UK Center on Trauma and Children celebrates 25 years of translational research
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 21, 2024) — The University of Kentucky Center on Trauma and Children (CTAC), housed in the UK College of Medicine, is celebrating its 25th anniversary of transforming the lives of those affected by trauma.
Since 1999, the center has been on a mission to reduce, and ultimately end, the impact of trauma on children, families and the workforce.
Ginny Sprang, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychiatry and executive director for the UK Center on Trauma and Children, is one of the founders of the center along with her colleagues Jim Clark, Ph.D., Allen Brenzel, M.D., and the late Otto Kaak, M.D.
“We were dreamers with a lot of ideas and just enough idealism to believe we could make big changes,” said Sprang.
Through the years, the Center on Trauma and Children has been dedicated to enhancing the health and well-being of children and their families through research, practice, policy and evidence-based approaches to address child abuse and trauma.
“The center started as an idea on how to improve systems of care that serve children exposed to violence through translational research and evidence-based treatment,” said Sprang. “It grew from a Kentucky-specific initiative in 1999 to a global center of excellence today.”
Trauma and violence against children can be the leading factors to a wide range of behavioral, psychological, social and health-related problems at every level of society. CTAC bridges the gap between science and practice in ways that can improve the lives of children, families and professionals exposed to violence, and the capacity of our communities to effectively treat them.
“We fill a gap that no other center provides regarding forensic family risk assessments, evidence-based trauma treatment at no cost to families and children and serve as the primary resource for trauma-informed care systems transformation initiatives,” said Sprang. “The research produced by CTAC is aimed at real-world application and building community capacity to treat children and youth exposed to violence.”
This year, at the 25th-anniversary celebration, CTAC announced the Kay Seeley Hoffman Research Endowment will fund a new research professorship in the center.
“Former dean of the College of Social Work Kay Hoffman was an early supporter of the work at CTAC. Around 2008, a group of community members came together to start an endowment in her name that would benefit CTAC because they saw how passionate she was about the center,” said Sprang. “The College of Medicine has now invested in the endowment to expand its scope and impact.”
The endowment will support CTAC’s mission as a translational research center that works to prevent and address violence against children, to develop traumatic stress treatments that can be successfully implemented in real-world settings to stop the intergenerational transmission of trauma in families.