September 11 Anniversary
09/2012
The anniversary of a traumatic event, whether a national tragedy or a personal loss, can serve as a powerful reminder of earlier reactions to the tragedy, and can trigger renewed feelings of anxiety, sorrow, and concerns about the future. These reactions can then interfere with daily functioning at home, work, or school.
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) has compiled a directory of resources for disaster response workers, educators, families, medical personnel, mental health professionals, and youth to help them deal both with recurring reactions and with current stresses and adversities.
Page Contents
Featured NCTSN Resources
Parenting in a Challenging World
Parenting in a Challenging World (2005) (PDF) 
Offers help for parents and caregivers of children who have experienced a traumatic event. These pages and resource address some of their questions―such as, What does a family do to heal after a child has experienced a traumatic event? Will my child recover? How have other people coped?―using as an educating tool scenes from the documentary film Surviving September 11th: The Story of One New York Family.
Strategies to Manage Challenges for EMS Families (2008) (PDF)
Discusses some of the many challenges for parents who work in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) field. Describes strategies for dealing with each of the challenges outlined, addressing the unique set of stressors experienced by EMS workers, their significant others, and their children. Created by the North Shore–Long Island Jewish Health System Adolescent Trauma Treatment Development Center in conjunction with the Center for Emergency Medical Services.
Terrorism, Disaster and Children Speaker Series 
Topics focus on assessing and treating PTSD in preschool children, school-aged children, and youth following a disaster. The presenters discuss developmental issues, parent issues, assessment, treatment, and preparedness. Several of the webinars highlight lessons learned from September 11th.
Tips for Families on Anticipating Anniversary Reactions to Traumatic Events (2002) (PDF)
>En Español: Sugerencias para la familia que anticipa reacciones adversas al aproximarse el aniversario de un acontecimiento traumático (2002) (PDF)
Advice on how to deal with the feelings that arise with anniversaries of tragic events―including renewal of early reactions and feelings, and increasing worries about something similar happening again. As an anniversary of a public tragedy approaches, there is increased media attention, which may be accompanied by warnings, rumors, myths, and misconceptions that can easily add to families’ worries. Tips include information on what to look for, who might need special support, and how you can help. Includes links to other resources.
Traumatic Grief
Overview of normal grief and grieving processes, and how they differ from traumatic grief. Childhood traumatic grief may occur following a death of someone important to the child when the child perceives the experience as traumatic. NCTSN resources include videos, training curricula, and educational materials for parents, educators, pediatricians, media, and other providers.
For Educators
National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)
Resources to support parents, educators, and other caregivers to help children deal with the anniversary of September 11. Includes advice on teaching children to process their reactions in a healthy way, fostering resilience and coping skills, and much more. Tip sheets are available in English and Spanish.
National Center for Child Traumatic Stress
- Coping in Hard Times: Fact Sheet for School Staff (2011) (PDF)
Practical ways to help youth address their problems, stay connected, network, and cope better during economic downturns. Explains how challenging financial circumstances can affect school personnel, teachers, and their students' sense of safety, ability to calm, self- and community efficacy, connectedness, and hope. - Self Care for Educators (2008) (PDF)
>En Español: Auto-ayuda para educadores (2008) (PDF)
Tips to help educators who experience secondary traumatic stress through working directly with traumatized children and adolescents. Information includes how to recognize the signs of compassion fatigue, find support, and care for themselves.
Project Rebirth
An organization that recognizes “the unique preparedness needs of first responders as the frontline of disaster recovery.” Seeks to “chronicle living history and honor 9/11 victims and first responders, and to advance educational initiatives committed to pre-trauma resiliency building for first responders.”
- 9/11 Materials for Teachers
A website with resource materials that can be used by teachers in classroom activities that commemorate the 9/11 anniversary. Includes links to federal agencies that offer access to educational resources focused on the anniversary.
For Families and Youth
American Psychological Association
- 9/11 Anniversary
Provides resources for parents and educators related to the anniversary of September 11th, with links to news releases, resources, and guides; includes information on resilience, helping children cope, and more. - Managing Traumatic Stress: Tips for Recovering from Disasters and Other Traumatic Events
Offers information on what can happen to people after a disaster or other traumatic event, how people respond differently over time, how to help yourself and your family, when to seek professional help, and a link to a posttraumatic growth scale. - Resilience Guide for Parents & Teachers
>En Español: Guía de resiliencia: para padres y maestros
A wealth of resources and information on learning to assist children (preschool through high school) in building resilience. Includes practical steps for managing stress, anxiety, and uncertainty. - The Road to Resilience
>En Español: El camino a la resiliencia
Focuses on how to take your own road to resilience by developing and using a personal strategy; includes factors that can affect how people deal with hardship, and more.
Families of September 11®
A nonprofit organization that was founded in October 2001 by families of those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Provides support to families and children including updated resources, information, and advocacy on the effects of terrorism and public trauma; reaches out to terror victims worldwide. An affiliated program―Children of September 11™―helps parents, caregivers, and professionals who support children impacted by 9/11 and other traumas. Offers resources, advocacy, and information.
National Center for Child Traumatic Stress
- Coping in Hard Times: Factsheet for Parents (2011) (PDF)
Coping in Hard Times: Factsheet for Youth High School and College Age (2011) (PDF)
Factsheets that discuss how challenging financial circumstances can affect a young person’s and a family’s sense of safety, ability to calm, self- and community efficacy, connectedness, and hope. Includes specific and practical ways for youth and families to address problems, stay connected, network, and cope better during economic downturns. - Effective Treatments for Youth (PDF)
For those that are still experiencing distress due to 9/11, it is never too late to get help. This information helps identify which treatments are most effective for youth.
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for PTSD
- PTSD Coach App
A mobile app (free download) offering information and advice on PTSD and how to manage symptoms that commonly occur after trauma. Designed for current and veteran service members who have—or may have—PTSD. Includes information on PTSD and treatments that work, a PTSD self-assessment tool, skills for handling stress symptoms, tool for screening and tracking PTSD symptoms, and links to other resources for getting professional support and help. Available from iTunes and Android Market. - Voices of September 11th
Provides information and resources for 9/11 families, rescue workers, and survivors. Includes support programs; mental health and educational services to promote resiliency; up-to-date information through the website, newsletter, and direct mailings; and commemorative events to honor the lives and stories of September 11th. Also promotes public policy reform on prevention of, preparedness for, and response to terrorism; works to build bridges between international communities that have been changed by terrorism; and much more.
For Service Providers/Agencies
National Center for Child Traumatic Stress
- Coping in Hard Times: Fact Sheet for Community Organizations and Leaders (2012) (PDF)
Discusses how challenging financial circumstances can affect communities, their organizations, and their members’ sense of safety, ability to calm, self- and community-efficacy, connectedness, and hope. Also includes practical ways to help community members address their problems, stay connected, network, and cope better during economic downturns. - NCTSN Empirically Supported Treatments and Promising Practices
Factsheets that describe some of the clinical treatment and trauma-informed service approaches implemented by NCTSN centers, with the common goal of reducing the impact of exposure to traumatic events on children and adolescents. The documents were produced in close consultation with the developer of each treatment or service approach. - Secondary Traumatic Stress: A Fact Sheet for Child-Serving Professionals (2012) (PDF)
A concise overview of secondary traumatic stress and its potential impact on child-serving professionals; outlines options for assessment, prevention, and intervention relevant to secondary stress; and describes the elements necessary for transforming child-serving organizations and agencies into systems that also support worker resiliency. - Secondary Traumatic Stress Speaker Series: Secondary Traumatic Stress and Provider Self Care in Disaster and Terrorism Settings (2012)
Topics focus on the potential for secondary traumatic stress in disaster and terrorism settings, and outline some recommended actions for preventing and reducing the potentially stressful impact of this work on disaster mental health providers.
- Disaster Technical Assistance Center (DTAC)
Supports “SAMHSA's efforts to prepare States, Territories, Tribes, and local entities to deliver an effective mental health and substance abuse (behavioral health) response to disasters.”
Resilience and Stress Management: Introduction
A collection of materials from national and professional sources that can be used “during any situation, whether it is dealing with financial stress, recovering from a natural disaster, or coping with the loss of a family member or friend.” Includes resources on resilience, understanding stress, and stress management—with effective coping strategies, tip sheets, an extensive annotated bibliography, and links to other resources.
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