New hope and help for forgotten youth

Juvenile sex offender treatment programs have been at the forefront of discussion among some policy-makers and certainly those who provide treatment for these youth. While the research in this area supports the use of community-based treatment strategies, clinicians with strong training background are rare.

There is a need for a certificate training program to develop clinicians who are specifically trained to treat juvenile sex offenders. Through a unique academic/community initiative providing a multimodal approach to treatment, a collaborative 2-day national conference related to treatment of juvenile sex offenders was established. The program core was a 9-month clinical treatment certificate training program. This article describes the community program, and outlines in detail its purpose, goals, trainee requirements, conceptual areas for competency development, and the content areas.

The Mental Health Policy Institute for Leadership and Training of Baltimore and the School of Nursing of the University Maryland jointly recognized a need to address the quality and efficacy of community-based treatment and expand the number of trained clinicians to work with sex offending youth. As a result of positive program evaluations, this community program will be provided annually.