Abstract
There are a variety of evidence based practices that are being implemented for children and families within the welfare system. Many of these contemporary evidence based practices can be found online. The website known as The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare contains a list of all the different evidence based practices related to topics such as, anger management, substance abuse treatment, interventions for neglect, and depression treatment. One successful contemporary evidence based practice that has shown great effectiveness is known as Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT). The primary focus of this paper will consist of TF-CBT and will explore the methodology and effectiveness of this
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TF-CBT is an evidence based practice that has evolved in the past 25 years and has been extensively researched within the treatment of PTSD and trauma effects such as depression, distress, anxiety, and cognitive and behavioral problems. This paper will contain a detailed description of the methodology of TF-CBT and an examination of a few peer reviewed studies, which tests the effectiveness TF-CBT has on children and adolescents who suffer from PTSD, neglect, or other trauma impacts.
Some of the trauma that children and adolescents experience or witness may consist of sexual abuse, neglect, maltreatment, violence, physical abuse, vehicular accidents, and crimes. As previously mentioned these traumatic events may cause PTSD and other common comorbidities such as anxiety, depression, and possibly aggressive or impulsive behavior. To better understand how TF-CBT treatments help, it may be useful to understand what exactly PTSD is, and what it looks like in children and adolescents. According to the DSM-IV (2013), PTSD consists of persistent re-experiencing of the trauma experienced, avoidance of traumatic reminders such as certain people, places, and conversations, a general numbing of emotional responsiveness, and chronic physiological hyper arousal. Generally children with PTSD characteristically look different than adults whom are suffering from PTSD. The National Center for PTSD article displayed by the U.S. Department
A., Mannarino, A. P., Kliethermes, M., & Murray, L. A. (2012). Trauma-focused CBT for youth with complex trauma. Child abuse & neglect, 36(6), 528-541.
However, Diaz and Motta focused their study on adolescent participants and on PTSD. For this study, participants were between the ages of 14 and 17 and were all female from a residential treatment facility that met the criteria for PTSD (Diaz & Motta, 2008). The researchers used the following self-report inventories to measure the level of PTSD: (a) Child PTSD Symptom Scale [CPSS] (Foa, Johnson, Feeny, & Treadwell, 2001), (b) Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children [TSCC] (Briere, 1996), (c) Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children [MASC] (March, 1997), (d) Children’s Depression Inventory [CDI] (Kovacs, 1992) (Diaz & Motta, 2008).
Spitalnick, Josh. Difede, JoAnn. Rizzo, Albert. O. Rothbaum, Barbara. “Emerging treatments for PTSD” Clinical Psychology Review, Volume 29, Issue 8, December 2009, Pages 715-726, ISSN 0272-7358, Web. 21 April 2016
Childhood and adolescence is a crucial time for humans- a time full of physical, emotional, and cognitive development. Upon observing the significant impact that trauma induced stress can have on adults following time in combat or an injury, when adults have fully matured in all areas, it raises the question of what influence post-traumatic stressors can have on development in children. This issue was so significant that in the DSM-5, the psychologists introduced a new, and separate, section of criteria for PTSD that specifically relates to the preschool subtype, or those individuals six years and younger. The first age specific sub-type for this disorder is important due to the rising number of studies and cases of PTSD in children.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is a conjoint child and parent psychotherapy approach for children and adolescents who are experiencing significant emotional and behavioral difficulties related to traumatic life events. This online TF-CBT course shows step by step instruction in ten modules for each component of therapy. According to the introduction on the Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy website it states that, “There is strong scientific evidence that TF-CBT helps children, adolescents, and their parents overcome many of the difficulties associated with abuse and trauma.” This is a very detailed online course that gives live video examples on how each process is done.
Department of Veterans Affairs). Up to 43% of girls and boys go through at least one traumatic event in their childhood with young girls being more likely to developing PTSD than boys because they are more likely to be victims of sexual abuse. Some research proves that minorities are more likely to develop PTSD symptoms too, because of the likelihood that they will experience multiple traumatic experiences. (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs). Some studies have shown that child victims PTSD rates usually decline over the years depending on the severity of the traumatic situation (Eth 128). There are three different factors that can affect the severity of PTSD in a child, which includes the severity of the trauma, the reaction of the parents and how often or close the child is exposed to the location where the traumatic event occurred. Children that have suffered from traumatic events also react differently to their experiences based on their age, their personality and other circumstances like familial sympathy and support because children usually rely on adults to help them cope with their emotional instability. Many of the methods used to treat adults with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can also work with children. However, there is a difference in the way treatment is approached concerning children versus adults because PTSD symptoms can
Per the article, evaluation of TF-CBT is supported by several randomized controlled trials and effectiveness studies. The evidence supporting the effectiveness of trauma-focused CBT in children suffering PTSD because of sexual abuse is growing (Kar, 2011). The findings from the review of literature was that Trauma-focused CBT for symptomatic children has been successful within 1–6 months of experiencing sexual abuse. It is also recommended that children have some support going through this process. It has been suggested that, where appropriate, families should be involved in the treatment of PTSD in children and young people (National Institute for Clinical Excellence, 2005). The treatment has portions where family are involved in therapy through psychoeducation and learning coping techniques when the trauma narrative is told and
TF-CBT is an evidence-based practice that is used for trauma caused by violence, abuse, sexual abuse or other traumatic events. Usually, this evidence-based practice is used for children ages 3-17. The Modular approach to therapy for children (MATCH) is focused on overcoming the current challenges and provide with various treatment to address the current problem (Lucassen et al., 2015). The MATCH is an evidence-based practice that is used for anxiety, trauma and behavior problems with children from ages 6-15 years old. There have been more studies using qualitative research that TF-CBT is effective evidence-based practice and has positive outcomes for clients. TF-CBT is a short-term therapy that will help the client overcome their trauma and have a positive outcome once therapy is over. As for MATCH, there has not been a lot of qualitative research because it is used rarely in other countries. There have been more quantitative research reports that have been conducted based on the client and the statistics. Therefore, based on the research that was conducted with the two evidence-based practice the writer prefer to used TF-CBT because it provides with human behavior and the data that is used is with the current participants that were using TF-CBT and their experience.
The literature has shown children dealing with PTSD have many intervention tools that can be administered by clinicians in direct practice. PTSD can present symptoms that are often diagnosed as anther disorder such as oppositional defiant, conduct, mild TBI, and separation anxiety. There are many evidence-based intervention tools used in treatment such as recovery techniques, pharmacotherapy, psychoeducation, psychodynamic and cognitive behaviour therapy. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is the most used intervention tool in direct practice, and it is used in countries around the world. CBT is used with children with different ethnicities with ages ranging from preschool to high school. Many clinicians use CBT with other intervention treatment
Why do people use TF-CBT? While after trauma, the children and teenagers experience symptoms like depression and anxiety, stress, emotional stress, flashbacks of the incidents, avoiding going places to keep from
Common events that can trigger PTSD in minors include neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and psychological abuse (National Center for PTSD, 2015). Sometimes, adults tend to underestimate the severity of a child’s reaction after the event has taken place because some children disguise their feelings (Dyregrov & Yule, 2006, p. 177). If a parent is also suffering, it may affect their ability to emotionally support their child (Dyregrov & Yule, 2006, p. 177). The severity of the trauma, how the parents react to the trauma, and the child’s proximity to the trauma are three factors that increase the probability that a child will get PTSD (Dyregrov & Yule, 2006, p. 176). It is common for school-aged children suffering from this condition to show signs of disturbance in their playtime (National Center for PTSD, 2015). Severe PTSD symptoms in young children (less than six years old) may include wetting the bed after learning how to use the toilet, forgetting how to or losing the ability to talk, and being unusually clingy with a parent or another adult (NIMH, 2016). The signs of PTSD in teenagers are more similar to the signs that are seen in adults (National Center for PTSD, 2015). However, teenagers tend to show more impulsive, aggressive, and vengeful behavior (National Center for PTSD, 2015). Other factors that are related to later posttraumatic problems include prior psychiatric issues, prior exposure to trauma, the female gender, and family issues (Dyregrov & Yule, 2006, p.
Changing a person’s overall quality of life; it is a psychiatric comorbidity and typically follows an often life-long course especially in cases of young children and adolescents. Due to the nature of threatening trauma, PTSD is becoming significantly more common and may affect up to 10% of women and 5% of men at some stage in their lives, depending on the nature or severity of the traumatic event, the prevalence rates of PTSD in its victims have been reported to approach 100%. According to (Kar, 2011), “The PTSD syndrome is a conglomeration of various cognitive, behavioral, and physiological disturbances characterized by three symptom clusters, i.e., intrusion, avoidance, and arousal.” (Kar, 2011). Since the first introduction into the diagnostic classificatory system (DSMV) in the 1980’s, a considerable amount of research has been done to determine the efficiency of cognitive behavioral therapy in patients with PTSD. The purpose of the article was to review and evaluate the studies of CBT for PTSD following a multitude of various kinds of trauma, and others that were related to physical disorders in children, and adolescents. The article was also meant to review the long-term effects and the role of a preventative measure that CBT could deliver, the current understanding of CBT and its mechanism of action were also
“The most basic definition of Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric sequel to a stressful event or situation of an exceptionally threatening or catastrophic in nature.” (Kassam-Adams, & Winston, 2004, p.409). In the event that a client suffers from PTSD an evidenced based therapeutic concept should be used, this concept is generally called Trauma-Focused Cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT). TF-CBT has been used in the management of PTSD in both children and adolescents for many years as it has been proven over and over again to be the most effective in treating clients with PTSD with an emphasis on children. (Cohen, Mannarino, & Deblinger, 2012, p.3). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can and usually is an extremely
The vast majority of those receiving CBT treatment are unable to alleviate their mental state, and as high as 58% of those after receiving treatment still demonstrate the characteristics, or symptoms, associated with the diagnosis of PTSD (Cloitre, 2009). In addition, studies have shown that “only 32-66% reach a good level” of being able to gain a stronger mindset and emotional state in the hope to be better able to function within society (Foa, 2009; Schnyder, 2005). Although there have been more emphasis placed on PTSD in regards to research on psychotherapeutic treatments, the impact of this type of treatment remains stagnant while those whom to continue to suffer from the disorder remains constantly rising. The severities of the symptoms onto people’s lives reflect that of a chronic disorder, continuously impeding their life both psychological and health-wise (McFarlane,
CBT and PTSD: CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) approach can go to two directions. The first direction is learning theory, and the second is emotional processing theory (p. 15). The learning theories relate to behavioral approach aiming to change behavior by controlling environmental signs. These learning theories explain the connection of fear and avoidance of the trauma are habituated, triggered, and reinforced (p. 15). According to Ringel and Brandell, learning theories explain well the issue of fear and the avoidance appears in PTSD. On the other hand, learning theories criticize for being insufficient of clarifying the whole scale of PTSD symptoms (p. 15).