Multiproblem Approaches (Child & Adolescent)

MATCH-ADTC is a protocol that organizes modular manualized practices for childhood anxiety, depression, trauma, and disruptive behavior problems. The program combines 33 procedures into a single, flexible system and uses expert-designed flowcharts to organize the treatment plan to fit a child’s needs while fostering individualization to address comorbidity or therapeutic roadblocks. The protocol provides clear step-by-step instructions, activities, example scripts, time-saving tips, monitoring forms, and easy-to-read explanatory handouts and worksheets for individual sessions with children and their caregivers. Caregiver handouts are available in English, German, and Spanish.

Anxiety and depression are common and co-occur at high rates. EMOTION: “Coping Kids” Managing Anxiety and Depression is a transdiagnostic intervention designed to reduce the likelihood of the development of an anxiety and/or depressive disorder. EMOTION integrates the core components of research-supported treatments for children with anxiety/depression and targets common underlying processes and building skills that are typically helpful for addressing both anxiety and depression. The aim of the program and the homework is to emphasize how completing homework assignments helps children to practice and master new skills. The first half of the program aims to build skills, and the second half of the program involves activities such as behavioral activation and exposure. Meetings for parents are also part of the program.

Fostering Healthy Futures - Preteen (FHF-P) is a mentoring and skills group program for preadolescent children (ages 9–11) who have current or previous child welfare involvement due to one or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). These ACEs may include the experience of maltreatment; out-of-home placement; instability in housing, caregivers, or schools; and/or parental substance use, mental illness, or incarceration.

Skills Groups: Children attend skills groups which meet for 1.5 hours/week for 30 weeks. The groups follow a manualized curriculum that combines cognitive-behavioral strategies with activities designed to help children process experiences related ACEs. For example, topics include: emotion recognition, problem solving, anger management, cultural identity, change and loss, and peer pressure. Multicultural stories and activities are integrated throughout.

Mentoring: Children receive 30 weeks of 1:1 mentoring (2-4 hours per week). Mentors work to: 1) create relationships with children that serve as positive examples for future relationships, 2) advocate for needed services, 3) help children generalize and practice skills learned in group, 4) engage children in educational, social, cultural, and recreational activities, and 5) promote positive future outlooks.

FHF-P targets risk and protective factors that have been identified as strong predictors of adolescent mental health problems, risk behaviors and associated outcomes.

The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Adolescents (UP-A) is a flexible, 8-module intervention for adolescents ages 12-17. The UP-A frames treatment strategies in the general language of strong or intense emotions so that it can be flexibly applied across a range of youth emotional concerns, including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other problem areas related to strong emotions. Specifically, the goal of the UP-A is to reduce the intensity and frequency of negative emotions by extinguishing the distress and anxiety these emotions produce. The UP-A is designed to accomplish this goal through emotion-focused education, awareness techniques, cognitive strategies, problem-solving and an array of behavioral strategies, including a full-range of exposure and activation techniques. A caregiver module can be flexibly incorporated as needed to address caregiver behaviors that may contribute to emotional concerns in youth, including overprotection/accommodation, inconsistency, criticism, and modeling of strong emotions.

The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Children (UP-C) is a 15-week group program for children ages 6-12 and families that can be easily adapted for individual therapy. The UP-C frames treatment strategies in the general language of strong or intense emotions so that it can be flexibly applied across a range of youth emotional concerns, including anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and other problem areas related to strong emotions. Specifically, the goal of the UP-C is to reduce the intensity and frequency of negative emotions by extinguishing the distress and anxiety these emotions produce. The UP-C is designed to accomplish this through emotion-focused education, awareness techniques, cognitive strategies, problem-solving, and an array of behavioral strategies, including a full-range of exposure and activation techniques. Caregiver materials focus on recognizing and shifting caregiver behaviors that contribute to emotional concerns in youth, including overprotection/accommodation, inconsistency, criticism, and modeling of strong emotions.