ABOUT DALWOOD SPILSTEAD SERVICE
NEUROSEQUENTIAL MODEL OF THERAPUTICS
NEUROSEQUENTIAL MODEL OF THERAPUTICS
ABOUT DALWOOD SPILSTEAD SERVICE
ABOUT DALWOOD SPILSTEAD SERVICE
NEUROSEQUENTIAL MODEL OF THERAPUTICS
Friends Of The
DALWOOD SPILSTEAD SERVICE
Family Intervention and Support Service
NEUROSEQUENTIAL MODEL OF THERAPUTICS
REFERRALS & FURTHER INFORMATION ON NMT AT DALWOOD
Please send referrals to
Kathy Parry, DSS OOHC Program via:
02 9951 0365
katherine.parry@health.nsw.gov.au
For further information about our training programme please call
Kerry Gwynne:
02 9951 0366
kerry.gwynne@health.nsw.gov.au
WHAT IS THE NEUROSEQUENTIAL MODEL OF THERAPUTICS
The Dalwood Spilstead Service has been fortunate to be able to partner with the Child Trauma Academy as one of only a few organisations in Australia now certified at the Phase II level in the NMT clinical online assessment tool and treatment approach. This approach is proving to be of immeasurable value to those children in greatest need who were previously the most difficult to treat due to their background of severe abuse and neglect.
Developed by Dr Bruce Perry, neuro-scientist, child psychiatrist and Senior Fellow of the Child Trauma Academy, Texas USA, the world’s best practice Neurosequential Model (NMT) is a developmentally-informed, biologically-respectful approach to working with at-risk children which provides a way to organise the child’s history and interpret current functioning. “The NMT integrates several core principles of neurodevelopment and traumatology into a comprehensive approach to the child, family and their broader community. The NMT process helps match the nature and timing of specific therapeutic techniques to the developmental stage of the child, and to the brain region and neural networks that are likely mediating the neuropsychiatric problems.” see Perry, 2006; Perry and Hambrick, 2008; Perry, 2009) https://www.childtrauma.org/
NMT is able to expand the benefits of conventional therapy by prescribing “therapeutic” interventions which can be implemented throughout the child’s day and across various settings. It is clear that NMT has specific potential to assist children who are struggling to manage in various settings due to their experience of extreme trauma. The service is now also certified at the Certification Phase II level as in the Child Trauma Academy Train The Trainer program. This certifies the Dalwood Spilstead team to be able to train other professional in the NMT trauma-informed model of care.
NMT ASSESSMENT & CONSULTATION SERVICE
for Children In Out Of Home Care (OOHC)
Due to the generosity of Lenity Australia and the HP Foundation, in 2017 we have established a service for children in OOHC across NSW. Most of these children have experienced severe trauma, abuse and neglect prior to being placed in foster care and many have experienced additional disruption in attachments as a result of being placed in OOHC. Neuro-science is now dictating that these children require a “trauma informed” approach which is able to target the neuro-biological cause of dysfunction.
The Assessment and Consultation service includes an NMT assessment and also an assessment of the child’s cognitive functioning. An NMT trained clinician collects a complete developmental history and collates information from all current assessments of the client’s current functioning. The clinician will use this information to complete the NMT report, including a “functional brain map” which is a visual representation of a child’s strengths and needs.
The NMT Assessment process helps identify domains of functioning that are either undeveloped or dysfunctional which in turn helps guide the selection and sequencing of developmentally-sensitive and neurobiologically guided interventions.
The NMT Metrics take into account information from a wide range of sources and you will be asked to provide reports from other professionals such as speech therapists, Occupational therapists, psychologists and paediatricians as well as information about performance at school (e.g. school reports, NAPLAN results, school counsellor reports).
NMT Clinicians at the Dalwood Spilstead Centre are Allied Health professionals with a Masters degree who have completed the certification programme through the ChildTraumaAcademy under the direction of Dr Bruce Perry. The Clinicians have years of experience working with children who have a history of developmental trauma and their families and have been implementing the NMT metrics with children in the therapeutic preschool for around 3 years. The psychometric assessment will be conducted by a Clinical Psychologist with many years of experience in assessment of children.
The NMT Assessment and Consultation is priced at $2000 per child. This includes the assessment, report with detailed recommendations, feedback session and a follow up consultation if needed.