National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative – Category II Treatment and Services Adaptation Centers

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2009 for Treatment and Service Adaptation Center cooperative agreements through the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative. The purpose of this program is to provide national expertise on specific types of traumatic events, population groups, and service systems and support the specialized adaptation of effective treatment and service approaches for communities across the country thereby improving treatment and services for children and adolescents in the United States who have experienced traumatic events. The initiative is designed to address child trauma issues by creating a national network of grantees—the National Child Traumatic Stress Network—that work collaboratively to develop and promote effective community practices for children and adolescents exposed to a wide array of traumatic events. The purpose of the NCTSI Treatment and Service Adaptation Centers is to provide national expertise and serve as lead organizations for identifying and adapting effective treatment and services for specific types of trauma, types of trauma interventions, and/or traumatized populations. Treatment and Service Adaptation Centers are a category (Category II) of cooperative agreements under SAMHSA’s larger National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative (NCTSI). The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) is composed of three types of centers: 1. The National Center for Child Traumatic Stress - (Category I)works with SAMHSA to develop and maintain the network structure, provide technical assistance to grantees within the network, oversee resource development and dissemination, and coordinate national education and training efforts; 2. The Treatment and Service Adaptation (TSA) Centers - (Category II) provide national expertise on specific types of traumatic events, population groups, and service systems and support the specialized adaptation of effective treatment and service approaches for communities across the country; and 3. The Community Treatment and Services (CTS) Centers - (Category III) implement and evaluate effective treatment and services in community settings and youth serving service systems and collaborate with other network centers on clinical issues, service approaches, policy, financing, and training issues. NCTSI Treatment and Service Adaptation grants are one of SAMHSA’s infrastructure grant programs. SAMHSA’s Infrastructure Grants support an array of activities to help the grantee build a solid foundation for delivering and sustaining effective mental health services for child trauma. SAMHSA recognizes that each applicant will start from a unique point in developing infrastructure and will serve populations/communities with specific needs. Awardees may pursue diverse strategies and methods to achieve their infrastructure development and capacity expansion goals. Successful applicants will provide a coherent and detailed conceptual “roadmap” of the process by which they have assessed or intend to assess service system needs and plan/implement infrastructure development strategies that meet those needs. The plan put forward in the grant application must show the linkages among needs, the proposed infrastructure development strategy, and increased system capacity that will enhance and sustain effective programs and services. As of April 2008, approximately 1.64 million men and women have been deployed to serve in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in support of the Global War on Terror. Individuals returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are at increased risk for suffering post-traumatic stress and other related disorders. Experts estimate that up to one-third of returning veterans will need mental health and/or substance abuse treatment and related services. In addition, the family members of returning veterans have an increased need for related support services. To address these concerns, SAMHSA strongly encourages all applicants to consider the unique needs of returning veterans and their families in developing their proposed project. NCTSI Treatment and Service Adaptation grants are authorized under Section 582 of the Public Health Service Act, as amended. This announcement addresses Healthy People 2010 focus area 18 (Mental Health and Mental Disorders).