Strydd forward for quality care and empowering parents/caregivers of youth with IDD - the strydd center at the northwell health system will build on our expertise supporting trauma recovery for…

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration awarded $598,169 to Long Island Jewish Medical Center, a subsidiary of Northwell Health, Inc., on September 30, 2026, under the Center for Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance program (CFDA 93.532).

The award funds STRYDD Forward for Quality Care and Empowering Parents/Caregivers of Youth with IDD, a trauma recovery initiative targeting youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The project will expand trauma-informed care capacity and access for this population, who represent approximately 16 percent of the population but face elevated victimization and medical trauma risks with often-unmet needs. Long Island Jewish Medical Center will disseminate educational materials including the Road to Recovery Toolkit and fact sheets developed with National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) collaborators, deliver provider trainings using the NCTSN Core Curriculum on Childhood Trauma, and serve as a technical assistance center to other network members. The center will continue training providers on tailoring Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for youth with IDD and expand materials across additional evidence-based interventions. A planned addition addresses screening for prenatal alcohol exposure and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder treatment needs. The project will partner with NCTSN treatment developers to expand the range of interventions available and generate guidance on IDD tailoring versus treatment-specific accommodations to maximize scalability.

Performance occurs in New Hyde Park, New York, with a period of performance through September 29, 2031.

Strydd forward for quality care and empowering parents/caregivers of youth with IDD - the strydd center at the northwell health system will build on our expertise supporting trauma recovery for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). About 16% of the population, these youth are at increased risk of victimization and a range of other traumatic experiences (e.g. medical trauma), but their trauma-related needs often are ignored. We will continue to build awareness of the trauma-related needs of this population within nctsn and the nation and work to increase trauma informed care and appropriate trauma screening and trauma treatment for these youth and their families to increase capacity and access. We will improve recognition of the mental health impact of trauma in these vulnerable youth through continued dissemination of educational materials in the community (such as the road to recovery toolkit and fact sheets developed with nctsn collaborators) as well as trainings of providers using the nctsn core curriculum on childhood trauma with cases we have developed illustrating these youth's needs. We will serve as a technical assistance center to support others in the network regarding use of these tools. We will continue to train providers on tailoring TF-CBT treatment for youth with IDD and will expand the materials we developed across other evidence-based interventions and service systems. One planned addition is information on best practices in screening for prenatal alcohol exposure since youth with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders, have specific treatment needs. We will partner with treatment developers within nctsn to help providers expand the range of interventions available to youth with IDD. We will then generate guidance on general IDD tailoring versus treatment specific IDD accommodations to maximize scalability. We also will address the need for expert consultation on some complex cases by providing a network-wide monthly case consultation service. While broadly disseminating our materials and trainings, we will target some specific service systems including child welfare and juvenile justice. We will provide training opportunities for category III community sites both by direct training from US, and by CO-training with developers of treatments for which we will CO-construct adjustments for youth with IDD. For our population, trauma-related symptoms are often misattributed to their developmental disabilities (diagnostic overshadowing) and treated by simplistic behavioral interventions and/or excessive medication. To reduce this, we will increase awareness of need for trauma-informed care for these youth in a variety of service systems. As part of this, we will continue our collaboration with ABA experts to educate ABA providers and direct care staff on how to provide positive behavioral supports and make their interventions more trauma informed with emphasis on data driven outcomes including reduced reliance on restrictive procedures, emergency mental health services and/or pharmacotherapy. To support need for better trauma screening for youth with IDD, a strydd contributor will continue to refine the interactive trauma scale and develop a shortened version suitable for use with pediatricians. We will continue to disseminate our stress first aid resilience building intervention for school personnel and students and will develop a version for parents. Finally, to increase their visibility and voice in decision making and to support parent needs and perspective, we will recruit a parent advisory group to best meet caregiver needs and facilitate ongoing input from parents on our full range of grant activities including psychoeducation, treatments and interventions.