidents of neglect, abuse, and isolation. Many of our targeted communities are experiencing unprecedented turmoil due to the pandemic and racial injustice. Our community has been impacted by two school shootings in the last 14 months. Our project goals are to improve screening of students in partnering districts who have experienced trauma exacerbated by the pandemic and school violence, provide comprehensive multidisciplinary assessments, and develop a comprehensive array of treatment services increasing capacity for evidenced based practices. ESM plans to serve 1000 students over a five-year period. This is broken down as follows :100 the first year, 170 year two, 210 in year three, 240 year four, and 280 year five. Additionally, we will enhance the workforce by providing training for 6 clinicians on the Intergenerational Trauma Treatment Model, 6 clinicians on the Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Treatment model, 6 clinicians in Solution Focused Brief Therapy and 7 staff in Cognitive Behavior Intervention Trauma Treatment in Schools. ESM will also build on expertise within community agencies by providing mental health consultation and professional development to support students and caregivers in their district that have been impacted by trauma.
