Current Projects

Principal investigator: Cassandra Kisiel

Funding source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

The Center for Child Trauma Assessment, Services and Systems Integrations (CCTASSI) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is a university-based Treatment and Services Adaptation Center of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). Our center offers national expertise on interventions for the developmental effects of trauma for service providers across a range of child-serving settings, including child welfare, behavioral health, educational and juvenile justice settings.

We use a culturally sensitive lens and emphasize work with specific subpopulations or sectors where gaps in trauma-informed practices exist, such as early education, child welfare residential, juvenile probation and transition age youth programs. We emphasize resource development, training and implementation support for providers, caregivers and youth in range of settings. This includes the use of the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths — a trauma-focused, comprehensive assessment, treatment, service planning and outcomes evaluation tool — in conjunction with other data collection strategies.

Key activities of our center include:

• Training and implementation of trauma-informed screening and assessment strategies.
• Developing and adapting resources to support the meaningful use of trauma-informed assessment for family engagement, psychoeducation and treatment/service planning.
• Training and implementing NCTSN service interventions/approaches for non-clinical, front-line providers across settings, including the Think Trauma Toolkit and Resource Parent Curriculum.
• Adapting resources and interventions for different cultural groups to address health disparities.
• Raising public awareness on the developmental effects of trauma through development and widespread dissemination of child trauma resources, all to lay the ground work for building sustainable trauma-informed systems. 

See the CCTASSI website for more information.

Principal investigator: Richard Epstein

Funding source: Casey Family Programs (via sub-contract with the Center for the Helping Professions)

Through a sub-contract with the Center for the Helping Professions, MHSPP faculty and staff are part of a team of experts providing technical assistance to the National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS). The NPCS is quality improvement collaborative designed to improve child safety and reduce child maltreatment fatalities through the application of safety science and shared data.

Principal investigator: Neil Jordan

Funding source: Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (Illinois DCFS)

The Therapeutic Residential Performance Management Initiative (TRPMI) is an implementation project developed in collaboration with Illinois Department of Child and Family Services and the University of Illinois at Chicago. TRPMI was designed to promote effectiveness of residential treatment programs, identify systemic barriers to treatment services, address organizational culture and climate, and support youth transition back into communities. TRPMI creates partnerships with residential programs to enhance their ability to effectively treat youth and provide recommendations around barriers to treatment or discharge. TRPMI is designed to be youth focused, clinically driven, trauma informed, and team oriented, focusing on the utilization of quality improvement techniques.

Principal investigator: Richard Epstein

Funding source: Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (Illinois DCFS)

For more than a decade, Illinois DCFS has contracted with MHSPP for training, technical assistance, and evaluation in support of multiple DCFS initiatives. This contract includes projects led by several MHSPP faculty members. A high-level description of current projects, alphabetical by faculty lead, include:

Richard Epstein:

• Data Collection and Administration. This project ensures maintenance of University and DCFS computer hardware, software, and permissions to facilitate use of DCFS administrative information on the other contracted projects for which its use if necessary.
• Evaluation of the Intensive Placement Stabilization (IPS) Program. This project evaluates the IPS program, by describing the youth who have participated in it and the outcomes they have achieved.
• Evaluation of the SAFE Practice Model Implementation. This project evaluates the implementation of the SAFE Practice Model by describing the implementation, assessing implementation fidelity, and outcomes.
• Evaluation of Staff Training and Coaching Initiatives. This project evaluates the impact of the implementation of staff training and coaching initiatives, such as skill-based and executive coaching and leadership programs.
• Support for the B.H. Consent Decree. This project provides support for the B.H. Consent Decree by providing technical assistance for the development strategies to support youth needing intervention, implementation of the investigator caseload plan, and implementation of the superseding implementation plan.
• Technical Assistance for Youth Awaiting Placement. This project provides technical assistance to youth in care awaiting placement by delivering reports to help DCFS track youth in emergency placements, psychiatric hospitals beyond medical necessity, detention centers beyond the release date, out-of-state residential facilities, and other temporary situations.
• Technical Assistance for Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) and Well-Being Measure Implementations. This project provides technical assistance and implementation support to DCFS' efforts to use the CANS and to assess well being, provide decision support, and aid services planning.
• Technical Assistance for the Health Services Management Unit. This project provides technical assistance to DCFS’ Health Services Management Unit, to aid their efforts to ensure that youth in care receive the preventive, physical, and behavioral health services they need.
• Technical Assistance for Placement and Community Services. This project provides the DCFS Clinical and Child Services Division with technical assistance for clinical quality improvement projects and to facilitate placement decisions.
• Technical Assistance for Service Provider Administration. This project provides technical assistance to the DCFS Provider Portal and Service Provide Identification and Exploration Resource (SPIDER).

Neil Jordan:

• Technical Assistance for Residential Treatment and Performance Measures. This project provides Residential Performance Measure (RPM) development and implementation, other congregate care-related administrative data analysis, and support for Residential Monitoring.

Cassandra Kisiel:

• Trauma Training and Consultation. This project provides the Think Trauma Training and Implementation Program (TTTIP) to child welfare residential agencies and an abbreviated version of TTTIP to DCFS Clinical Division leadership, Attachment, Self-Regulation and Competency (ARC) consultation to the IPS program, and support to DCFS' Office of Racial Equity Practice.

Principal investigator: Richard Epstein

Funding source: Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (Illinois DCFS) (via sub-contract with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) 

Through a subcontract with the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, MHSPP faculty are part of a team of experts evaluating the implementation of prevention services under the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) in Illinois. 

Principal investigator: Richard Epstein

Funding source: Tennessee Department of Children's Services (TDCS) (via sub-contract with Vanderbilt University Medical Center) 

Through a sub-contract with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, MHSPP faculty are part of a team of experts helping TDCS develop and implement a psychotropic medication monitoring program for youth in the child welfare system.