141st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

289844
Reducing problem behaviors and suspensions in an elementary school through trauma-informed stress reduction methods


Monday, November 4, 2013 : 5:30 p.m. - 5:50 p.m.

David R. Johnson, Ph.D., RDT, Post Traumatic Stress Center, New Haven, CT
Stress-driven behavioral problems in the classroom have an adverse affect on the educational achievement of both the identified child and entire student class, as well as contributing to the demoralization of the teacher. This can lead to school failure and further widening of the educational gap already prominent in inner-city minority populations. It is imperative that the cycle of disruptive classroom behaviors that can lead potentially life altering consequences be broken. This presentation will elaborate on the various and specific creative drama therapy and other mental health interventions that were used to significantly reduce school suspensions and impact on enhancing school performance. Office referrals and suspensions were reduced nearly 90%. The data is compelling and underscores the need for these kinds of interventions to be used more widely, locally, nationally, and internationally.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Administration, management, leadership
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Social and behavioral sciences
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Explain how the child's stress and anxiety leads to problem classroom behaviors Identify three behavioral manifestations that indicate that the child might be experiencing undue stress Discuss three merits of drama therapy interventions in the elementary school

Keyword(s): Mental Health, School-Based Programs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a licensed clinical psychologist in the State of Connecticut and a registered drama therapist. I am Co-Director of the Post Traumatic Stress Center in New Haven, CT, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine; Co-Author, Trauma-Centered Group Psychotherapy for Women (Frances & Taylor, 2009).
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3455.0: Trauma-informed school-based mental health services to address violence and child maltreatment