This training will identify the impact of trauma on child’s behavior, feelings, relationships and view of world. Training will also cover the impact trauma has on children physically, the impact on learning, and the impact on brain development. We will cover signs of compassion fatigue, and ways to deal with compassion fatigue. Overview of ways to help children manage trauma in home, through creating safety, learn to manage emotions, and the impact that trauma reminders play on behavior.
This training is based off of the National Childhood Traumatic Grief Network’s Child Welfare Trauma Training.
Integrating adopted, foster, or pre-adoptive children who have attachment disruptions and early trauma into an established family presents unique challenges. Failure may result in a disrupted placement, a dissolved adoption, or out of home treatment for the child struggling to become part of a permanent family. Many family therapy models focus on the family as a system while avoiding the individual’s trauma history that hinders the ability to form healthy relationships. Focus is often on how the family brings about or allows “dysfunction” to continue, which negates the health of the foster or adoptive family prior to the child entering that system. In addition, traditional therapeutic services tend to focus on the family “learning to manage” behaviors rather than addressing the underlying issues. Behavioral approaches may not result in permanent change, healthy relationships, or contribute to strong attachments enhancing permanency for the child.
Learn about a new, state funded, in-home team delivered service that is heavily invested in supporting the success of the “forever family.” This service includes assessments, psycho-educational sessions to explain the impact of trauma and resulting trauma disrupted competencies, linking behaviors to trauma history, teaching and application of specialized parenting skills, using attachment building interventions, and arranging sessions for trauma resolution. To further success, discharge planning encourages links to informal and formal supports such as; specialized outpatient providers, parenting support groups, state funded Post-Permanency services (when available), and respite providers.
This 1 ½ hour presentation discusses the stages of grief and loss experienced by both children and their biological parents due to separation from family members that often occurs in child welfare practice. In addition to discussing "the normal grief process" we will also explore how trauma affects children and biological parents as they process grief. Strategies to help children, their biological parents, and the resource providers deal with the issues of loss and traumatic reaction to grief will be presented through case presentations.
Topics to be discussed include: the history and stages of grief, the influence of attachment on separation responses, reaction to loss, affective symptoms, behavioral symptoms, cognitive symptoms, common diagnoses, behaviors that parents display during separation from their children, ambivalent parents, helping children grieve, strategies to help clients find help and relief from their feelings of loss, and approaches to working with ambivalent parents.
The presenters will provide insights into the stages of grief as experienced for both children and adults through a PowerPoint presentation. This will be followed by demonstrating how, when trauma is involved, children and parents do not process grief in, what is perceived to be a "normal" manner. By explaining and demonstrating to the audience/participants why children and parents would respond in the manner in which they do, understanding/knowledge is gained. Through case presentations and group discussion, the participants will gain a better knowledge base/understanding of the behaviors observed in children and birth parents when children are removed from the home. Additionally, participants will be able to develop strategies to help the children, biological parents, and resource providers work through their grief in a more positive manner.
This presentation will be helpful to caseworkers, resource parents, foster care agency workers, students, educators, and other community partners/service providers working with child welfare clients and their families.
Auberle has begun the 3 year journey to implement The Sanctuary Model of trauma-informed care across the agency. This Model provides a method for creating a culture that can more effectively address healing from psychological and social trauma. It integrates current brain and medical research, best practices in promoting emotional, mental and behavioral health and wellness and healing strategies for at-risk youth and their families. The Model also addresses staff wellness with its “care for the caretakers” emphasis. Sanctuary provides a guide for organizations who work with children and families to create a “trauma-informed community” that understands the ways that trauma “injury/hurt/pain” and chronic stress impact an individual’s behavior, overall health, and worldview. One of its primary goals is to create a safe and healthy environment for healing and growth to take place. A trauma-informed community challenges everyone, from staff to foster parents, to change the thought process from “what’s wrong with you” to “what’s happened to you”.
As we have rolled out the Model to Residential and Foster Care programs, we have found it to be an excellent tool for retention for difficult placements. We will share our perspective of 22 months of our 3 year journey to creating Sanctuary in Auberle and how it enhances and compliments Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) already in place. It is up to us to remain current on the best practices and research for helping our clients while addressing wellness strategies for our staff. As an agency, Auberle prides itself on innovative practices and our interest in The Sanctuary Model was really the next logical step as we continue to innovate.
At conference time we will be close to the end our year 2 for implementing The Sanctuary Model. We will share the challenges and rewards in terms of staff/foster parent recruitment, retention, training, and on-going program operations.
The learning objectives for this presentation will be:
1. Participants will be able to name the basic tenants of The Sanctuary Model,
2. Participants will be able to conceptualize The Sanctuary Model in all settings primarily as it pertains to Residential and Foster placements,
3. Participants will be able to critically analyze the value of implementing The Sanctuary Model into their programs and agencies. The Sanctuary Model is a much needed tool to engage and train families to work with the ever-challenging children sent to us.
Jeanne Burger, Community Services Manager/Foster Parent Recruiter and Trainer, has been with Auberle for 6 years as the Foster Parent Recruiter/Trainer and Community Services Manager for 1 year. During that time she has effectively recruited over 125 families in 4 counties. She currently manages 80 families. Jeanne is a former foster parent and adopted 3 of her foster children alongside her 3 birth children.
Carrie Jarvis, Case Coordinator Manager, has been with Auberle for 8 years and in her current position for 6 years. She has also been a certified TCI and TCIF trainer for 61/2 years. She manages the Coordinators who coordinate the care for all residential children at Auberle.
Experiential and/or Action-Based Counseling methods are specialized intervention techniques, used as part of a comprehensive treatment protocol in working with traumatized individuals and offenders. Particular focus is given to the Event Drawing Series, an assessment and intervention method combining counseling and art therapy techniques in a task oriented process that allows troublesome experiences to be resurfaced in a safe and non-threatening manner.
*This presentation is intended for professionals / graduate students and not suitable for parents / families. Drawings and materials are graphic depictions of sexual abuse and sexual violence.
Workshop will define experiential and action-based counseling; identify methods and techniques; and the role of these clinical methods in treatment.
Participants will be able to describe how experiential and action-based counseling is used to assist clients recall, clarify and respond to troublesome events and experiences.
Participants will examine how the Event Drawing process aids insight into a client’s thinking processes, perceptions and relationships.
Participants will be able to recognize the importance of sensory, perceptual and behavioral clues, through the use of drawing process, and in order to making connections with patterns of abusive and other dysfunctional/destructive behaviors.
This 1 ½ hour presentation discusses the neurobiology of trauma. Traumatic childhood experiences have a major impact on many different areas of functioning. The participant will gain an understanding of the impact that childhood traumatic stress has on the children served by the child welfare agencies. They will understand how the child welfare system can help mitigate the impact of trauma, or can cause more trauma to the child/children it serves.
The greatest gift we can give to a child of neglect and trauma is an understanding that they are not broken and can heal with love and hope. Brain Freeze takes a basic look at the impact of neglect and trauma through the multi-faceted lens of neurobiology and developmental ability, and draws focus to the importance of love and hope. By understanding the impact to the whole of the human that stands before us, we can utilize basic child rearing tools to aid the child to once again trust and grow in life. The avenue to hope comes with the caregiver and the professional understanding the grieving world of the child.
Topics to be discussed include: Broca’s area of the brain, fight or flight syndrome, survival vs. Pleasure, child developmental abilities, steps to elicit memory and heal trauma, techniques to build trust and draw memory, band aids of hurt, trust/rapport, color my world.
Case history examples coupled with multimedia presentation components will provide those that attend a multisensory experience to draw from when engaging these children.
This presentation will be helpful to caseworkers, resource parents, foster care agency workers, students, educators, and other community partners/service providers working with child welfare clients and their families. The goal of the course is to leave the attendees with an open mind, a basic level of understanding and a heart filled with hope.
