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Description
Research shows that a significant number of children in Lithuania experience numerous potentially traumatizing events, including emotional, physical, or sexual abuse or neglect. These events place children at risk of developing dangerous mental health problems such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, drug dependency, and behavioral problems. Many authors indicate that unaddressed trauma experiences in childhood can have long-term negative consequences as well as later subjection to violence. The establishment of timely evaluation and accessible treatments can therefore have significant benefits for children, families, and communities at large.
A goal of the project is to digitalize, adapt, and validate the Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) in Lithuania. TF-CBT (Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy) is an evidence-based, conjoint child and parent/caregiver psychotherapy model for children and adolescents who are experiencing clinically significant emotional and behavioral difficulties related to traumatic life events they have experienced. The project promoter will develop and implement a digital solution for the assessment of children''s traumatic experiences and the TF-CBT methodology for children and adolescents and disseminate project results among the specialists (social workers, educators, etc.) to implement children’s traumatic experiences assessment and the TF-CBT methodologies.
Summary of project results
Research have shown that a significant number of children in Lithuania experience numerous potentially traumatizing events, including emotional, physical, or sexual abuse or neglect. These events place children at risk of developing dangerous mental health problems such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, drug dependency, and behavioral problems. Many authors indicate that unaddressed trauma experiences in childhood can have long-term negative consequences as well as later subjection to violence. The establishment of timely evaluation and accessible treatments can therefore have significant benefits for children, families, and communities at large.
The aim of the project was to implement a methodology for the assessment of traumatic experiences of children aged 10-17 and Trauma-focused Cognitive-behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) for parents/guardians and children, to develop TF-CBT digital solution and test it in Lithuania.
The project was implemented by the executor Public Institution “Smart Health DIH”, with partners Public Institution Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos and the Institute of Management and Psychology.
Project activities: developed and tested TF-CBT digital solution; the effectiveness of the digitized TF-CBT solution was verified; based on the methodology, children''s studies were carried out; specialists (social workers, psychologists, pedagogues) working with traumatized children and their families were trained to apply the methodology.
The research results confirmed that the methodology can be used in Lithuania, and TF-CBT significantly reduces post-traumatic stress symptoms and post-traumatic cognitions.
Based on the results of the project, in 2024 March a scientific article was prepared and submitted to the journal "Children", the main conclusion of which is the connections between potentially traumatic events and symptoms of dissociation, depressive moods, feelings and post-traumatic cognition, both in the clinical and non-clinical groups.
Target groups of the project: children from the municipalities of Vilnius city, Švenčioniai and Utena districts, aged 10-17 experiencing physical, psychological, sexual abuse and neglect, as well as parents/guardians of children, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, teachers, classmates, society.
The results of the project will help to introduce complex trauma assessment and trauma intervention instruments in Lithuania - TF-CBT, which is an evidence-based psychological support tool for children and adolescents who experience clinically significant emotional and behavioral difficulties related to traumatic life events they have experienced, as well as their parents/guardians.