About this website
This website was developed by the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, with valuable input from a wide range of health care providers. Primary authors are Nancy Kassam-Adams, PhD; Stephanie Schneider, MS; and Anne E. Kazak, PhD, ABPP.
The team that developed this website includes physicians, nurses, psychologists, and other health and mental health professionals. This expert team brings together experience from a broad range of areas including emergency medicine, critical care, primary care, family practice, oncology, trauma surgery, psychology, psychiatry, and others. The content of this website is grounded in the latest research evidence and in best practice recommendations and clinical guidelines.
About the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress
The Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress (CPTS) was founded in 2002 to address medical trauma in the lives of children and families. CPTS is a partner in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). As the only center within the NCTSN focused solely on addressing medical traumatic stress, CPTS seeks to:
- Increase awareness and recognition of medical traumatic stress by healthcare providers.
- Develop and promote empirically based screening and intervention for children and families who have experienced traumatic stress due to pediatric illness and injury.
- Provide training to medical and mental health providers about best practices in assessing and treating medical traumatic stress.
- Develop and disseminate resources about coping with traumatic stress to ill and injured children and their families.
About the National Child Traumatic Stress Network
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) works to raise the standard of care and improve access to services for traumatized children, their families, and communities throughout the United States. Under the leadership of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), the NCTSN seeks to advance effective interventions and services to address the impact of traumatic stress. The Network is comprised of more than 50 centers across the United States including universities, hospitals, clinics, community-based mental health centers, and other organizations that serve traumatized children and their families.
This project was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The views, policies, and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of SAMHSA or HHS.
About the primary authors
Dr. Kassam-Adams co-directs the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress, and is Associate Director for Behavioral Research at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention, at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Her research over the past decade has focused on understanding posttraumatic stress in ill and injured children and their parents, and developing and evaluating assessment and intervention tools that can be integrated in pediatric health care. Dr. Kassam-Adams serves on the Board of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and on the American Psychological Association’s 2008 Presidential Task Force on Child Trauma.
Ms. Schneider has a Master's degree in Clinical Health Psychology from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and has worked clinically in pediatric oncology. She is the co-author of the Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress Toolkit for Health Care Professionals. Prior to joining the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress, she worked for seven years developing curricula and training medical students and physicians in family medicine.
Dr. Kazak directs the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress. She is Director of the Department of Psychology and Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, The University of Pennsylvania; as well as Deputy Director of the Behavioral Health Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is recognized internationally as a pioneer in the field of posttraumatic stress from pediatric illness and has published widely in this area. Her innovative research has focused on identifying posttraumatic stress symptoms in childhood cancer survivors and their families, and the development, evaluation, and dissemination of assessment tools and interventions for pediatric traumatic stress. Dr. Kazak is a past president of the Society of Pediatric Psychology (Division 54 of the American Psychological Association; APA) and chaired a recent APA Task Force on Evidence-Based Practice for Children and Adolescents. She is a past editor of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology and current editor of the Journal of Family Psychology.
