Jackson Free Press

[verbatim statement] Beginning on September 12, 2005, Catholic Charities' Trauma Recovery for Youth Project will host a week long training on Post Traumatic Stress Management by Dr. Robert Macy. Dr. Macy is the Director of Community Services for the Trauma Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He has 20 years experience doing clinical interventions and academic research in the field of behavioral health, crisis intervention, and traumatic incident management. Robert conducts dozens of trainings annually on youth suicide prevention, threat profiling, threat management and violence prevention, and School and Community Based Post Traumatic Stress Management.

He will be in Jackson as part of a collaboration between Trauma Recovery for Youth and the Trauma Center in Boston. His model of Community-Based Post Traumatic Stress Management is known, and used, throughout the country when communities are faced with traumatic events that might have long term adverse effects on its residents. This series of therapeutic groups is used to reduce the impact of a traumatic event (i.e., school shootings, natural disasters, etc) on a community..
The Trauma Center in Boston has used PTSM with communities in, and around, Boston with much success. Their responses to traumatic events in the community have been used for violent shootings that children witnessed, house fires, and many other events both children and adults find hard to process.
Dr. Macy's PTSM training will be offered to residents of the Midtown Community for free in an attempt to pilot a community based crisis response team that is self-sufficient and composed of residents of that area. This community will be one of only three (including Boston) sites that are piloting this model.

This enables the residents of the Midtown community to be trained in proper therapeutic techniques to use with children who have been a part of, or witnessed, trauma. If the Midtown pilot program goes well, TRY hopes to replicate this model throughout the city and ultimately state.
The Trauma Recovery for Youth Project has committed to managing the development and implementation of a Crisis Response Network aimed at especially those incidents involving the youth in this community. This program will begin with the training and credentialing of a Crisis Response Network in the Midtown area.

This Crisis Response Network will be comprised of approximately 80 licensed mental health clinicians, police, and paraprofessional social workers, which will respond to critical incidents involving youth from Jackson's Midtown community. The mission of such a network is to effect an absolute reduction in the effects of drug abuse, violence and adolescent self-destruction, through coordinated, state-of-the-art post-vention and intervention Post Traumatic Stress Management Protocols.

Those undergoing the training also commit to being available to perform these PTSM groups in the even of a traumatic event in the community. This training is offered in the hopes that arming the community with the means to help themselves promotes self-sufficiency.

Residents of Midtown will learn ways to cope with youth who have been exposed to community violence. This program offers a way for the community to help heal itself in the aftermath of traumatic events and violent incidents.

For more information, see http://www.nctsnet.org and http://www.catholiccharitiesjackson.org
Write [e-mail missing] for details.

Previous Comments

ID

134311

Comment

Dr. Macy has offered to open that PTSM trauma training to the whole state and is going to be training 150 mental health workers to help deal with the kids and families in the area. I'm trying to get the mayor on the phone. I NEED A VENUE that can hold 150 people. If you have any ideas give me a call. By the way, WE NEED THE 150 PEOPLE. Can you post my contact info ([email protected]) and part of the robert macy press release on the katrina blog. LET EVERYONE KNOW.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-06T17:37:26-06:00

ID

134312

Comment

Thanks you SO MUCH!! I'm still trying to get the word out about this. Its happening next week...and we need 150 volunteers that would be willing to work with the survivors of the hurricane. This training teaches ANYONE (not JUST professionals) on how to do process groups with survivors. This guy is known all over the world. You can contact me [email][email protected][/email] or [email][email protected][/email] for registration forms and other information. THANKS YOU GUYS!!

Author

Lori G

Date

2005-09-07T15:18:39-06:00