Children: Trauma, Culture, and Public Health

Claude Chemtob, PHD
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry & Pediatrics
Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York City, USA

A public health perspective on trauma assessment will be presented that considers trauma as a behavioral toxin that is a common pathway for widely diverging disorder outcomes. The extraordinary costs associated with child trauma will be contrasted to the paucity of research and the lack of effective intervention models. It will be proposed that cultural barriers to the recognition of trauma and to mounting an effective response can account this for. It will be proposed that addressing trauma effectively requires moving from a clinical model of intervention to an integration of the public health and all-hazards approaches. This model will be illustrated by describing the implications for organizing post-9/11 response in NYC. Several aspects of the presenter’s work since 9/11 with children and families will be highlighted including several unpublished data sets: a large scale screening of middle and high school students in New York’s Ground Zero neighborhoods, a screening of parochial school students in New York City, and a screening of adolescents in Jerusalem. The talk will conclude with a description of resilience models being used to implement terrorism preparedness in New York City.