The preventable death of Anna, age eight in New Mexico: The impossible challenges of child welfare that must and can be solved.

4 Corners Trauma-informed Conference in Window Rock Arizona on the Navajo Reservation April 4-5 

Dominic and Katherine -- Given the great work you are doing in New Mexico, I thought you would be interested in a trauma-informed conference for tribes in the Four Corners area to be held in Window Rock April 4-5. It is hosted by a coalition of local school boards, health care organizations and the national organization I am on the board of -- the Roundtable on Native American Trauma-Informed Initiatives. Called The Warrior Spirit Conference and Ceremony, its goal is to promote the development of trauma-informed programs on reservations, coupled with the use of traditional healing practices. The focus of the conference will be on trauma-informed initiatives in the areas of education, health and law enforcement. I will be posting an announcement with registration information on the ACEsConnection Native American Group Website tomorrow. If you would like to talk about how we can work together, please feel free to email me at: dsp@vnf.com.          Regards, Dan Press

I am a social worker working directly with children and families in the school system.  I believe the first thing that needs to happen is to bring awareness the prevalence of ACEs in our communities, white, black, Hispanic, upper, middle and low class.  ACEs do not discriminate; unfortunately they are universal. Once DHHS, the school systems and all other community agencies have a solid grasp of this concept and the detrimental health consequences it brings to every aspect of human development, it is imperative to adopt a TRAUMA INFORMED APPROACH.  Only a trauma informed approach from TOP DOWN and BOTTOM UP in our public health systems and school systems will allow us to tackle these issues and promote both healing and a proactive/preventive approach. 

I'm the founder of COPE24...Changing Our Parenting Experience www.cope24.com. I also am an appointed member of Missouri's Task Force on Children's Justice and Critical Event Review committee.  Although I have never worked for child welfare I got a clear view of the forces that children and CW face when my husband and I fought for two children for over four years. Right now, I believe the largest problem CW faces is that it is overwhelmed with the number of cases, families and children. We may actually have a system that could work very effeciently if only there weren't so many parents unable to care, protect, nuture and provide safety for their children. So the real question is how do we, as a society, create healthier families for the future.  

CW will have to continue to deal with the problems that already exist and I don't have a solution for how we do that with limited budgets and staffing. However, as a nation we can begin to make parenting and child development education a priority in all of our high schools reaching all of our students. It may take a decade or more but eventually that investment in education would reduce the number of dysfunctional families. What I'm saying is that as we look for community partners we must include our school administrators in those conversations. Schools would also benefit in the long run as they would have a healthier group of students. Spending less time on discipline, therapies, resiliency building and other corrective measures and more time on education. 

One does not have to agree with my method of education, curriculum or videos to agree that the priority should exist. Educational methods we can debate, however, the need to make this type of education a priority is clear. Waiting for abuse and neglect to surface, investigate and then take action is not working. We need to be getting out in front of the problem. 

Thank you for caring enough to ask for ideas, opinions and solutions.