TARGET is a resilience-building and recovery program that is not limited to individual or group psychotherapy but is designed to provide an educational curriculum and milieu intervention that impacts all areas of practice in the school, therapeutic, or correctional program. As a result, therapeutic consistency develops within and across the program(s) in which TARGET is implemented.
TARGET is taught to, and implemented by, educators, case managers and line staff as well as Masters or Doctoral level clinicians in a team approach. TARGET uses language, educational materials, and training and implementation activities that are geared to a wide range of educational and professional levels and backgrounds.
TARGET is compatible with almost all other evidence-based models for not only traumatic stress but also for anger and stress management, addiction prevention and recovery, depression and anxiety treatment, social and communication skills, and healthcare. The core skills and concepts are portable and can be integrated easily into other models.
In two clinical trials using TARGET, dropout rates were 6% in the MOMS study and 5% in the GIRLS study, compared with studies using Cognitive Behavioral treatment in which the drop out rates are often as high as 20-25 %.
In the Connecticut juvenile justice detention centers that are providing 4-session TARGET groups to youth, rates of seclusion and restraint have been found to decrease significantly.
TARGET is listed on the websites of The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare, The National Center Children in Poverty, The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, NREPP: SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices and The Rand Corporation Gulf States Policy Institute.
