Steven Marans, MSW, PhD

Our research has been focused on the experience of violent trauma in the lives of children and families as well as changes in systems of care that can improve services and clinical outcomes. The partnership between mental health and law enforcement professionals in New Haven and around the country has generated broad opportunities to identify and respond to thousands of children and families each year who have experienced violence in their homes, schools and communities. Our work in responding to acute, peri-traumatic and longer-term responses to violent and catastrophic events has led to the development of new clinical approaches to meeting the needs of traumatized children and families. These innovative intervention strategies are also grounded in an integration of developmental, psychodynamic, behavioral and neurophysiologic aspects of the traumatic response. We have applied a similar perspective in developing new collaborative responses to domestic violence and to psychologically-informed approaches to emergency management responses to mass casualty man-made and natural disasters.

The Trauma Section at the Yale Child Study Center is currently involved in several research initiatives aims to influence practice and service delivery with mental health, law enforcement agencies, child advocacy centers, pediatric emergency care and to improve direct clinical service for children and their families.

1. Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention Program (DVHVI)
The DVHVI is an innovative outreach program in which an advocate and a patrol officer conduct follow-up home visits to improve physical and psychological security in the aftermath of a domestic violence incident. Our initial findings showed that women who received this intervention felt officers were more helpful, they were more likely to call the police again and were more willing to engage their children into treatment. This model is currently being disseminated in three other communities with the goal of doing a cross site data collection and analysis of the program.

2. Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention (CFTSI)
The CFTSI is a 4-session secondary prevention approach to children and families exposed to violence and other traumatic events. The intervention is currently being evaluated to determine its effectiveness in reducing post-traumatic stress disorders and symptoms. Initial findings have shown positive results.