Twenty-five percent of youth are exposed to traumatic events,
including sexual abuse, physical abuse, and bereavement due to
traumatic circumstances (such as domestic or community
violence). Trauma-related mental health problems include:
posttraumatic stress disorder and other forms of anxiety,
depression, aggression, and juvenile delinquency. Exposure to
these traumatic events and mental health consequences is more
common among economically-disadvantaged families of color, who are
less likely to seek mental health services. In the long term
and without mental health interventions, traumatized children may
experience substance abuse, personality disorders, and vocational
and interpersonal difficulties.
Why leave a child and family with these gloomy consequences when we
know that they can successfully be treated?
The Child HELP Partnership at St. John’s University is a mental
health program designed to serve traumatized, multi-cultural,
inner-city youth and their families. Since 2001, we have
provided state-of-the-art evaluation and therapy services to
hundreds of children and families who are suffering as a result of
being exposed to traumatic events, and not having easy access to
quality care. Because many mental health programs have closed
during the past years, our referral rate has skyrocketed and our
cases are more complex. The hard economic conditions of our
times further increases the amount of neglect and abuse that occurs
in economically-hard hit households.
For the benefit of our children and families in need, Child HELP
Partnership has a moral obligation to maintain the services we
currently provide to our hundreds of families. We also know
that we are qualified to serve more children who are struggling
with increasingly complex trauma histories and mental health
needs. Thus, with your support our wish list is to
have:
- More clinicians, especially for families in which the primary
caregiver speaks languages other than English.
- A part-time child psychiatrist for medication prescription and
monitoring, because many of our children experience severe
psychiatric symptoms.
- Child and family-friendly multi-cultural materials (e.g., toys,
games, books) to facilitate effective and high-quality evaluations
and therapy.
- Technology (e.g., computers, printers) to hasten evaluation
scoring, report writing, communication with other service
organizations, and training of students and professionals)
Transportation for staff to provide community- and home-based
evaluations and therapy for the children and families whose lives
are too chaotic or complex to attend therapy in an outpatient
setting
- Transportation to increase the likelihood for our families who
can attend to attend PARTNERS Clinic-Based services
- Building space to serve more children and families, train more
professionals in best practices, and promote collaboration across
settings (e.g., host case conferences).
Thank you for your consideration for this important cause and the
great work that you do. We look forward to hearing from
you.