STARTTS in schools : Integrating evaluation and practice to support students from refugee backgrounds

The New South Wales Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) is a state-wide not-for-profit organisation established to provide specialised services to traumatised people from refugee and refugee-like backgrounds in New South Wales (NSW),1Australia. The STARTTS in Schools program is a collaborative, multidisciplinary initiative that works in close partnership with schools and other education stakeholders to provide a range of services to refugee students and school staff. These services include individual counselling, neurofeedback and group programs for students, psychoeducation groups for parents, community development projects, professional development training for school staff, and clinical consultation services for school counsellors. These services are underpinned by a trauma-informed biopsychosocial systemic model of therapeutic intervention and evaluated using a range of measures to ensure STARTTS in Schools is both effective and evidence based.