The Post Traumatic Stress Management Services (PTSM) development team, founded in 1995 and managed by The International Trauma Center, works closely with state Departments of Education, Mental Health, Youth and Family Services, and Federal agencies including DOE, SAMHSA, FEMA, DHS and the Red Cross to incorporate evidence-based and emerging practice models for psychological first aid and recovery phase protocols.

(See Robert D. Macy, et. al., Community-Based, Acute Posttraumatic Stress Management: A Description and Evaluation of a Psychosocial-Intervention Continuum; Harvard Review of Psychiatry, Issue # 12.4, Taylor & Francis, September 2004)

• PTSM is a cognitive based (verbal) group intervention model for youth and adults 9 years old and older that has been developed through extensive field practice and research over the last 14 years in the US and abroad post trauma and violence exposure in schools and local communities; the PTSM design and development service continuum includes gender specific, developmentally specific, culturally and linguistically specific post-disaster psychological intervention, stabilization and resiliency augmentation protocols.
• PTSM is a phase oriented (0 Hour to 3 weeks) series of highly structured, school, agency and community-based group interventions supporting the natural tendency of school and/or community peers to group together seeking safety and solace following traumatic incidents.
• PTSM targets immediate reduction of traumatic stress sequelae with the concomitant augmentation of coping and resiliency and the identification of survivors who require higher levels of behavioral health or medical care.
• PTSM focuses across the life span as well as specifically on impacted children, youth and their families and on the staff of schools and social service agencies supporting school trauma responses or exposed to ongoing traumatic events.

* Information reprinted with permission from https://internationaltraumacenter.com