Native Americans and Child Trauma

Indian Health Project Trains Providers to Recognize Child Trauma Program Works to Bridge Native Traditions with Western Medicine

LOS ANGELES, CA (May 25, 2004) National and tribal health experts have launched an initiative to help educate mental health providers about how to identify and treat child traumatic stress. Children exposed to traumatic events like child abuse are at risk of developing child traumatic stress reactions, and rates of trauma exposure are particularly high in Native American populations.

This May, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center sponsored a weeklong training on the treatment of physically and sexually abused Native American children. The training included special information on child traumatic stress, and incorporated tribal-specific native cultural perspectives and traditions. Faculty for the training included traditional native healers and child psychologists who have expertise in treatment of child maltreatment in native communities. Most Participants were mental health professionals who serve Indian children in Indian Country.

Presentations emphasized traditional approaches to healing, rediscovery of native culture, ways of perceiving health, value systems and learning styles, and Native American perspectives of human development. The training was May 3-7 in Oklahoma City.

Ten years ago, the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center developed Project Making Medicine to train mental health providers from tribal and Indian Health Services facilities nationwide. Project Making Medicine has affiliated sites in 22 of the 25 states with substantial native populations. Building on the work of Project Making Medicine, the university�s Center on Child Abuse and Neglect this year established the Indian Country Child Trauma Center (ICCTC).

The overarching goal of the ICCTC is to develop trauma-related treatment protocols, outreach materials, and service delivery guidelines specifically adapted and designed for Native American children. ICCTC will adopt evidence-based treatment models while accommodating the substantial variability in cultural identity among Native people. In addition, ICCTC will define strategies for improving access to services and treatment retention among traumatized Native children.

The need is great. The violent crime rate among Native Americans is 2.5 times the national rate. Native American children have the highest incidence of maltreatment of any racial group in the nation. About one in 30 Native American children under age 14 are subjected to child abuse, while the national ratio is 1.23 cases of abuse per 100 children.

Nationally, one in four youth experience a significant traumatic event by age 16. Common sources of child trauma include abuse and neglect, community and domestic violence, serious accidental injury, disasters, and life-threatening and chronic accidents. Many children experience multiple traumas. Children with traumatic stress can suffer setbacks in their emotional, intellectual and interpersonal functioning.

ICCTC is a member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. With funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, child traumatic stress research and treatment centers from around the country form the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Launched in 2001, this congressional initiative recognizes the profound, destructive, and widespread impact of trauma on American children's lives. The Network�s mission is to raise the standard of care and improve access to services for traumatized children, their families and communities throughout the United States.

The 54-site National Child Traumatic Stress Network is coordinated by the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, based out of the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and the Duke University Medical Center.

For more information on ICCTC, contact Dr. Dolores Subia BigFoot at (405)271-8858. For information on NCCTS or NCTSN, contact Patrick Cody at 202-965-0580 or Robert Franks, PhD, director of the National Resource Center for Child Traumatic Stress, at 919-812-1852. Further information about the NCTSN can be found at www.nctsnet.org.