The International Center to Heal Our Children: What We Do
The International Center to Heal Our Children:
- Creates and disseminates educational publications for use by professionals and the public.
- Provides outreach, training, and crisis response to local, national, and international groups.
- Provides consultation to national and federal agencies working on pediatric emergency and disaster mental health policies and guidelines.
- Evaluates programs to ensure effectiveness.
- Collaborates and partners with national and regional organizations.
Educational Resources
National Training
International Programs
Consulting and Collaboration
Evaluation
Educational Resources
The ICHOC has developed educational materials to assist professionals and members of the public helping children cope with traumatic events. These publications are intended to provide information about how to recognize normal child reactions to stress and describe common ways that children of different ages cope with stress. Explanations are provided on how to identify children most at-risk for long-term stress conditions. Included are guidelines for answering common questions asked by children and adults. See the section of this website entitled “Our Resources” for more information about our educational materials.
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National Training
The National Pediatric Emotional Trauma Training (PETT) Program: This program provides training on children’s psychological responses to trauma and appropriate interventions to help build and foster resiliency. The National PETT Program, through a train-the-trainer model, prepares healthcare professionals to educate schools and families on ways to enhance the resiliency of children and provide appropriate support following trauma.
Training on the Psychological Impact of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Healthcare facilities are enhancing their capacity to meet the potential surge that may follow a terrorist attack involving a weapon of mass destruction. The ICHOC is helping with these efforts by providing the necessary education on the anticipated surge of mental health needs and psychological trauma communities might face.
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International Programs
The International Pediatric Emotional Trauma Response Program: This program allows a team from the ICHOC to immediately go to a community in need and be able to rapidly assess the situation through a needs assessment, and design and implement appropriate interventions and training programs to help communities with the recovery process. The priority is to help establish a program that can be sustained in the traumatized community. These programs also include an evaluation component to help ensure that the efforts are effective and are helping the communities to recover and heal.
The International Training and Observership Program: Through this program, the ICHOC trains providers from other countries that do not have established programs in child and adolescent psychiatry. A special symposium at the end of the program serves to share the participants’ experiences with trauma in their own countries with the CNMC community. A final report completed at the end of the program provides a summary of the participants’ experience and evaluation of the program.
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Consulting and Collaboration
The ICHOC provides consultation to numerous regional, national, federal, and international agencies. Consultation services include review of mental health aspects of disaster and emergency preparedness policies for organizations such as hospitals, federal agencies, emergency management agencies, and school and child care facilities.
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Evaluation
The ICHOC has developed educational materials to assist professionals and members of the public helping children cope with traumatic events. These publications are intended to provide information about how to recognize normal child reactions to stress and describe common ways that children of different ages cope with stress. Explanations are provided on how to identify children most at-risk for long-term stress conditions. Included are guidelines for answering common questions asked by children and adults. See the section of this website entitled “Our Resources” for more information about our educational materials.
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