Trauma-informed treatment for disenfranchised urban children and youth: An open trial.
Community outreach and focus groups were conducted in an impoverished multi-cultural urban neighborhood to develop a local, culturally-sensitive and community-responsive adaptation of Greenwald's (2005) phase model of trauma-informed treatment. Fifty-nine children with a wide range of presenting problems were referred for treatment. Outcomes included 87% retention rate of participants treated to successful termination, as well as clinically significant reduction of post-traumatic stress symptoms. This project demonstrates that hard-to-reach disenfranchised urban children can benefit from trauma-informed treatment when it is appropriately adapted and presented.