Infants, Toddlers and Trauma

Supporting Infants, Toddlers and Families Impacted by Caregiver Mental Health Problems, Substance Abuse, and Trauma – A Community Action Guide This new guide published by SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) provides information to better understand and engage the community in responding to children whose caregivers are negatively impacted by mental illness, substance abuse, or trauma. (October 2012)

New Federal Requirements for States re: Foster Children, Trauma and Monitoring Medications

President Obama recently signed the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act (H.R. 2883) into law.

Among other stipulations, this new law:

• Requires States to address emotional trauma in foster children, adopt protocols for using and monitoring psychotropic medications, and describe how they both address the developmental needs of young children in the child welfare system and reduce their length of stay in foster care.

National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth

The National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth recognizes that most homeless youth have experienced multiple traumatic events both before becoming homeless and once on the street. This underscores the importance of trauma-informed practice:

• They suggest that several homeless shelters might need a trauma-informed transformation, considering such details as the need to put a lock on the shower door at a shelter in order to ensure physical safety and emotional security.

• Youth workers need to provide trauma-informed care, seeking to understand each young person’s emotional triggers, build supportive relationships, and give youth opportunities to rebuild control in their lives.

• Individuals who have experienced homeless express the need for expectations and empowerment, and hope that staff members are willing to look beyond external behavior, and recognize the underlying trauma beneath.

Trauma and Homeless Youth

•  Fact Sheet on Trauma and Homeless Children
• Trauma Among Homeless Youth 
• Videoconference on Working With Runaway and Homeless Youth
• Fostering Resilience in Displaced, Traumatized Families
• Fostering Resilience in Homeless Youth

 Visit the National Child Traumatic Stress Network for more resources on homeless youth.

Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit

http://www.nctsnet.org/nccts/nav.do?pid=ctr_cwtool

Some of the many insights available in this valuable resource:
"Trauma can change children’s world views, their sense of safety, and how they interpret the meaning of the behavior of others—including people who are trying to help them...

"Children often have multidimensional trauma histories, and adults should not assume that they know what was most traumatic for the child. The event(s) thatled to child welfare involvement may not be the child’s most significant trauma experience...

"There is a difference between physical safety and psychological safety. Child welfare workers should not only aim to keep a child physically safe but should also provide a psychologically safe setting for children and families when inquiring about emotionally painful and difficult experiences...

"System-Induced Trauma: (def).Traumatic removal from the home, traumatic foster placement, sibling separation, or multiple placements in a short amount of time."

Abuse, Females and Testosterone Levels

“Trauma, at any age, produces anatomical changes in the brain, and even if those changes do not have an obvious effect on behavior, they can still shape our deepest responses to anxiety.

“A NIMH study (discovered that) abused girls were found to have abnormally high levels of testosterone, increases in immune system abnormalities and abnormal changes in the regulation of heart rate under stress.”

Source: Lui, Aimee. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders.

Stress, Trauma and Support in Child Welfare Practice

This study from the University of Toronto measured the extent to which exposure to stress and trauma impacted social workers.

Results suggested that child welfare workers are exposed to a significant amount of traumatic stimuli and exhibit high levels of post-traumatic stress.