With the goal of improving treatment for children who have experienced traumatic stress, the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, led by UCLA and Duke University, convened the first meeting of a network of hospitals and mental health centers from across the nation in Los Angeles last weekend.

Members of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network gathered to coordinate strategies for better addressing the needs of hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents exposed to traumatic events each year.

In 1998, an estimated 200,000 children were victims of physical child abuse, 100,000 were victims of sexual abuse and 225,000 were victims of mistreatment.

Each year some 140,000 children and adolescents receive treatment for bicycle-related head injuries, 20,000 are hospitalized because of burns, and five of every 100,000 children age 10 and under are hospitalized for dog bites. Other traumas range from neighborhood violence to war, terrorism and political oppression.

Such experiences can produce feelings of panic, helplessness, and uncontrollable fear or terror, and lead to a range of acute and chronic traumatic stress reactions, experts said.

While some children and adolescents are able to cope effectively through their own resilience and support from their families and others, many face chronic difficulties that affect their social and psychological development.

"This is much more than a mental health initiative," said Robert Pynoos, co-director of the center and a UCLA professor of psychiatry. "The impact of traumatic events on our children reaches deep into the fabric of everyday life.

"In working to improve services and access to trauma victims, the network will involve school, police, child welfare, juvenile justice and other child service agencies -- anywhere and everywhere that children and adolescents affected by trauma are likely to surface," Pynoos said.

While considerable progress has been made in understanding the prevalence, characteristics, risk factors and consequences of childhood trauma, Pynoos said, many fundamental questions remain about the impact of trauma on the development of children and how best to identify the children most vulnerable to trauma's effects.

The network is supported by $30 million in federal funding over the next three years.

As co-directors, UCLA and Duke University will monitor and evaluate the activities of members, as well as provide administrative resources, data management and research and clinical expertise.