CHDI is Proud to Share Our New Core Values Statement |
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CHDI identified and defined our core values through a collaborative process with our staff and board. The process was guided by our participation in the 2020 National Child Traumatic Stress Network's Virtual Summit Initiative, “Being Anti-Racist is Central to Trauma-Informed Care: From Awareness to Action.”
CHDI's Core Values Statement
CHDI’s core values of anti-racism, respect, accountability, collaboration, and equitable action have been intentionally and collaboratively designed to reflect the culture we strive to embody and the ways that we approach our work. We aspire to uphold these values in order to transform our organization as well as the systems, practices, and policies that promote the health and well-being of children.
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Anti-Racism: CHDI aspires to apply an anti-racist lens to all that we do so that we can one day live in a state where racism does not play a role in impacting children’s health and well-being. We acknowledge the centuries of racism and all related forms of oppression that have shaped our country’s history and recognize that historical and present-day racism is a type of trauma that impacts both children and their families. We recognize that anti-racism is a conscious effort and are working to identify and dismantle racism in our internal operations and the external systems and services we seek to improve.
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Respect: We demonstrate respect for ourselves and each other within CHDI and those we work with externally including organizations, communities, and families. Our policies and practices aim to foster a healthy environment. CHDI will use inclusive and accessible language in our work, and transparent reporting of data, to empower and honor the dignity of every child and family involved in children’s behavioral health and other child-serving systems across Connecticut.
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Accountability: CHDI aims to be accountable to the children and families of Connecticut, our staff, our Board, our partners, and our funders. Our value for accountability takes multiple forms, including: accountability for the achievement of our strategic plan, the strategies and outcomes of our work, and the ethical behavior of our employees.
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Collaboration: CHDI values collaboration to achieve a collective vision shared by many system partners. We believe in teamwork and power sharing at all levels of our organization. We seek to improve collaboration with public agencies, policy-makers, researchers, providers, community-based organizations, and families who are directly impacted in order to make evidence- and community-based decisions to improve the systems, practices, and policies that impact children’s health and well-being.
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Equitable Action: We strive to take bold action to make equitable improvements to the systems, practices, and policies that impact children’s health and well-being. In order to do so, we know that we must foster authentic engagement across our organization, with our partners, and with the community at large. We believe that such action can only enhance the larger child-serving system so that inequity and injustice no longer impede the opportunities afforded to children and their families.
*We envision this to be a living document that is incorporated into our daily work.
Learn more about our commitment to equity and racial justice.
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13th Annual Evidence-Based Practice Conference Focuses on Anti-Racism and Equity in Behavioral Health Amid COVID
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The 13th annual Connecticut Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) Conference commenced on May 11 with a keynote address by Dr. Isaiah Pickens entitled, “Bringing Equity to the System: Transforming from the Inside Out.” The keynote presentation on health equity drew nearly 200 participants. Hosted by CHDI, the EBP Conference is made possible with funding from the CT Department of Children and Families (DCF) and CT Judicial Branch Court Support Services Division (CSSD). |
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The 2021 EBP Conference consists of 17 virtual workshops from local and national experts, with a theme centered on Anti-Racism and Equity in Behavioral Health Amid COVID-19. Presentations are tailored to behavioral health providers and policy stakeholders, school personnel and administrators, CT DCF and CSSD staff, and other child-serving systems. The EBP conference series runs from May 11 through June 16. Presentation recordings will be made available for future viewing. If interested in viewing a recorded workshop, please contact Christine Hauser at chauser@uchc.edu.
Learn more about Connecticut's work to advance evidence-based practices.
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The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) Adds the Child Trauma Screen to List of Clinical Resources |
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The Child Trauma Screen (CTS) was recently added to the list of clinical resources published on the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies' (ISTSS) website. The CTS is a free screening measure for child trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms. It is intended to be used by people with or without clinical training in a range of child-serving settings.
CHDI developed the CTS in partnership with the Connecticut Department of Children and Families and Yale. Three peer-reviewed studies indicate that the CTS is reliable and has good to excellent psychometric properties as a brief screen. The CTS is available at no charge to providers. Learn more at www.chdi.org/cts.
CHDI is also developing training in best practices for trauma screening in pediatric primary care and other settings through the ScreenTIME project.
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CT Mirror Story Highlights Children's Mental Health Crisis |
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A recent Connecticut Mirror story explores how the pandemic has led to a growing crisis in children’s behavioral health care. The story, "Children with psychiatric needs are overwhelming hospital emergency departments in CT," examines how efforts to expand hospital and community behavioral health services and supports haven't kept pace with the current crisis-level needs. In the article, CHDI's President and CEO Jeffrey Vanderploeg urges front-end system investments - such as social emotional learning in schools and pediatricians talking about mental health - to help reduce the number of kids who are showing up in the emergency department. He also stressed the importance of people being aware of the statewide mobile crisis program. In 2018, CHDI published a study by the UCONN School of Social Work showing a 25% decrease in emergency department visits among children who used mobile crisis. CHDI also published a report, Emergency Department Use by Connecticut Children and Youth with Behavioral Health Conditions: Improving Care and Promoting Alternatives, which offers strategies for Connecticut policy makers, hospitals, mental health agencies, and schools.
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CHDI welcomes Larke Nahme Huang, PhD, to our Board of Directors. Dr. Huang is a licensed clinical-community psychologist who has worked at the interface of policy, research and practice in behavioral health. Most recently she was the Director of the Office of Behavioral Health Equity and a Senior Policy Advisor at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Prior to her federal work, she was on faculty at the University of California, Berkeley and Georgetown University, a managing director at the American Institutes for Research, and a clinical practitioner in community mental health. She has co-founded national organizations, served on the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, and the Carter Center Mental Health Task Force, and published widely. She received her doctorate from Yale University. Dr. Huang will will be serving on the Program, Equity, & Communications Committee and the Finance and Investments Committee for the CHDI Board of Directors.
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CHDI welcomes Melissa Santos, PhD to our Board of Directors. Dr. Santos is a licensed psychologist and the Interim Division Chief of Pediatric Psychology at Connecticut Children's, where she specializes in the family treatment of pediatric obesity. She works with adolescents and their families preparing for bariatric surgery and families participating in non-surgical weight management programming. Dr. Santos also supervises psychology and medical students in clinical and research activities within the obesity program. Dr. Santos received a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Texas Tech University and completed Postdoctoral Fellowships in Medical Psychology at the Medical College of Georgia, and in Child & Adolescent Clinical Psychology the Institute of Living/CCMC. Melissa will be serving on the Program, Equity, & Communications Committee and the Audit Committee for the CHDI Board of Directors.
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Carrie Shaw retired from CHDI this month after seven years as an administrative assistant supporting CHDI's trauma-focused evidence-based treatments and other initiatives. During this time, she worked tirelessly to support CHDI staff, mental health agencies, state partners, clinicians, and other partners to improve children’s mental health services. Carrie will be missed as a vital team member, colleague, confidant, and friend. All of us at CHDI wish Carrie a happy retirement.
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Child Health and Development Institute
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The CHDI logo is a registered trademark.
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