The goals of this study are as follows: 1) to gain a better understanding of the impact of geopolitical violence on youth and families; 2) to describe the mental health dimensions of the traumas of separation from family, reunification with estranged family, flight from one’s home country to the United States, and the needs in the United States; and 3) to learn how to use clinical and family therapy clinical techniques in a coordinated and interdisciplinary system of care.

This study sought to expand the literature on the comorbidity of foster care and substance abuse and mental illness by undertaking a secondary analysis of a large national cohort in the US.

This article discusses knowledge on the traumas that this hidden, although expanding, group of youth experience, as well as the interventions, clinical services, and policies that can benefit these youth.

The objective of this presentation is to highlight, through the presentation of a clinical case example, how a community-based social services agency, such as Northern Virginia Family Service (NVFS), responds to the psychosocial needs of unaccompanied minors and their families and addresses and mediates barriers to successful family reunification.

This presentation will review the needs of traumatized children in foster care and appropriate clinical response, including diagnosis, treatment planning, and follow-up.

This talk will explore the adaptation of FOCUS, an evidence-based, skill-building preventive intervention, for foster families and foster youth in college and provide clinical adaptations.

The goal of this presentation is to describe a unique manualized Adoption-Specific Intervention (ADAPT) intervention, developed specifically for families adopting older foster care youth. Important lessons for mental health clinicians working with families of adopted youth will be discussed.

Anecdotal and limited objective studies have indicated that children and youth being raised in nonparental settings, such as those with custodial grandparents or in foster care, show a higher need for mental health services. They are often prescribed psychotropic medications at a higher rate. The authors set out to study the prevalence of this trend in a sample group of suburban community health center child and adolescent patients who are being served through an outpatient school-based program of Prince William County, Virginia in the US. 

This presentation will discuss methods of assisting reconnection and reunification in families of unaccompanied minors immigrating to the US.

This document provides a full report of the workshop on “Depression in Children and Young Persons living in Alternative Care: Challenges and Possibilities.”