Session: Integrating Evidence-Informed Mental Health Interventions into Social Service Systems: Lessons Learned from the National Evaluation of Safe Start Promising Approaches (Society for Social Work and Research 21st Annual Conference - Ensure Healthy Development for all Youth)

SESSION INTRODUCTION: Children’s exposure to violence such as direct child maltreatment, witnessing domestic violence, and community and school violence is relatively common. For children, violence exposure can lead to problem and delinquent behaviors, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and academic issues. Thus, the need for prevention and intervention is clear. Despite systems of care to support children exposed to violence, and some emerging innovations in intervention, the evidence base for such programs is still small. The goals of this symposium are to present findings from an evaluation of the second phase of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP) National Safe Start Promising Approaches (SSPA) initiative, and to discuss lessons learned from the integration of evidence-informed behavioral health interventions into social service systems. The initiative focused on preventing and reducing the impact of children’s exposure to violence through behavioral health interventions in diverse communities across the United States. The symposium supports the conference themes of mental health treatment and services, trauma-informed care, children exposed to violence, and intimate partner violence by convening researchers and community partners who were involved in implementing and evaluating the SSPA programs.

The first paper, “Assessing the effectiveness of interventions for children exposed to violence:  Findings from the national evaluation of Safe Start Promising Approaches,” presents an overview of the SSPA initiative and its evaluation, summarizes violence exposure and victimization among study families, examines changes over in time for key outcomes, and assesses intervention effectiveness across the sites. In addition, the author provides an overall discussion of SSPA program service integration efforts. Implications of this research are also provided.

The second paper, “Lessons Learned from Integrating the S.E.L.F. Intervention in an Early Head Start Program,” describes implementation of an enhanced home visitation program in Early Head Start. The author will discuss their experience integrating care into the Early Head Start system, including challenges and lessons learned, and share practical recommendations for administrators and practitioners.

The third paper, “Lessons Learned Integrating Universal Trauma Screening and Attachment Interventions (COS and ARC) in a Head Start Program,” describes implementation of two interventions (Circle of Security (COS) and Attachment, Self-Regulation and Competency (ARC)) in Head Start. The author will discuss their experience integrating care into the Head Start system, including challenges and lessons learned, and share practical recommendations for administrators and practitioners.

The fourth paper, “Lessons Learned from Integrating a Trauma-informed Assessment and Group Therapy Intervention (SFCR) in Homeless Settings,” describes implementation of a child assessment and family based intervention (Strengthening Families-Coping Resources) in homeless shelters. The author will discuss their experience integrating trauma-informed approaches into the shelter system, including challenges and lessons learned, and share practical recommendations for administrators and practitioners.

At the conclusion of the presentations, the discussant will make some summary statements and moderate a discussion between the presenters and symposium attendees. It is expected that lessons learned from the national evaluation and service integration experiences of a diverse set of interventions targeting at risk children and families will appeal to the SSWR Annual Meeting participants.