Cognitive Behavioral Intervention For Trauma In Schools Cbits

The Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools program is designed to help students exposed to traumatic events who are experiencing emotional or behavioral problems. The new edition provides updates from two decades of field experience.

Education professionals are increasingly aware of the negative effect that exposure to trauma has on both the social and academic lives of children. Witnessing violence, being in a severe accident, or being physically injured are all things that can contribute to depression, anxiety, and even post-traumatic stress disorder in young people. Children who have experienced trauma are more likely to do worse in school or to miss more classes, and they have more interpersonal social problems that impede later success in life. Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) is the first program designed to help school counselors and psychologists work with students to significantly reduce the symptoms associated with trauma. This easy-to-use, evidence-based guide uses cognitive-behavioral therapy-a practical, positive approach to modifying behavior-to foster and build skills children need as they cope with trauma and its aftermath. Developed in inner city schools by trained mental health clinicians, this early intervention program teaches schools to recognize signs of commonly experienced traumas and use techniques proven to have an impact on traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety. The CBITS manual includes complete plans for group and individual sessions with children, background information and session plans for educating parents and teachers about cognitive-behavioral therapy, and several pages of reproducible forms and worksheets.

CBITS was developed for use by school-based mental health professionals for any student with symptoms of distress following exposure to trauma. SSET was adapted from CBITS for use by any school personnel with the time and interest to work with students affected by trauma. This toolkit assists social workers, school-based mental health professionals, and school personnel in adapting these interventions for use with youth who are in foster care.

Exposure to traumatic events among youth is relatively common. Almost all youth experience initial distress as a reaction to such events, but, for most, natural resilience causes the distress to gradually subside. However, a substantial minority continue to experience distress in the months after trauma exposure. The Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) program was designed for use with groups of students who have experienced significant traumatic experiences and are suffering from related emotional or behavioral problems, particularly symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. Delivered by school-based clinicians and taking into account cultural context, it uses a variety of proven cognitive behavioral techniques in an early intervention approach, including psychoeducation about trauma and its consequences, relaxation training, learning to monitor stress or anxiety levels, recognizing maladaptive thinking, challenging unhelpful thoughts, social problem-solving, creating a trauma narrative and processing the traumatic event, and facing trauma-related anxieties rather than avoiding them. CBITS focuses primarily on three goals: decreasing current symptoms related to trauma exposure, building skills for handling stress and anxiety, and building peer and caregiver support. In this new adaptation, a team of experts convened by the University of Montana adapted the CBITS program for American Indian youth, weaving in culturally appropriate and meaningful concepts about resilience and healing while maintaining CBITS' core cognitive-behavioral skill-building techniques.--

The book collates the latest innovations in cognitive behavioral therapy for child and adolescent anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

PTSD is a recently named psychiatric condition that unknown before the publication of DSM-III in 1980. The creation of this diagnosis was intensely controversial, and there continued to be considerable reluctance to apply the term to children. The 1985 landmark volume, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Children, edited by Spencer Eth and Robert Pynoos, helped establish the validity of this condition during childhood. Now Spencer Eth has edited PTSD in Children and Adolescents, a work that brings the field of childhood trauma in to the new century by offering fresh insights on five major topic areas in child and adolescent PTSD: Techniques for comprehensive evaluation -- details recently developed diagnostic instruments and rating scales that measure the variety and severity of traumatic symptoms in children and adolescents. Forensic aspects of traumatized children -- surveys legally pertinent issues, including abuse, reliability of traumatic memories, and credibility of child victims. Juvenile offenders and incarcerated youth -- examines the role of trauma in the lives of juvenile offenders, noting that the victimization of delinquents must be specifically addressed in order for an integrated approach to treatment to achieve effective rehabilitation. Biological treatment strategies -- systematically reviews the important role of medications for PTSD in clinical practice, including such topics as biological dysregulation, target symptoms, and the inclusion of drugs into the biopsychosocial treatment plan. The relationship between exposure to trauma in childhood and the development of psychiatric disorders in adulthood -- presents current research on the long-term prognosis of traumatized children and adolescents by analyzing the association between early traumatic exposure, biological substrates, and subsequent symptomatic morbidity. Mental health practitioners and trainees, as well as attorneys, pediatricians, and school personnel, will find this thoroughly annotated volume an invaluable roadmap in their journey toward understanding PTSD and discovering more effective treatments for traumatized children and adolescents. With its eclectic perspective and interdisciplinary format, this exceptional reference will also enhance courses in developmental psychology, social work, and education.

Children in all educational levels are vulnerable to abuse, neglect, bullying, violence in their homes and neighborhoods, and other traumatic life events; research shows that upwards of 70% of children in schools report experiencing at least one traumatic event before age 16. Though school social workers are on the front lines of service delivery through their work with children who face social and emotional struggles in the pursuit of education, there are scant resources to assist them in the creation of trauma-informed schools. This book presents an overview of the impact of trauma on children and adolescents, as well as interventions for direct practice and collaboration with teachers, families, and communities. Social work practitioners and students will learn distinct examples of how to implement the ten principles of trauma-informed services in their schools; provide students with trauma-informed care that is grounded in the principles of safety, connection, and emotional regulation; and develop beneficial skills for self-care in their work.