Training Institutes 2012 - National Technical Assistance Center for ...

INSTITUTE #29 8:30 AM FRIDAY • 1:30 PM SATURDAY • SUN C
Creating Trauma-Informed Child Welfare Systems:
Bridging the Gap Between Child Welfare and Mental Health
INSTITUTES
OBJECTIVES—Participants will learn:
1. To explain the importance of creating a trauma-informed child welfare system
2. To identify the essential elements of a trauma-informed child welfare system
3. To analyze how a child welfare system can be a traumatic experience to birth parents and use strategies for creating
a trauma-informed system that actively engages birth parents
4. How to use a trauma-informed community assessment
5. To employ trauma-focused screening, referral, and assessment strategies that can lead to effective collaboration
between mental health and child welfare systems
6. To implement small changes that lead to broader policy and practice changes within the child welfare systems and
improved partnerships between child welfare and mental health
This Institute will focus on the concept of trauma-informed child welfare systems and on specific, concrete strategies to
support the evolution of public child welfare agencies into trauma-informed organizations and to serve as agents of
change in their communities. Faculty will highlight essential elements of trauma-informed child welfare systems and
how to operationalize these elements through policy and practice changes at the child welfare agency level. Strategies to
be discussed include a community assessment process, integrating screening and assessment practices, partnering with
family members and caregivers, and resource development.
The information and strategies presented are based on the Essential Elements of Trauma-Informed Child Welfare
Systems created by the Child Welfare Committee of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. The elements provide
an organizing framework to assist child welfare systems in their efforts to implement trauma-informed policies and
practices. The strategies are also designed to improve the partnership and collaboration between child welfare and
mental health agencies.
Specific topics to be covered include:
• How to operationalize the overarching concepts on trauma-informed systems into concrete policy and practice changes
• How to implement a community assessment process designed to evaluate the trauma-informed nature of their child
welfare systems that was pilot tested in three “laboratory sites” across the country
• How to better link the child welfare and mental health systems through a trauma screening, referral,
and assessment process
• Partnering with birth parents and resource parents
• How to develop resources to support efforts to create trauma-informed child welfare systems
Attendees will participate in multiple activities, including reviewing and discussing the community assessment process
in a small group format, reviewing existing trauma screening tools, and engaging in a discussion of the benefits and
challenges associated with implementing each tool. Participants will also brainstorm ways in which they can effectively
integrate trauma screening practices into their own community. Participants will be encouraged to identify three
concrete policy and practice changes they can take back to their own jurisdiction and apply in the immediate future. The
faculty team for the session will offer the perspectives of a child welfare agency administrator, a birth parent, and a
clinical psychologist who serves as the project manager.
MODERATOR/PRESENTER: Lisa Conradi, Psy.D., CTISP Project Manager, Chadwich Center for Children and
Families at Rady, Children’s Hospital Health Center San Diego, San Diego, CA
Pamela Toohey, CEO, Birth Parent Association, El Cajon, CA
Debra Zanders-Willis, Director, Child Welfare Services, San Diego County Child Welfare Services, County of San
Diego, San Diego, CA
Training Institutes 2012
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