Tagged With "Childhood Trauma"
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Trauma-Informed Journey with a local Department of Social Services
Our Trauma-Informed journey began with the Henrico Department of Social Services (DSS) in the fall of 2012 when we approached their leadership with a proposal to partner with the Greater Richmond Trauma-Informed Community Network (TICN) to create a Trauma-Informed Child Welfare System. We began by developing a TIMELINE of activities (please note we set out to complete things in one year - little did we realize at the time that the process is always ongoing!). The first step on the timeline...
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Trauma-Informed Uber [chronicalofsocialchange.org]
As Los Angeles County mulls the idea of using ride-sharing services to escort foster youth to visitations with biological parents, some child-welfare experts wonder how such a service would be able to grapple with children with significant experiences of trauma and loss. Children in the county’s foster-care system remain spread out across the vast geographical expanse of Los Angeles County. Trips to court, meetings with social workers or visitations with parents or other family members can...
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Trauma, Opiates, and Child Welfare: How Family Serving Agencies Can Do Better. [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
We all know far too well the devastating effects of the national opioid crisis, and specifically, the ever-present role of opiate addiction in child welfare. Follow here to read a piece by Nico’Lee Rohac, a foster care alumni and Social Worker, published 9/18/17 by The Chronicle of Social Change. By all outward appearances , I grew up in a normal American family. My parents had respectable jobs in construction and nursing, a four-bedroom home, family dog and a playhouse my father built from...
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Trauma Sensitive Approaches to the COVID -19 Response
We at Alive and Well Communities wanted to take a moment to present some considerations for how our community responds to COVID-19, through the trauma lens. These suggestions assume that additional core institutions will close and/or must limit the ways they typically engage with community members. It is also assumed that a number of community members will have to self-quarantine and “shelter in place.” These suggestions are guided by the principles of trauma informed care: trustworthiness,...
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Trauma Tool Guide (Developed with the AAP - Healthy Foster Care America
This 6-part series was designed with the primary care practice in mind – those who may or may not be familiar with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the process of asking families about exposure to ACEs or other traumatic events....
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Treating trauma's steep toll on native youth remains challenge for courts [inforum.com]
Of the many reaches of trauma-informed practice, a trauma-informed court room seems to be one of the most impactful. The court is an instutution which holds tremendous power, through the work of trauma-informed courts, judges are uniquely positioned to use this power to help traumatized youth who appear before them. What this means is a more accurate assessment of what a traumatized youth may need as far as mental health, behavioral, and social-emotional support. When trauma-informed systems...
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Trump’s Top Child Welfare Official Speaks [ChronicleofSocialChange.org]
by Daniel Heimpel , November 6, 2017 In June, the Trump administration hired Jerry Milner to lead the federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees federal child welfare funding and policy. The Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) was established in 1977 and oversees the Family and Youth Services Bureau as well as the much larger Children’s Bureau, which was created by President William Howard Taft back in 1912. As acting commissioner of...
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Two New Grant Opportunities for Youth Development and Diversion Services
In 2019, more than $40 million will become available to fund community-based, culturally rooted, trauma-informed services for youth in California as alternatives to arrest and incarceration. Thousands of California youth are arrested every year for low-level offenses. Youth who are arrested or incarcerated for low-level offenses are less likely to graduate high school, more likely to suffer negative health-outcomes, and more likely to have later contact with the justice system.
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Understanding Trauma to Promote Healing in Child Welfare [co-invest.org]
California Child Welfare Co-Investment Partnership, Summer 2019. For child welfare stakeholders, the concept that children and their families come into our systems bearing the burden of traumatic experiences associated with neglect and abuse is not new. What has evolved over the last couple of decades is the science of ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and understanding of the long-term physical and behavioral health consequences and high societal costs. A landmark study , and the many...
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Unfinished business: Bipartisan help for child vicitims of the opiod crisis [thehill.com]
I found this post to be a helpful focus on important federal health legislation as we face a potential transition in priorities to address trauma-informed approaches to the opioid crisis. The author encourages bipartisan support to keep up momentum gained by successful programs and grants already serving communities and researching further solutions. Opioid addiction is undeniably a public health concern we know impacts multiple systems. Why not focus on increasing cross-systems support to...
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Using Screening and Assessment Evidence of Trauma in Child Welfare Cases [americanbar.org]
While many families encounter child welfare and never become involved in the legal system, a large majority of open child welfare cases are court involved. This means that most of the major decisions being made about children and families are occurring the court room. Lately, we've all seen a lot of news, discussion and stories about trauma-informed judges and trauma-informed courts. Trauma-informed courts are important everywhere, but especially in child welfare. As a child welfare worker,...
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Video: Bringing the Power of Optimism and Play to Children who Have Endured Trauma & Adverse Experiences
By Trauma Informed Parent Steve Gross is a clinical social worker and a pioneer in the field of using playful engagement and relationships to overcome the devastating impact of early childhood trauma. He is the founder and Chief Playmaker of Life is Good Playmakers; a foundation that works to "harness the power of optimism to create healing, life changing relationships for kids in need." For more information, visit: h ttps://www.lifeisgood.com/kidsfoundation/about-playmakers.html
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Videos & Audio
20/20 Reports On Foster Children And How Psychotropic Drugs Are Being Used To Control Behavior/Emotions. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be Link:...
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‘We are just destroying these kids’: The foster children growing up inside detention centers [Washington Post]
Photo credit and caption: Heard leaves the courtroom at the Boone County Courthouse in Madison. He hopes to train to be a tattoo artist. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Dec. 30, 2019 Though he's never been convicted of a crime, Geard Mitchell spent part of his childhood in a juvenile detention center, at times sleeping on cement floors under harsh fluorescent lights left on through the night during lockdowns. He attended high school by clicking through online courses and had “no one to...
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‘We are just destroying these kids’: The foster children growing up inside detention centers [Washington Post]
Photo credit and caption: Heard leaves the courtroom at the Boone County Courthouse in Madison. He hopes to train to be a tattoo artist. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Dec. 30, 2019 Though he's never been convicted of a crime, Geard Mitchell spent part of his childhood in a juvenile detention center, at times sleeping on cement floors under harsh fluorescent lights left on through the night during lockdowns. He attended high school by clicking through online courses and had “no one to...
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WEBINAR: Fostering Equity: Creating Shared Understanding for Building Community Resilience
Struggling with how to Foster Equity Conversations in Community? Join the national partners of the Building Community Resilience Networks as we share our lessons learned in fostering equity as a strategy to prevent childhood adversity and build community resilience. Wednesday, February 26th 12pm-1:15pm Eastern More info at go.gwu.edu/EquityWebinar As a nation we have agonized over how to approach conversations on race, racism, inequity and racial justice. Too often we have opted to attempt...
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WEBINAR Parental Substance Use, Opioid Misuse, and Child Welfare [CTIPP]
Campaign for Trauma Informed Practice and Policy Webinar Tuesday, May 22, 2018 3:00PM - 4:30 PM EDT Parental Substance Use, Opioid Misuse, and Child Welfare In this webinar we will present results from a mixed methods study demonstrating that there is a relationship between substance use and opioid misuse prevalence, and child welfare outcomes. The presenters will discuss the unique challenges the current opioid epidemic is presenting to child welfare systems. Presenters Annette L. Waters ,...
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What does hope look like? [bettergeorgia.org]
Georgia has a crisis on its hands. It’s the slow-growing kind: one where kids grow up with family and neighborhood violence, drop out of school and struggle as adults to support themselves and their own family. And while far too many policymakers neglect the issues that impact kids and families, organizations like CHRIS 180 are working to shift the trajectories of families dealing with the trauma of violence and poverty. Click here to read more and learn about this organization's impact on...
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What Does Trauma-Informed Mean to Foster Youth? [JJIE.org]
For three decades, I have listened in awe to the brave voices of children, youth and families who have shared, in anguish, their past experiences — experiences that anyone would objectively call “adverse” and ones that can have lasting effects on health and well-being. The seminal ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study opened my eyes to how pervasive their stories were and how these findings might influence the development of effective interventions and treatment, especially for...
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What If We Could Reach Families Before the Crisis? There Would Be Fewer Kids in Foster Care [chronicleofsocialchange.com]
It’s no secret that our foster care system is overburdened. More than 250,000 children enter foster care each year. We don’t have enough foster families to meet this demand, and we don’t have enough adoptive families either. At the end of 2017, 123,000 kids around the country were still waiting to be adopted into a family. But what if the only answer isn’t recruiting more foster and adoptive parents? Are there other things we can do? What if the answer is recruiting more communities to get...
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What's Trending in Child Welfare? [National Child Welfare Workforce Institute]
What's Trending in Child Welfare? Evidence-Based & Trauma-Informed New CEBC resource, The State of the Evidence for Intervention & Prevention Programs for Child Welfare Involved Populations. 3 great resources by Echo on the physical impact of trauma , how to support someone who has experienced trauma , and how to empower survivors . A great read on models of trauma-informed organizational change. Leadership What makes an effective leader? Get the top 10 leadership competencies. This...
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When Child Welfare Systems Embrace Trauma-Informed Care [AECF.org]
When child welfare systems infuse trauma-informed care into everything they do, kids experience fewer placements and fare better in foster care, according to new Casey-funded research. In a five-year study conducted by Child Trends , researchers focused on kids served by KVC Kansas, a nonprofit offering child welfare and behavioral health support through a public/private partnership with the Kansas Department of Children and Families. As part of the study, administrators, staff and foster...
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Why Focus on Resilience? 2019 BPT Conference Big Idea Session with Teri Barila
“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in” -Desmond Tutu. This quote captures the essence of why resilience matters. To Community Resilience Initiative, Resilience is not about “lifting yourself up by your bootstraps” or “bouncing back” from serious harm or injury. To us, Resilience is about self-discovery and self-awareness based on what the ACE Study, neurobiology, and epigenetics tell us...
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Why Neuroscience, Positive Feedback Are Transformative in Youth Work [youthtoday.org]
I am a long-time advocate for how the power of neuroscience can transform the youth-serving profession. When combined with a commitment to putting the needs of youth first and a sizable dose of courageous leadership, the insights and practical guidance provided by brain research can have remarkable results. A prominent example of the transformational application of this “secret recipe” can be found at the Sacramento County (California) Youth Detention Facility (YDF). In 2010, Sacramento...
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Why You Should Write a Letter to Yourself Tonight (Bessel van der Kolk, MD)
Why You Should Write A Letter To Yourself Tonight Writing is one of the most effective ways to access an inner world of feelings that is the key to recovering from ...
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Will the new foster care law give grandparents a hand? (ncsl.org)
On Feb. 9, President Donald Trump signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (H.R. 1892) to keep the government funded for six more weeks and pave the way for a long-term budget deal that will extend to the end of the fiscal year. Included in the act is the Family First Prevention Services Act, which has the potential to dramatically change child welfare systems across the country. One of the major areas this legislation seeks to change is the way Title IV-E funds can be spent by states. Title...
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Young riders saddle up on the sensory trail [ocregister.com]
It’s easy to drive right past the bucolic pasture tucked between houses on a winding road in Anaheim Hills. But once you locate the unassuming entrance to Canyon Acres Ranch, suburbia suddenly becomes backcountry. With its barn, stables, four horses and 10 chickens, Canyon Acres Ranch acts as a salve to the children who visit. There, Tustin-based Seneca Orange County offers Guided Animal Intervention Therapy, or GAIT. GAIT, the only equine-assisted program of its kind in Orange County,...
Ask the Community
ACE's Informed Child Protective Services?
As I listen to and watch the struggles in the Illinois and Indiana Child Services Departments, I search for states that have implemented the lens of trauma awareness and resilience into the child protective services practices. We know, by the numbers of foster care placements, failed placements, re-placements, residential treatment placements, failed residential treatment placements, failed adoptions, etc. that removing children from their families is not necessarily an answer for families...
Ask the Community
Are Foster Care Children Excessively Medicated?
I thought I'd bring this important Denver Post series, " Prescription Kids ," to the group's attention. The articles focus on the rate at which antipsychotic and antidepressant medications are prescribed to foster children in Colorado. The...
Ask the Community
Happy New Year!!
Happy New Year, group! I have finally come back online after a few weeks off for break. I hope everyone here had a fantastic and rejuvenating holiday, free from trauma and drama! If not, let me know how I can help you and/or your clients deal with...
Ask the Community
Help our public radio station with a story: How did separation from your parents as a child impact you?
KQED is the NPR-affiliate public radio station based in San Francisco, CA. We’d like to hear from adults (18+) who were separated from their parents when they were children. Perhaps the separation was due to economic reasons, war and conflict, incarceration, foster care, or something else. How did that period of separation impact you in the long-run? How has it impacted your connection to others and how you build relationships? If you're a parent, how does it influence how you parent? We’re...
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Looking for Writers: New magazine addressing foster care system and family trauma
Hello, Everyone, I am co-editor of a new publication on Medium.com, to be launched in March 2020. Collective Power is the written arm of Home for Good , a collective organization recently launched after 6 years of planning. HFG began when our founders asked themselves, "What would a system that reflects our love for our children look like?" HFG's mission is to transform the trauma too often perpetuated by the various helping systems, among the people they purport to help—whether the...
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policy
Does anyone have, or know where I can find, sample trauma-informed policies?
Ask the Community
trauma assessment tools for youth
I am looking for simple tool for intakes regarding children and past trauma...If anyone can share trauma assessment tools that would be great
Calendar Event
2015 Child Health, Education, and Care Summit [Woodland, CA]
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APSAC 2019 Colloquium- Call for Abstracts Now Open!
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Mental Health and Immigration under Extreme Circumstances
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Self-Regulation Tools for Special Ed Students
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Trauma Informed Caregiving [Woodland, CA]
Comment
Re: The Ubering of Foster Care has Begun [ChronicleofSocialChange.org]
Thank you for sharing this imperative article Maggie. Tremendously exciting to see this development of trauma informed Uber transportation for parents to be with their children, foster parents to have the additional parent engagement with their foster child(ren), the economic savings with systems, and most importantly, the child/youth having community/family engagement during such a vulnerable time in their lives through caring adults supporting their healing journey.
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Re: Child Protection Agency in Australia Introduces Digital Memory Boxes for Kids in Foster Care
Originally Posted by Tina Marie Hahn, MD: One of the lead child protection agencies in Australia, Barnardos Australia , has introduced a resource for children and youth in foster care : a digital “memory box” called MyStory . The purpose of the digital memory box is to give children and youth in foster care a place to store their photos, report cards, drawings, letters, and other documents without fear of losing them while in foster care. In doing so, the agency hopes to provide a sense of...