Craven County Lunch and Learn

Over the past few months, the Benchmark’s Partnering for Excellence (PFE) team has been working diligently to prepare our newest partnership in Pitt and Craven counties to become effective advocates as they become a more trauma-informed community. We have been thrilled by the collaboration and efforts that we have seen coming from The Department of Social Services’ (DSS) Child Welfare teams, Trillium—the managed care organization supporting the PFE implementation locally—and, local mental health providers.

On Tuesday, March 10^th, staff at the Craven County Department of Social Services attended a “Lunch n’ Learn” to improve their understanding of the PFE pathway and gain a deeper understanding of how the initiative will implement locally. The implementation plan for Craven along with project protocols were developed in partnership by leadership at Benchmarks’ PFE, Craven County DSS, Trillium, and a member of the community with prior experience interacting with the mental health (MH) and/or Child Welfare systems. The goal of PFE is to help guide social workers’ practice in linking families entering the child welfare system to comprehensive trauma-informed assessments and services. Linking these children and families to high-quality, front-end services early on in their DSS involvement, provides an opportunity to reduce health-care costs and recidivism within the child welfare system, and ultimately set them up for future success. Since the installment of the PFE initiative in Pitt and Craven counties in July 2019, staff have been attending multiple trainings to deepen their understanding of trauma and the substantial role it plays in the lives of their clients.  

During the Lunch n’ Learn, staff were given an opportunity to review PFE forms and discuss protocols that will assist them in redesigning how they educate clients about trauma and build relationships with trauma-informed clinicians within their community. While staff recognized that implementing PFE into their everyday practice will be an adjustment, they were pleased with the protocol’s potential to lessen their workload down the line and help them cultivate a strong, trauma-aware agency. Two things that social workers reported standing out about the training were the trauma brochure which is used to assist social workers in explaining what trauma is while giving families insight to what they can expect while involved in PFE. The second was the TiCCA, PFE’s Trauma Informed Comprehensive Clinical Assessment. When comparing the TiCCA to an average DA/CCA, staff were impressed that the TiCCA “filled in the gaps” of information left out by the CCA. The TiCCA, which provides wholistic insight into a child’s life and experiences, was well-received by staff. They expressed being excited to have this information to ensure their clients are receiving the most appropriate and effective treatments. Staff were able to see the long-term impact of the project and asked great questions. Overall, while the project does come with additional “paperwork”, staff expressed that PFE will be an invaluable approach to promote child and family well-being, healing, and development. We are looking forward to setting these new practices into place for our “go-live” date of March 31^st, 2020.