Serving underserved populations in rural setting: targeting treatment and adolescent resilience together (suprstart) - the "serving underserved populations in rural settings: targeting treatment and…

Serving underserved populations in rural setting: targeting treatment and adolescent resilience together (suprstart) - the "serving underserved populations in rural settings: targeting treatment and adolescent resilience together" (suprstart) project will bring evidence-based mental health services to seven rural, underserved georgia counties by training therapists in trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) and telehealth provision. IT will expand child maltreatment (CM) prevention awareness by training 760 community leaders in two evidence-informed programs. CM is associated with an increased risk of deleterious outcomes such as post-traumatic stress, major depression, substance use, and revictimization. IT is critically important that abused children have access to evidence-based treatment. Yet, families in the seven target counties must travel in excess of 27 miles to obtain services. Suprstart will bring telehealth TF-CBT services to youth victims ages 3-18 years in burke county, and the toombs circuit, circumventing major geographic barriers to care. Among youth seeking services in the region, more than 60% are under 12 years of age, and almost 70% identify as female. Fifty percent of youth are african american. Importantly, the increased recognition of CM impact on health has led to state-level efforts enforcing evidence-informed prevention training among adults in close contact with youth to improve recognition of CM occurrences in community settings. However, less than 5% of adults in the rural georgia counties are trained to date. Suprstart will address CM service gaps in burke county and the toombs circuit by 1) expanding the network of trained therapists in telehealth TF-CBT, TF-CBT for commercially sexually exploited youth, and treatment for youth victims struggling with suicidal ideation; 2) creating a sustainable telehealth delivery model using local georgia family connection partnership county offices, and 3) expanding the dissemination of the evidence-informed stewards of children and connections matter CM prevention curricula to pediatric residents at the medical college of georgia, and community leaders across the seven counties. These goals will be met under the guidance of an advisory committee comprised of local and national experts. In years 1 and 2, we will train two cohorts of 15 community therapists each in TF_CBT, and telehealth delivery. In year 3, these cohorts will receive advanced training, TF-CBT+, to address complex trauma among sexually exploited youth. Additionally, therapists will receive training in a trauma-informed self-harm risk reduction model (safety-a) in years' 2 and 3. We anticipate an annual increase in youth to be served via suprstart: year 1 n=20, year 2 n=30, year 3 n=40, year 4 n=50, year 5 n=60, for a total of 200 youth. Each year, at least 12 pediatric residents (total 60) and 20 community leaders per county (total 700) will receive prevention training. The advisory committee will perform continuous program evaluation across implementation and service delivery goals to ensure seamless telehealth treatment provision in these rural regions, and positive health outcomes among youth.