Evaluation of Individual and Group Grief and Trauma Interventions for Children Post Disaster

Abstract

This study evaluated a community-based grief and trauma intervention for children conducted postdisaster. Fifty six children (7 to 12 years old) who reported moderate to severe levels of symptoms of posttraumatic stress were randomly assigned to group or individual treatment. Treatment consisted of a manualized 10-session grief- and trauma-focused intervention and a parent meeting. Measures of disaster-related exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms, depression, traumatic grief, and distress were administered at preintervention, postintervention, and 3 weeks postintervention. There was a significant decrease in all outcome measures over time, and there were no differences in outcomes between children who participated in group intervention and those who participated in individual intervention. Results suggest that this intervention using either treatment modality may be effective for addressing childhood grief and trauma postdisaster.

Media use by children and adolescents from New York City 6 months after the WTC attack

“…Furthermore, intensive media use may need to be taken into account by clinicians administering, for example, exposure therapy as a treatment for PTSD in the aftermath of a disaster (Salloum & Overstreet, 2008). Understanding factors associated with media use in the aftermath of large-scale disasters is important to increase our capacity of effectively responding to these events, so that their effects are not exacerbated, particularly among vulnerable groups.…”

Post Traumatic Stress, Context, and the Lingering Effects of the Hurricane Katrina Disaster among Ethnic Minority Youth

“…Moreover, while we did not directly assess treatment services, the lasting elevated levels of PTSD in the sample speak to the importance of school and community based efforts to address the mental health needs of youth following natural disaster that are ongoing and not short term immediately post disaster. Such programs have promising intervention and prevention potential for underserved youth (Salloum and Overstreet 2008;). For example, research by Salloum and Overstreet (2008) illustrates the potential of school-based mental health services to increase those connections in a sample of 58 youth who received intervention services following Katrina.…”

Overcoming Barriers to Using Empirically Supported Therapies to Treat Childhood Anxiety Disorders in Social Work Practice

“…In both these studies, robust treatment gains were found at post-treatment and short-term follow-up. In addition, a few efficacy studies with children with anxiety disorders (Ferrell et al 2004;Pina et al 2003) and a few effectiveness studies with children with PTSD (Salloum and Overstreet 2008;Stein et al 2003) have included substantial minority samples (African American and Latino children). However, despite these efforts, more research is needed on the generalizability of empirically supported anxiety treatments with ethnic minority children, children from low-income families and/or children who present with complex clinical challenges (Silverman et al 2008a, b).…”