Demographic data for Putnam County, FL1 indicates that residents likely carry an inordinate burden of exposure to adverse childhood events (ACEs), which can foster negative outcomes that cycle throughout generations. This proposed intervention will begin to break that cycle by providing eight weekly workshops at three locations for pregnant women throughout the county. These workshops will address the participants’ own traumatic life experiences while also helping them to protect their children from childhood trauma. While the initial session will include instruction on research findings surrounding adverse childhood events, as well as a personal completion of an ACEs survey, further focus will be on building skills to enhance resilience to overcome personal trauma while including instruction on resilience-building childcare techniques. Not only will women increase their individual parenting capabilities, but they will also build social support networks to help them improve their lives and the lives of their children for the long term. Sustainability plans are included in the proposal to allow for continuation of this pilot program if deemed successful. Therefore, this project has the potential to improve the quality of life for the people of Putnam County for generations to come.
This proposal addresses multiple levels of McLeroy’s social ecological model.2 By addressing the personal adverse childhood experiences of the participants, the intrapersonal level is the initial focus. However, the positive effects are intended to include the children of the participants, which allows the interpersonal level to be addressed. Further, with the sustainability plans of this project, it is hoped that the community level will eventually be affected.
All trauma-informed principles3 have been incorporated into my intervention. The principle of trustworthiness and transparency is addressed by discussing the goals of the participants at the initial workshop. Attempts will be made to adjust the program to include these goals and incorporate participants perceived needs into future implementation. The principle of safety will be addressed both in terms of physical safety, by ensuring safe locations for workshops, and emotional safety, by establishing rules for privacy and non-judgement early on. The principle of peer support and mutual self-help will be facilitated by encouraging the development of a peer social support network outside of the program. The principle of collaboration and mutuality will be addressed in the training of workshop facilitators and recruitment of future facilitators from the participant pool. Empowerment, voice, and choice will be addressed by including the participants in the decision making process for goal-setting and in building on their strengths rather than focusing on shortcomings. Finally, the principle of addressing cultural, historical, and gender issues will be addressed by identifying local generational attitudes towards child rearing techniques such as breastfeeding and physical punishment in order to meet these women where they’re at with a non-judgmental attitude.
The public health framework for this project will include all three levels of prevention.2 As all pregnant women in Putnam County are eligible to participate, it incorporates the primary level as a community-wide endeavor. As it is recognized that many, if not most, pregnant women in the county likely have a history of ACEs, the choice of geographic area addresses the secondary level of prevention. Finally, as an ACE survey will be administered at the first session to identify those with such a history and allow for instruction on alleviating the negative health outcomes, the tertiary level will be addressed.
It is my hope that this intervention has the potential to be shaped by and for the women who choose to participate. Participants will also be recruited to receive training to become facilitators themselves. As more people in the community participate and/or are informed of the program, ideally it will be incorporated into the community budget along with other initiatives to assist pregnant women. In these ways, this program can become community funded and led in order to be as effective as possible in breaking the cycle of ACEs in Putnam County.
References:
1. Putnam County, FL. Countyhealthrankings.org. http://www.countyhealthranking...mes/overall/snapshot. Published 2018. Accessed February 15, 2019.
2. Simons-Morton B, McLeroy K, Wendel M. Behavior Theory In Health Promotion Practice And Research. 1st ed. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning; 2012.
3. SAMHSA News - Guiding Principles of Trauma-Informed Care. Samhsa.gov. https://www.samhsa.gov/samhsaN...ding_principles.html. Published 2014. Accessed April 19, 2019.
Comments (0)