The Difference Between Physical And Emotional Safety

Tips for Foster Parents:

• Limit stimulation - be patient and take a slower pace in introducing newness ("welcome to your new foster home, there are all the rules, now let's meet everybody in the household"), because this speed of incoming data can be cognitively understood, but is emotionally overwhelming.
• Follow the lead of the child. 
• Follow the pace of the child.

Tips for Caseworkers:

• Be aware that Transition Points are emotional hot spots
• The internal alarm goes off, signaling danger
• Child welfare has a tendency to try to make moves as quick as possible -- this is not in the best interest of the child, in terms of making them feel safe

Goal:

• To create a place of safety for the child / teenager
• To avoid re-traumatizing the child through further abrupt disruption
• To create a place of order, rather than chaos.
• To create a sense of control, rather than instability.
• To teach the child self-regulation.

Source:
Bryan Samuels, Commissioner
Administration on Children, Youth and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Strategies for Coping With Panic

1. Remember that although your feelings and symptoms are very frightening, they are not dangerous or harmful.

2. Understand that what you are experiencing is just an exaggeration of your normal bodily reactions to stress.

3. Do not fight your feelings or try to wish them away. The more you are willing to face them, the less intense they will become.

4. Do not add to your panic by thinking about what "might" happen. If you find yourself asking "What if?" tell yourself "So what!"

5. Stay in the present. Notice what is really happening to you as opposed to what you think might happen.

6. Label your fear level from zero to ten and watch it go up and down. Notice that it does not stay at a very high level for more than a few seconds.

7. When you find yourself thinking about the fear, change your "what if" thinking. Focus on and carry out a simple and manageable task such as counting backward from from 100 by 3's or snapping a rubber band on your wrist.

8. Notice that when you stop adding frightening thoughts to your fear, it begins to fade.

9. When the fear comes, expect and accept it. Wait and give it time to pass without running away from it.

10. Be proud of yourself for your progress thus far, and think about how good you will feel when you succeed this time.

Source:
Jerilyn Ross, M.A., L.I.C.S.W., The Ross Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Disorders, Inc., Washington, DC. Adapted from Mathews et al., 1981.