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CHELSEA, MA

Massachusetts General Hospital Chelsea HealthCare Center
151 Everett Avenue
Chelsea, MA 02150
617.887.7305

Purpose
To design a continuum of care that will identify, respond to, and refer children from birth to 17 years of age who are exposed to violence. To provide services that lessen the impact of exposure to violence and promote healthy growth and development in children exposed to violence.

Interventions
Comprehensive assessment: A multidisciplinary team conducts comprehensive assessments of mental and physical health providers and community supports. The team conducts an in-home safety assessment for families with children from birth to 7 years of age.

Individual, group, and family psychotherapy and psychopharmacology: A multidisciplinary team develops treatment plans based on home, medical, and assessment evaluations that determine which model of care each family and child receives. Treatment focuses on attachment, regulation, and competency and is grounded in trauma-informed interventions, techniques, and auxiliary treatment methods. Clinicians provide individual, group, and family therapy from the mental health unit. Based upon the child’s or adolescent’s needs and strengths, the practitioner chooses an appropriate intervention from a menu. Therapeutic procedures include psycho-education, relationship strengthening, social skills, and parent-education training as well as psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral, relaxation, art/expressive, and movement techniques.

Institutional Change: Various hospital units (mental health, social services, pediatric, Ob/Gyn, and school-based health programs), police action counseling teams, the school system, Department of Social Services, and family violence advocates work together to create policies and procedures that expand access to psychiatric intervention and ensure quality services for children and families.

Promising or Evidence-Based Practices

Psychotherapy: Attachment, Self-Regulation, and Competence (ARC):  A Common-Sense Framework for Intervention with Complexly Traumatized Youth. Jentoft-Kinniburgh, K. and Blaustein, M. The Trauma Center, Allston, MA. http://www.nctsnet.org/nctsn_assets/pdfs/promising_practices/ARC_2-11-05.pdf.