Centerstone awarded $2,000,000 grant for trauma-focused treatment in Southern Illinois

Centerstone was awarded a $2 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Center for Mental Health Services to help clients who have experienced traumatic events.

Centerstone will use the grant – $400,000 each year for five years – to create a new program called CT3: Centerstone Trauma Treatment and Training. The program’s aim will be to increase access to trauma-focused treatment for children, adolescents and their families who have experienced traumatic events, including children and adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system and children of veterans.

The counties covered in the program include Franklin, Jackson, Madison, Perry, Randolph, St. Clair, Union, Washington and Williamson.

“In those nine counties, more than 12,000 child abuse or neglect cases have been investigated and nearly 6,000 have been substantiated to date,” said Andrea Quigley, Centerstone Clinical Director and project manager for the CT3 program. “The area’s child abuse and neglect rates are up to 2.7 times higher than the state’s rate of 9.7 per 1,000.”

CT3 will develop and maintain local capacity to implement trauma-informed practices and provide evidence-based, informed trauma treatment interventions. The goals of the program are:

• Establish a community-based, culturally competent, quality, accessible program to provide and increase access to effective trauma focused treatment and services systems for children, adolescents, and their families who witness or experience traumatic events.
• Develop a sound infrastructure and increase community capacity to implement trauma-informed services for the focus population.
• Improve the health status and outcomes for young children – ages 2 to 9 years old, adolescents – ages 10 to 17 years old, and families as measured at intake, 6 months and discharge follow-up.
• Develop and disseminate a thoroughly documented model with measurable objectives for statewide and national replication and adoption.

“Our objectives include decreasing behavioral health concerns, risk factors and mental health symptomatology related to trauma; improving social and emotional functioning and family functioning; and increasing psychosocial wellbeing, quality of life, and protective factors, as well as access to trauma-focused treatment,” Quigley said.

CT3 services will include:

• Direct trauma and treatment services
• Therapy
• Care management
• Professional training and community education
• Outreach and engagement
• Screening and assessment
• Linkages to services and supports

The program is scheduled to begin on May 31 with a three month planning phase, during which Centerstone will be doing outreach and engagement with partners dedicated to the project’s success, including child welfare organizations, law enforcement, courts, juvenile justice and other provider and social service agencies.

Centerstone estimates that the program will begin providing services in this program in August. The estimated number of people to be served with this program and grant is 360.

Centerstone has more than 60 years of administrative, technological, evaluation and clinical experience providing an array of behavioral health services for individuals of all ages. Since 2004, Centerstone and its affiliates have administered $250 million in federally funded projects of similar size, scope and population, including more than 20 SAMHSA-funded grants, and has conducted 130 federally funded research and evaluation studies.

For more information about Centerstone and CT3, visit centerstone.org.

To reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure at this time, almost all appointments at Centerstone are being conducted via telephone or telehealth (video). For more information, call 1-877-HOPE123 (1-877-467-3123) or visit centerstone.org/covid19/.