Download Outreach and Foster Healing

Foster Healing: Trauma Treatment
for Families and Staff in Child
Welfare
By Konniesha Moulton, LMFT and Kelly Sachter, LCSW
Boppity Boppity Bop
Trauma in Child Welfare
• Individual trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is
experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or threatening and that has
lasting adverse effects on the individual's functioning and physical, social, emotional, or
spiritual well-being.
• 90% of children in foster care have experienced trauma
• Foster children are twice as likely as war veterans to develop post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Complex trauma: exposure to multiple traumatic events, often of an invasive, interpersonal
nature, and the wide-ranging, long-term impact of this exposure. Could include child
maltreatment, including psychological maltreatment, neglect, exposure to violence and
physical and sexual abuse.
TRAUMA
Natural Disasters
Terrorism
Physical Abuse
Witnessing Domestic Violence
Sexual Abuse
Bullying
Emotional Abuse
Community Violence
Sudden violent loss of a loved
one
Serious Accident
Death or loss of loved
one
Abandonment or Neglect
Physical or Sexual assault
Foster Healing
• Provides services to improve children’s social, emotional and
developmental functioning.
• Provide caregivers with psycho-education on the effects of trauma and
how to effectively nurture their children’s development.
• Division of Child Protection and Permanency staff receive trauma
informed training through the Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit
Peacock Feather
Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit
• The Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit was developed by the National
Child Trauma Stress Network
• Teaches how trauma affects children in the child welfare system.
• Goal is to provide trauma-informed child welfare practice to enhance the
safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families
Treatment in Foster
Healing
Various modalities based on the needs of the client
ARC
Parent Child Interaction
Therapy (PCIT)
Works on improving the relationship
between children and their parents and
changing parent child interaction patterns
Sensory Motor Arousal
Regulation Treatment
(SMART)
A comprehensive treatment approach that is
organized to support arousal regulation in
traumatized children by integrating:
Attachment Theory & Treatment
Sensory Integration
Sensory Motor Psychotherapy
TF-CBT
• Working with the parent and child to identify coping skills, reduce negative behavioral responses to
trauma and correct maladaptive beliefs and thoughts.
Psychoeducation and parenting skills
Relaxation
Affective Expression and Modulation
Cognitive Coping and Processing
Trauma narrative development and processing
In vivo mastery of trauma reminders
Conjoint child-parent sessions
Enhancing future safety and development
Goals and Accomplishments
Goals
• Foster children to receive trauma
informed treatment,
improvements in trauma
symptoms
• Caregivers to receive trauma
informed education/treatment
• DCPP workers to complete the
Child Welfare Trauma Training
Toolkit
•
Results thus far
59 children have received trauma informed
treatment in Year 1 and 2; 75% of Foster
Healing clients saw decreases in several trauma
symptoms. Most of the clients had a decrease
in 5 scales or more on the TSC.
• 50 parents have participated in trauma
informed education/treatment
• 252 DCPP workers have completed the Child
Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit and showed
improvements in identifying how trauma affects
their work
Self Care Plan