Previously, we have reported that participation in the Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention (CFTSI) helps to reduce children’s symptoms of trauma as rated by both themselves and their caregivers. Although our analyses continue to demonstrate these positive outcomes, we’ve recently run additional statistics that provide some new insights.
All of the children we serve have recently (within the past 60 days) experienced or disclosed a significant traumatic event. CFTSI is specifically designed to help families deal with the symptoms typically experienced during the aftermath of a recent trauma. However, we know that many of the children we serve also have a long history of having experienced multiple additional traumas. Therefore, although participating in our program can provide families immediate relief, sometimes our clinicians will recommend additional therapy after completing CFTSI.
Our recent analysis demonstrates that these decisions are not borne purely out of clinical intuition, but are supported by data provided to us by the assessments conducted throughout therapy. The graph below provides an overview of the change in caregivers’ ratings of their children’s trauma symptoms and the therapeutic disposition and discharge. Our data clearly indicates that the recommendation for additional trauma therapy is associated with minimal change scores and the recommendation for no additional therapy is associated with the highest change scores.
