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Model Treatment and Services Approaches for Professionals Working With Families of Abducted Children: Executive Summary

NCJ Number
184451
Date Published
2000
Length
29 pages
Annotation
A 36-month project conducted in 3 phases focused on developing, testing, and refining model treatment and services approaches and training materials for use by mental health professionals in stabilizing families upon the recovery of missing children and supporting family members and returned children’s recovery from the trauma.
Abstract
The Office of Juvenile justice and Delinquency Prevention sponsored the project. The project developed and field tested: (1) a traditional clinic-based counseling model for the delivery of onsite, in-person services to recovered, previously missing children and their families; and (2) an alternative model of information and training delivery via mailed printed material and by specialized telephone consultation to the professionals who served the recovered children and their families. The knowledge gained in the testing of these models resulted in the production of a publication to discuss the treatment needs of two distinct populations: (1) children recovered from non-family abductions and their families; and (2) children recovered from family abductions and their families. The treatment models covered four stages: (1) initial recovery of the child and reunification with the family; (2) a short-term trauma response pattern; (3) the longer-term trauma response pattern; and (4) termination and periodic recontact for children and family members. 23 references