Cindy A. Crusto, PhD, an associate professor of psychiatry affiliated with the department's Psychology Section and The Consultation Center, has joined a multidisciplinary research project that will focus on vulnerable children in South Africa. The project is led by the Humanities Department at the University of Pretoria (UP) and supported by the Andrew Mellon Foundation.
Crusto joins the project and the UP Humanities Faculty as a Mellon Distinguished Scholar.
The UP/Mellon project will focus on South African children from birth to 18 years who are vulnerable for various reasons, especially due to being an orphan, having a chronic illness, having a chronically-ill parent or caregiver, living in a difficult environment that may pose a threat to their well-being or survival, or having various disabilities.
The project consists of six distinct but overlapping research teams that will address the dearth of prevention and treatment interventions to combat the most pressing of South Africa's challenges such as child maltreatment, violence, drug abuse, poor health, and poverty. The project teams will address: (1) orphans and vulnerable children in Hammanskraal; (2) interventions for HIV infected adolescents in Pretoria; (3) development of structured interventions for traumatized children due to child abuse in Eersterust and Mamalodi; (4) parenting programs to support attachment and child emotional development, well-being, and early intervention in multi-risk families to enhance family resilience and reduce family risk factors; (5) development of means for children with severe communication disabilities to disclose sexual abuse and acts of crime against them; and (6) evaluating the psychometric properties of an early childhood developmental screen developed in South Africa.
In collaboration with community representatives, the teams will conduct assessments of the needs of children and their families as well as the available supports. The assessments will inform the development, implementation, and evaluation of culturally-relevant and appropriate interventions.
In addition to the Mellon Distinguished Scholar appointment, Crusto was appointed an Extra-Ordinary Professor in UP's Department of Psychology and Department of Humanities. Extra-Ordinary Professors are appointed on the basis of specialized expertise.
Crusto is director of program and service system evaluation at The Consultation Center. Her research examines social processes and individual factors on the health and well-being of children and their families, the impact of family-based trauma and violence on children and their caregivers, and the ecological influences on child and family well-being. She is particularly interested in culturally relevant interventions for children from racial/ethnic minority and low-resource backgrounds and communities, as well as school-based behavioral health services research.
Crusto engages in community-based research and evaluation where she has extensive experience in the development, implementation, and evaluation of child and family focused interventions and initiatives.
In this new capacity with the UP/Mellon project, Crusto will join research teams to initiate, write, and publish articles, present workshops and public lectures, and initiate, plan, and execute projects with UP faculty and staff.
During Crusto's first official project visit to South Africa in April 2014, she presented a public lecture entitled, "Ecologically-based projects to address psychological trauma among vulnerable children in the USA." Additionally, Crusto met with all of the affiliated research teams and with Dr. Norman Duncan, UP's dean of the Faculty of Humanities, to discuss the overall Project.