in Child Welfare - The Trauma Center

16 CW360 o Trauma-Informed Child Welfare Practice • Winter 2013Integrating Safety, Permanency, and Well-Beingfor Children and Families in Child WelfareAn excerpt from the 2012 year end message from Commissioner Bryan Samuels, Administration on Children,Youth and FamiliesOverviewIn fiscal year (FY) 2012, the Administrationon Children, Youth and Families (ACYF)disbursed $46.6 million to States, Tribes,Territories, and local entities and grantedtitle IV-E child welfare waivers to nine Stateswith the goal of more fully integrating thethree aims of child welfare in the U.S.: safety,permanency, and well-being. These projectshave a specific focus on addressing traumaand improving the well-being of children,youth, and families. Across Federal agencies,preventing trauma and mitigating its impacton healthy development is a growing priority.In much of its work, ACYF has partneredwith the Centers for Medicare and MedicaidServices (CMS) and the Substance Abuseand Mental Health Services Administration(SAMHSA) to align and strengthen efforts;CMS and SAMHSA are engaged in several ofthe projects listed here.The focus on preventing and treatingearly exposure to trauma, including childmaltreatment, is grounded firmly in emergingscience about its devastating impact onlifelong well-being, as detailed in many of thearticles in this publication.As we learn more about how traumaaffects children’s well-being, researchers andpractitioners are developing increasinglyeffective methods for mitigating its harm.There is a rapidly growing array of evidencebasedand evidence-informed interventionsthat, when delivered with fidelity, canhelp restore developmentally appropriatefunctioning and improve outcomes forchildren and youth who have experiencedmaltreatment. ACYF’s projects promotingwell-being revolve around better identifyingchildren and youth whose development hasbeen disrupted by trauma, increasing accessto effective interventions, and strengtheninglinkages between systems that serve vulnerablechildren and families.Historically, Federal policies haveimpelled child welfare systems to focusdisproportionately on ensuring safety andpermanency for the children they serve, withless emphasis on the promotion well-being.However, as policies shift to more fullyintegrate safety, permanency, and well-beingin child welfare, systems are increasinglyreorganizing themselves to better servechildren and families.The April 2012 informationmemorandum, Promoting Social andEmotional Well-Being for Children andYouth Receiving Child Welfare Services(http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/im1204.pdf) lays out essential elementsof the approach, summarized here. Childwelfare systems and their partners shoulduse screening and assessment tools that arevalid, reliable, and normed to the generalpopulation to identify the needs and strengthsof children and families. They should ensurethat appropriate evidence-based interventionsare used to address problems, reduce risks,and build strengths. The use of ongoingprogress monitoring indicates whetherinterventions are working and provides datathat can be used to fine-tune the array ofservices available to the population.For children who have experiencedtrauma, healing and recovery take place insafe, nurturing contexts. The image aboveshows how an approach that promoteswell-being for children known to childwelfare ensures that young people receive therelational and environmental support theyneed to heal and recover, as well as intensiveintervention, when necessary. The foundationof the approach is a knowledgeable workforce,assuring the use of an effective, traumainformedresponse that promotes well-beingfor children and families.Alignment of ACYF Opportunitiesto Promote Social and EmotionalWell-BeingNew title IV-E child welfare waiverdemonstrations and ACYF’s FY 2012discretionary grant programs were designedto (1) increase the capacity of the workforceto meet the needs of children and families;(2) support caregivers so they can providechildren with environments and relationshipsthat offer security and developmental support;(3) offer targeted supports that help childrenbuild coping skills and social skills; and (4)enhance access to screening, assessment, andeffective intervention. A list of evidencebasedand evidence-informed interventionsdelivered by ACYF grantees can be found inthe full year end message from CommissionerSamuels at http://z.umn.edu/acyf. Whilethe projects have differing areas of focus andvaried methods, the goal of each is to facilitatehealing and recovery and promote socialand emotional well-being for children andfamilies.By aligning funding opportunities aroundthis vision achieved through shared methods,ACYF is helping to build nationwidecapacity to identify and address trauma. Agrowing network of systems and providersare delivering evidence-based interventionsto children and their families. In many of theprojects described below, child welfare systemsare partnering with mental health, substanceabuse treatment, Medicaid, and other systemsto streamline services and increase theireffectiveness. Wherever you are, the odds aregood that ACYF is supporting cross-system,evidence-based and evidence-informedstrategies for treating trauma near you.Child WelfareDemonstration ProjectsNine States received waivers to conductTitle IV-E Child Welfare DemonstrationProjects beginning in 2012. Through anagreement with ACYF, these States have beengranted flexibility to use Federal funds totest innovative child welfare strategies. Theprojects aim to increase safety, permanency,and well-being for children and familiesinvolved with child welfare. Nearly all of thedemonstration projects will be implementingapproaches designed to address trauma andimprove the social and emotional well-beingof the young people receiving services. Thesecomprehensive projects incorporate screeningand assessment, expand the array of availableevidence-based interventions, and greatlyenhance the capacity of the workforce to meetthe needs of the population.For example, Pennsylvania’s demonstrationproject will test a new case practice modelfocused on family engagement, enhancedassessment, and the introduction orexpansion of evidence-based programs.The project will target children 0-18 inor at risk of entering foster care with thegoals of improving permanency, increasingpositive well-being outcomes for childrenand families, and preventing maltreatmentand re-entry of children into foster care.Pennsylvania’s waiver team has alreadyidentified several standardized well-being,developmental and behavioral assessmenttools for consideration, as well as potentialevidence-based interventions. A robustevaluation will not only track changes inkey child welfare outcomes for children andfamilies participating in the demonstrationbut also assess the effectiveness of specificinterventions with the population.