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Eagle County helps clinicians learn about trauma

Eagle County

Eagle is one of seven counties in Colorado getting federal money to learn about trauma in abused children.

A grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will allow the county to continue work it’s already doing.

Since 2013, Eagle County has made a point of teaching mental health providers and the county’s own Child Welfare Department how to identify trauma in abused children.

 

Kendra Kleinschmidt, a deputy director at the county’s Department of Human Services, said screening for trauma is a matter of asking the right question.  

 

“Instead of thinking, ‘Gosh, what’s wrong with this child?’ a trauma-informed way to think about that is: ‘Gosh, what’s happened to this child?’” she said.

 

On Tuesday, the Eagle County Board of Commissioners signed an agreement with Larimer County and Colorado State University (CSU). Experts from CSU are now in charge of teaching any mental health provider in Eagle County how to screen for trauma.

 

The goal is to cut down on the number of kids going to residential treatment centers or to group homes.

 

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