Trauma
Primum non nocere.
First, do no harm.
Children in our community face many challenges. These students need our support to overcome these challenges and achieve the success that they deserve. Perhaps no single group of children is at greater risk than those in foster care. In Washington State, only 41.5% of foster youth graduate from high school (ospi 2015). This is the worst graduation rate of any major demographic group. There are a number of reasons for this. To begin, students in foster care suffer from serious trauma. The events which lead to a foster care placement are almost universally traumatic. While most foster children eventually return to their biological families, all foster youth are left with emotional scars that need help to heal.
Youth in foster care face complex experiences of trauma, such as physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; removal from home; multiple placements, and loss of important relationships (Johnson & Pryce, 2013).
Children that aren't returned to their biological homes face the prospect of multiple home and school relocations which add to the trauma they've already suffered at first which warranted removal from their biological homes (ncwd 2015). The trauma that foster youth experience has a significant impact on their mental health which impairs their ability to learn effectively. “Between one-half and three-fourths of children entering foster care exhibit behavioral or social-emotional problems warranting mental health care” (Landsverk, Burns, Stambaugh, & Rolls Reutz, 2009). These challenges lead to many problems later in life. Apart from their low graduation rates, former foster youths struggle to earn enough to support themselves, they struggle to find jobs, and many continue to suffer from mental health issues.
A majority (just under four-fifths) of adults formerly in foster care have significant mental health disabilities (depression, social phobia, panic syndrome, anxiety, etc.), with one in four (25.2%) experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)... [o]ne third of former fostercare youth have incomes at or below the poverty level - earning less than $6,000 per year in wages - substantially below the federal poverty level of $7,890 for a single individual... [l]arge numbers of former foster care youth exit care without assurance of any stable housing, with almost a quarter experiencing homelessness after leaving care" (ncwd 2015).
Thankfully, these are not insurmountable challenges. Foster youth fail to overcome many of the challenges they face in part because they do not receive adequate support. A primary cause for their low graduation rate is that state foster care systems cease their support when youth reach the age of 18, regardless of their status in school. Many fail to finish school simply because they are forced to work to support themselves instead. Research looking into relationship-based treatments for children suffering from trauma have been very encouraging as well. Conradi et al outlined five themes to guide supporting students suffering from trauma in their paper from 2011:
Their final theme, the importance of a collaborative team effort, is especially important. Helping foster youth to recover from their traumatic experiences and helping them to navigate the challenges they will face as a part of the foster care system, is not something that we as concerned parents and educators must help them overcome on their own. Families, teachers, school psychologists and counselors, case workers, mental health professionals, and more are a part of a team of support for these at risk children. The loss of important adult and peer relationships is an almost universal experience for foster youth. Forming a consistent team of support for foster youth is not only a more effective way to work with them, it is also an essential step in repairing the broken trust and loss of human connection that effects all foster youth.
Fortunately, there are community organizations committed to improving the lives of foster youth. In King County, Treehouse works to remove many of the barrier that foster youth must overcome. To begin, Treehouse's services don't end when foster youth exit the foster care system at 18 years of age. Treehouse continues to support foster youth until the age of 24. Through their warehouse, Treehouse provides clothing, toys, school supplies, and other items which many foster families struggle to provide on their own. Treehouse also employs a team of mentors who support foster youth academically and as a reliable adult in their turbulent lives.
Finally, authors Monica McCoy and Stefanie Keen tell us that "One consistent finding in the literature is that people who are resilient report having had a supportive adult in their past. This person could be a parent, a foster parent, a teacher, or any alternative guardian... Having one person to trust seems to offset many of the negative consequences of maltreatment and other harmful life events." Maltreated and traumatized children with a consistent nurturing adult have been shown to exhibit fewer symptoms of PTSD, depression, behavioral problems, and have superior achievement in school.
While my greatest social responsibility may be to connect families and communities with my classroom in positive and meaningful ways, my greatest personal responsibility is to the physical and emotional well-being of my students. All other learning flows from these two principles: to be caring, and to be understanding.
- Theme 1: Knowledge Building and Developing Practice. Before trauma-informed practice can be implemented, it first must be understood. All participating teams developed and imple- mented various strategies for training staff at multiple levels in numerous ways, training foster parents on trauma, and pro- viding supports to staff to address the secondary trauma that can result from working with children and families adversely affected by traumatic events.
- Theme 2: Trauma-Informed Mental Health Assessment. A key component of trauma-informed practice is conducting appropriate and effective trauma screening and assessment of children in foster care. While assessment is a continuous process, the initial assessment must gather comprehensive information from a variety of sources; be inclusive of birth- parent, foster parent, and youth perspectives; and ultimately be used as a guide for case planning and treatment.
- Theme 3: Case Planning and Management. Another critical component of trauma-informed practice is the relationship between social workers, families, and children. Once trauma has been assessed, all contacts with the birthparents, foster parents, and children must be sensitive and responsive to their trauma experiences.
- Theme 4: Externally Delivered Trauma-Informed Services. Once children are more effectively screened for trauma and iden- tified as needing comprehensive assessment and treatment, those must be available from skilled mental health providers. The primary strategy that emerged in this theme was a focus on increasing capacity for trauma-focused mental health treatment.
- Theme 5: Child Welfare Systems, Cross-System Partnerships, and System Collaboration. This final theme was not an area in which small tests of change were conducted, but it has proved to be critical in spreading these promising strategies beyond the target sites, as well as ensuring that the work done in this project will be sustainable. Moreover, it also proved to be closely connected to Theme 4 as other partners can help pro- vide support for responding to the trauma-informed needs that were being identified.
Their final theme, the importance of a collaborative team effort, is especially important. Helping foster youth to recover from their traumatic experiences and helping them to navigate the challenges they will face as a part of the foster care system, is not something that we as concerned parents and educators must help them overcome on their own. Families, teachers, school psychologists and counselors, case workers, mental health professionals, and more are a part of a team of support for these at risk children. The loss of important adult and peer relationships is an almost universal experience for foster youth. Forming a consistent team of support for foster youth is not only a more effective way to work with them, it is also an essential step in repairing the broken trust and loss of human connection that effects all foster youth.
Fortunately, there are community organizations committed to improving the lives of foster youth. In King County, Treehouse works to remove many of the barrier that foster youth must overcome. To begin, Treehouse's services don't end when foster youth exit the foster care system at 18 years of age. Treehouse continues to support foster youth until the age of 24. Through their warehouse, Treehouse provides clothing, toys, school supplies, and other items which many foster families struggle to provide on their own. Treehouse also employs a team of mentors who support foster youth academically and as a reliable adult in their turbulent lives.
Finally, authors Monica McCoy and Stefanie Keen tell us that "One consistent finding in the literature is that people who are resilient report having had a supportive adult in their past. This person could be a parent, a foster parent, a teacher, or any alternative guardian... Having one person to trust seems to offset many of the negative consequences of maltreatment and other harmful life events." Maltreated and traumatized children with a consistent nurturing adult have been shown to exhibit fewer symptoms of PTSD, depression, behavioral problems, and have superior achievement in school.
While my greatest social responsibility may be to connect families and communities with my classroom in positive and meaningful ways, my greatest personal responsibility is to the physical and emotional well-being of my students. All other learning flows from these two principles: to be caring, and to be understanding.
References:
Conradi, L., J. Agosti, E. Tullberg, L. Richardson, H. Langan, S. Ko, & C. Wilson, (2011). Promising practices and strategies for using trauma-informed child welfare practice to improve foster care placement stability: a breakthrough series collaborative, Child welfare, Vol.90(6), pp.207-25.
Landsverk, J., B. Burns, L. Faw Stambaugh, & J. Rolls Reutz (2009). Psychosocial interventions for children and adolescents in foster care: review of research literature, Child welfare, Vol.88(1), pp. 49-69.
Johnson, S., & J. Pryce (2013). Therapeutic Mentoring: Reducing the Impact of Trauma for Foster Youth, Child welfare, Vol.92(3), pp. 9-25.
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability www.ncwd-youth.info/youth-in-foster-care
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction http://www.k12.wa.us/LegisGov/2015documents/GradandDropoutStats2015.pdf
McCoy, M. & Keen, S. (2013). Child abuse and neglect (2nd. ed.). New York: Psychology Press.
Conradi, L., J. Agosti, E. Tullberg, L. Richardson, H. Langan, S. Ko, & C. Wilson, (2011). Promising practices and strategies for using trauma-informed child welfare practice to improve foster care placement stability: a breakthrough series collaborative, Child welfare, Vol.90(6), pp.207-25.
Landsverk, J., B. Burns, L. Faw Stambaugh, & J. Rolls Reutz (2009). Psychosocial interventions for children and adolescents in foster care: review of research literature, Child welfare, Vol.88(1), pp. 49-69.
Johnson, S., & J. Pryce (2013). Therapeutic Mentoring: Reducing the Impact of Trauma for Foster Youth, Child welfare, Vol.92(3), pp. 9-25.
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability www.ncwd-youth.info/youth-in-foster-care
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction http://www.k12.wa.us/LegisGov/2015documents/GradandDropoutStats2015.pdf
McCoy, M. & Keen, S. (2013). Child abuse and neglect (2nd. ed.). New York: Psychology Press.