Family-centered Practice in a Trauma-informed System

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Family-centered Practice in a Trauma-informed
System

• 12-13-10

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Small Test of Change Data
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Goals for the Day

• Goals
• Family-centered practice using a trauma lens in
  child welfare practice
• Implementing family-centered practice in every
  case, every situation, every day using
  family-centered strategies
• Facilitating family healing for the good of the
  child

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Objectives for the Day

• Objectives
• Define family-centered practice
• Explain how it applies to their role
• Practice engaging and assessing a family using
  the 4Rs from family systems theory
• Recognize that a childs connection to
  parents/family while in placement and the
  familys connection to their placed child(ren) is
  important for the wellbeing of that child and the
  strength of the family as a whole
• Operationalize family-centered facilitation
  skills for difficult conversations.

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DCFS Division of Service Support
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• We are reinforcing the importance of looking at
  the foundation and framework of each of our
  families homes so we can protect kids by
  strengthening families.

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Video Lackawanna Blues
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Video Debriefing

• What is your immediate reaction to this family?
• What is your reaction to the social workers?
• How would you have engaged this family?

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How similar or different was this family from the
families you have worked with?
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Working with an older youth who consistently runs
back to his home but he continually is placed
further from home.

• What influences your decision making in this
  example?
• How does it impact your family-centered practice?

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Mother and father are 19 and 20 with 3 kids under
age four. The garden apartment has no working
stove and only a mini fridge. The one-year-old
is diagnosed failure to thrive.

• What influences your decision making in this
  example?
• How does it impact your family-centered practice?

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When placing a child, dads step-brother is never
considered a possible placement.

• What influences your decision making in this
  example?
• How does it impact your family-centered practice?

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14 year old youth reveals to his therapist and
caseworker that he is gay and wants to be placed
with his gay uncle.

• What influences your decision making in this
  example?
• How does it impact your family-centered practice?

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Morning Break
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Welcome to the LC Family Feud Question 1

• We asked 100 Researchers and Child Welfare
  Professionals, What is family centered
  practice?
• The top 5 answers are on the board.

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LC Family Feud Question 2

• We asked 50 of you and your peers, How does
  being family centered shape your practice?
• The top 4 answers are on the board.

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LC Family Feud Question 3

• We asked 25 Learning Collaborative participants,
  What are the basic steps to doing a Small Test
  of Change with a family?
• The top 3 answers are on the board.

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Family-centered practice according to the CFSR

• We must
• Strengthen, enable, and empower families to
  protect and nurture their children
• Safely preserve family relationships and
  connections when appropriate
• Recognize the strong influence that social
  systems have on individual behavior

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Family-centered practice according to the CFSR
(Contd)

• We must
• Enhance family autonomy
• Respect the rights, values, and cultures of
  families
• Focus on an entire family rather than select
  individuals within a family

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Family Centered Practice What gets in the way?

• Write down two or three of your biggest
  challenges to doing family-centered practice.
• Identify creative solutions to the groups
  challenges.
• Track the challenges and solutions on flipchart
  paper.

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Illinois and Permanency A 20 Year Perspective
Adapted from 2008 Conditions for Children
Report CFRC University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign
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Family for the Day

• We are better able to plan and implement
  effective services if we understand the context
  within which people live the involvement of
  others in their problems and the resources
  available from immediate family, friends, and
  extended kin.
• Working with Families of the Poor Minuchin,
  Colapinto, Minuchin, 2007, 2nd Edition. The
  Guilford Press, Pg. 5

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Family Strengths

• As we seek to support the safety and well being
  of the child
• What internal resources (protective factors)
  exist within the family?
• What external sources of support (friends,
  extended family, substitute caregivers) exist?
• What supports exist within the community?

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Family Systems Theory

• A mobile illustrates this you pull on one side
  of the mobile and all the other pieces are put
  into a state of interdependence e.g., any
  change and they all shift around

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Family Structure FrameworkThe 4-Rs

• Relationships - It is impossible to understand
  the relationships between family members without
  an understanding of who makes up the family
  system
• Rules - Family rules tell us a great deal about
  how a family operates.

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Family Structure FrameworkThe 4-Rs (Contd)

• Roles - Roles tell us what is expected of each
  member of the family.
• Rituals - Rituals include dinnertime routines,
  bedtime rituals, the celebration of major events
  and holidays.

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Mixed Role Activity

• Part One Operationalizing the 4-Rs

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Mixed Role Activity

• Part Two Operationalizing the 4-Rs
• When are you asking these questions already as
  part of your practice?
• What are the critical junctures for gathering
  this information?
• When and why are you challenged to do this?
• What are some solutions to help you do this more
  fully?
• What is something you could test next week?

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4-Rs Activity Debriefing
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DCFS Division of Service Support
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Lunch
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Large Group Discussion

• Importance of being child-focused in a family
  centered system

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Envision an intact family case with a young man
age 13 whos mother recently died in a DUI
accident. The youth is identified as the problem
in the family due to his difficulties sleeping,
nightmares, his withdrawal from the family, and
his recent behavioral and academic problems at
school. Dad doesnt know what to do with his
son, he is constantly exhausted, and he recently
hit him repeatedly with a belt after the school
called.

• What is the trauma/adverse experience our young
  man experienced?

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Family-centered Assessment

• Identify the stress and/or trauma experience that
  brought this family to our attention. (Consider
  inter-generational trauma if present)
• Who was impacted by the most recent trauma
  experience?
• Are there caregiver posttraumatic reactions?
• What is each persons behavior following the
  trauma experience?
• What family strengths have you tapped? What
  supports are present?
• How will you use your self to help this family
  move forward?

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Affinity Group Discussion

• What are the characteristics of families you
  enjoy working with and why?
• What are the characteristics of families that
  challenge you?
• What are some solutions or ways you could improve
  your family centered practice?

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Affinity Group Debriefing

• We dont give up on families and salvage
  individual survivors.
• - Froma Walsh

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Afternoon Break
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Family-Centered Communication Skills

• Shared understanding of the problems/ needs at
  hand
• Collaboration among the professionals and with
  the family
• Commitment to specific tasks by each party
  including the family and the professionals
• Consider how not if culture influences the
  interactions, observations and understanding of
  the meeting at-hand

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Mixed Role Discussion

• How do you approach topics that make you
  uncomfortable or will potentially embarrass the
  family? What types of conversation tend to make
  you or the family uncomfortable?
• How do you gauge your readiness to discuss
  difficult issues?

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Mixed Role Debriefing

• Balancing courage with compassion

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Family for the Day

• Identify a case event or difficult conversation
  that may be looming in your family case for the
  day.
• What skills do you want to use from the mixed
  role discussion to help you facilitate that event
  or engage the family in the difficult
  conversation?

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Small Test of Change
STUDY