Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) affect 15.5% of individuals living in Florida, and Polk County has one of the highest percentages of residents reporting 2 or more ACEs. Studies show ACEs have negative health outcomes on children and adults but promoting safe, stable, nurturing relationships, and creating trauma-informed communities can lead to positive impacts on these individuals. To address the needs of these communities, we developed a trauma-informed program that aims to help women living in Polk County, Florida who have experienced 3 or more ACEs as children become trauma-informed. Project activities will include weekly visits with a trauma-informed social worker/specialist, therapy sessions as needed, and monthly group classes with other participants and their families to establish community. The project aims to use a strength-based approach to help mothers learn and work through their own trauma to prevent their children from experiencing ACEs as well. Our hope for this program is to create more trauma-informed communities and reduce the number of children experiencing ACEs in the future.
Trauma-Informed Principles Your Grant Will Utilize
The six trauma-informed principles are the core of making this project work since we will directly be working with individuals who have experienced trauma (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014). Physical and psychological safety will be encouraged through reassurance to mothers and families. Our specialists will be trained in safety protocols to ensure they are able to promote a sense of safety, as well as provide them with resources for their own safety as well. Specialists will also ask participants where they feel the safest to create the best environment for them. Trustworthiness and transparency will be implemented through conversations with our team to ensure we address concerns before the program begins and meet bi-monthly for feedback. To ensure the same for participants, our specialists and therapists will practice empathy, active listening, open communication, being non-judgmental, and keeping the patient informed about their care and progress. Peer support and mutual aid will be implemented with the group classes for the individuals and their families. Collaboration and mutuality will be implemented by training our employees in trauma-informed care, as well as ensuring the therapists we work with have also been trained in trauma-informed care as well. Encouraging our specialists to use a strength-based approach, including participants in decision making and goal setting are ways to incorporate empowerment, voice, and choice. Our program wouldn’t be possible without empowerment, voice, and choice, which is why our specialists ask participants what they need to work on during the first visit, as well as checking in throughout the program. Cultural, historical and gender issues will be addressed through open conversations with participants about any historical trauma, cultural traditions or components that should be taken into consideration, and resources for any gendered service the participant may need. Cultural awareness training, as well as gender sensitivity training, will also be implemented for all employees as well (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014).
Level(s) of Social-Ecological Model
The project will be using McLeroy’s Social-Ecological model as its framework (McLeroy et al, 1988). It will specifically be addressing individual factors, interpersonal factors, and community interventions. Individual factors will be built in mothers to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes through working with our trauma-informed specialist, as well as providing them with therapy. This will be important to help mothers feel empowered in their knowledge and capabilities and feel empowered as an individual. The interpersonal level can also be built upon with the family classes since there will be classes focused on family and interpersonal relationships as well as monthly family outings can help mothers and families bond. Our specialists will also be capable of working with the mothers to help build on or fix their current relationships if that is one of the factors that the mother expresses needing support. Using community interventions by holding group classes with the families and individuals who participate in the study will help build power within the community. Families will be able to interact with each other and create a community between individuals who have gone through trauma and are now building families of their own. Families will be encouraged to exchange numbers and group activities and support sessions will aid in a sense of belonging (Mcleroy et al, 1988).
Public Health Framework
Public health aims to help individuals prevent illnesses while addressing multiple factors that can be contributing to health problems such as poverty, racism, food insecurity, oppression, discrimination, and gender biases (CDC, 2021). Our project aims to address social issues mothers may be experiencing to help their children become the best and healthiest versions of themselves. A public health framework includes one or all three of these health promotion concepts: primary (prevent disease), secondary (screen for disease), and tertiary (manage disease) (Thompson et al, 2016). Our project will be utilizing primary and tertiary health promotion strategies: we will aim to prevent ACEs in children and help mothers deal with and possibly overcome their trauma.
The program will be screening mothers for ACEs and if they decide to participate, we will be providing coping skills, stress-management tools, social work services, and therapy for free to help them cope with their trauma and become trauma-informed themselves. We believe this will help them become healthier individuals and better parents, while also relieving the burden of having to pay for any of these services. These services may also help reduce the adverse effects of trauma in participants as well. Teaching participants about ACEs and how to become trauma-informed individuals may also help them become more aware of how trauma may impact the lives of their children, which can reduce the trauma the child will experience.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, April 6). Preventing adverse childhood experiences |violence prevention|injury Center|CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/violencepr...n/aces/fastfact.html
McLeroy, K. R., Bibeau, D., Steckler, A., & Glanz, K. (1988). An ecological perspective on health promotion programs. Health Education Quarterly, 15(4), 351–377. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019818801500401
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2014). SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach. HHS Publication No. (SMA) 14-4884. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Thompson, K., O’Brien, C., and O’Connor, S. (2016). Trauma-informed Philanthropy. The Scattergood Foundation. Retrieved February 22, 2022, from https://www.scattergoodfoundat...formed-philanthropy/
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