PAWTUCKET – Gateway Healthcare on Wednesday received a two-year, $796,757 National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for a new program that will increase access to intensive home-based trauma therapy for Rhode Island’s children and teens.
Gateway’s new initiative, Scaling Up Access to Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children in Rhode Island, will focus on providing care for children of color and their families by training 65 clinicians in evidence-based trauma therapy to treat 1,100 of the state’s children.
The work will focus on children ages 5 to 18 who have experienced significant trauma and are exhibiting symptoms such as anxiety, depression, self-harm, disruptions in eating and sleeping, physical ailments and/or co-occurring mental and substance use disorders.
“Gateway is a known local provider of trauma services for children and families in need. This newest community effort is particularly exciting because we will be training more providers in a well-researched trauma treatment model,” psychologist Deidre Donaldson, project manager, said in a statement. “Our goal is to provide Rhode Island children, and particularly those who are BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color], with better access to effective trauma treatment.”
Project strategies and interventions will include growing the trauma resources by bringing together organizations that support specific target populations and expanding the number of clinicians in the state with both child expertise and training in trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy by no less than 65 over a two-year period.
