Programs and Services at the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect

National Center on Sexual Behavior of Youth 

The National Center on Sexual Behavior of Youth’s (NCSBY) mission is to promote better lives, through better choices by youth, caregivers, and professionals for healthier responses to and prevention of problematic sexual behavior of youth. NCSBY provides national training and technical assistance (TTA) to improve the accuracy, accessibility, and strategic use of accurate information about the nature, incidence, prevalence, prevention, treatment, and management of youth with problematic sexual behavior. Since 2010, through funding from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART), NCSBY has provided TTA to programs funded to target late childhood and early adolescence for implementing evidence-based, comprehensive, and coordinated early intervention services to address problematic sexual behavior (PSB) of youth and the effects on child victims and their families. OJJDP and Smart have funded 18 programs, who have received TTA from NCSBY. Evaluation results indicate significant reductions in problematic sexual behavior, with low recidivism rates, as well as improvements in general behavior problems and parental stress. Deliverables are developed and disseminated through the NCSBY website (www.NCSBY.org) which provides information and resources for parents/caregivers and professionals who serve these families. Products include guidelines, fact sheets, newsletters, protocols, professional guides, peer reviewed manuscripts, and webinars.

Problematic Sexual Behavior – Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Training Programs 

The training program for the OU Problematic Sexual Behavior – Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (PSB-CBT) provides training to sites across the United States as well as a site in Canada and one in the United Kingdom. This training combines clinical training to the behavioral health team and community training to address systems change, collaboration, and policy. Training is funded through grants and contracts and has included state-wide efforts in New York, Missouri, New Jersey, and Maryland, as well as smaller community training for agencies in Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois, Denver, Boston, South Dakota, Maryland, North Dakota, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, and New Jersey. The PSB training and technical assistance team provides presentations at local, national, and international events and conferences.

Indian Country Child Trauma Center 

Is a national training, policy, and resource center which developed the Honoring Children Series, which includes the cultural enhancement of three evidenced based treatment approaches — Honoring Children, Mending the Circle (Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), Honoring Children, Making Relative (Parent Child Interaction Therapy), Honoring Children, and Respectful Ways (Treatment of Children with Inappropriate Sexual Behavior). Faculty from the Indian Country Child Trauma Center provides training in the Honoring Children Series including consultation in suicide prevention, treatment, and community responses. For more information please see our website at www.ICCTC.org or email Janie Braden.

Honoring Children, Mending the Circle 

Is also offered nationally to Native and non-Native based organizations who serve American Indian children and their families. Clinicians trained in national presentations by Drs. BigFoot and Schmidt on the cultural enhancement of TF-CBT would be approximately 1000. Clinicians receiving the training this fiscal year would be approximately 97. This training also provides weekly telephone consultation to clinicians in the implementation of the model.

Honoring Children, Making Relatives 

is offered thru the ICCTC in conjunction with the PCIT Behavior clinic and is the cultural enhancement of PCIT for American Indian and Alaska Native families. Currently HCMR is part of the PCIT trainings with the state of Minnesota and the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Honoring Children, Making Relatives draws on the traditional parenting concepts of American Indian and Alaska Native families is the clinical application of parenting techniques in a tradition framework that supports the belief of American Indians and Native Alaskan culture of honor, respect, extended family, instruction, modeling, and teachings.

Honoring Children, Respectful Ways 

is the clinical protocol for treatment of children who display inappropriate sexual behaviors. Currently consultation is being offered thru a grant from OJJDP and will be providing clinical consultation and training over the course of the grant period. We also welcome additional opportunity to discuss training options with interested sites. The curriculum identifies inappropriate behaviors of American Indian and Alaska Native children and youth and with the use of the culturally based teaching of construct of "respect" helps to build culturally congruent methods of appropriate ways to honor who they are by promoting their American Indian and Alaska Native beliefs. Core components include rules (e.g., respect) about sexual behavior and physical boundaries, age appropriate sex education, strategies that both support the children following and using these rules while learning skills to manage their behavior. The skills include feeling identification, coping, relaxation, impulse control, problem solving, abuse prevention, and social relationship skills.

Project Making Medicine 

Is a national clinical training project funded by the Children’s Bureau to better address the professional development of mental health providers in the treatment of child trauma in Indian Country, specifically child maltreatment and other trauma exposures including family violence and substance abusing parents. Honoring Children, Mending the Circle is the clinical treatment model clinicians are trained in. Three intensive core trainings per year are conducted with clinicians who work with American Indian and Alaska Native children and their families who have been exposed to trauma, especially child physical and sexual abuse. Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is taught overlaid with the culturally enhanced version of the model based on Indigenous practices of healing and wellbeing. Funded by the Children's Bureau, between 30 and 45 licensed clinicians are trained each year and can participate in weekly phone consultation. Participants are invited to repeat the training for additional opportunities to learn the model more thoroughly.

Oklahoma TF-CBT Training Program 

Clinical training and consultation in child trauma assessment and the evidence-based model, Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy continued in 2019. Training and consultation activities were supported through collaborations with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Our Oklahoma TF-CBT professional training program held four Introductory TF-CBT and Child Trauma Assessment Trainings in the past year, with over 200 participants in training and on-going consultation. This year’s two-day Advanced TF-CBT conference was host to over 130 attendees from across the state and nation. Additionally, we have continued our TF-CBT professional training program specialization in advanced training and consultation on TF-CBT with the early childhood population. Our program also hosted professional training webinars on advanced TF-CBT topics with over 350 attendees across 10 webinars.

Our CTSP leadership team are approved trainers for Dr. Brian Miller’s CE-CERT model of clinical supervision to reduce secondary traumatic stress. We have incorporated CE-CERT into our introductory TF-CBT training and our quarterly directors calls, as well as offering full day training in the CE-CERT model with follow-up consultation for our DMH contracted agencies.

For more information on Oklahoma TF-CBT please use this link for their website. Oklahoma TF-CBT

SafeCare Training 

The SafeCare model is used in training provided by the Section for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services for Secondary Prevention (High Risk Prevention Program) and Tertiary Prevention (Oklahoma Children's Services). Secondary Prevention training in SafeCare was provided to three (3) additional home visitors trained in 2019 and and three (3) providers completed training and became certified in 2019 as Home Visitors at the National SafeCare Training and Research Center’s standards. Tertiary Prevention training was provided to field workers in the field with consultants that work for the agencies. Assistance was provided to the Consults/Trainers if they were still learning, if they needed help because of large numbers, or if there was a need to monitor fidelity. All training is provided in conjunction with the training guidelines of the National SafeCare Training and Research Center at Georgia State University.