The Dartmouth Trauma Interventions Research Center (DTIRC) pursues innovation in the services and treatment for children, youth, and families affected by adversity, trauma, and loss. DTIRC is located within Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC)'s Department of Psychiatry and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. All Center initiatives are funded through grants, contracts, and endowment funding.
The Center team spans many disciplines including:
- Administrative support
- Child psychiatrists
- Clinical psychologists
- Community consultants
- IT specialists
- Social workers
- Statisticians
Center faculty and staff have as a goal to improve the safety and well-being of vulnerable, disadvantaged, and traumatized children and families in New Hampshire and beyond.
Our impact
Over the past decade, the Center has transformed the child mental health system in New Hampshire by training and providing consultation to over 500 community-based behavioral health providers in evidence-based treatments for child trauma. The Center has helped the New Hampshire child welfare, juvenile justice and family court systems, youth residential and psychiatric facilities, and schools become more trauma-informed through trauma training and consultation, implementation of mental health screening measures, and linkage to effective mental health treatment. Much of our work is action-based and in the field, instituting practices within systems, evaluating the successes of these practices, and providing training and expert consultation to agencies and providers.
The Center has three research and service system priorities aimed at building healthy children, families, and communities. These priorities are:
- Improve the quality of mental health care delivered in the community through implementation of evidence-based practices. Our Center trains and consults with community mental health clinicians in evidence-based treatment practices for children ages 0 to 20 years who have experienced neglect, abuse, domestic violence, parental drug addiction, attachment disruption, and other traumas.
- Build strategies to improve child and family engagement in the treatment process and in shared decision-making around treatment strategies including therapy and psychotropic medications.
- Create trauma-informed organizations and systems, including child welfare and juvenile justice, family court systems, mental health agencies, pediatric health care settings, residential treatment facilities, and schools.