In Partnership with Wilmington University, DHSS Begins Yearlong Initiative to Train 1,000 Staff Members in Trauma-Informed Approaches to Assessing and Meeting the Needs of Clients [news.delaware.gov]

NEW CASTLE (March 12, 2018) – The Department of Health and Social Services is partnering with Wilmington University to train more than 1,000 frontline DHSS staff in better assessing and addressing the needs of clients statewide, many of whom have experienced trauma in their lives, during the kickoff of a yearlong Trauma-Informed Approach initiative.

Wilmington University’s nine-week training session for 26 supervisors and trainers from the DHSS Divisions of Social Services, Child Support Services and State Service Centers, began in January with the support of the DHSS Division of Management Services. The 54 total hours of training blends face-to-face classroom learning at Wilmington University’s New Castle campus with online learning at each student’s pace.

The sessions are led by Dr. Debra Berke, associate professor and director of the Wilmington University College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Marilyn Siebold, an adjunct professor at the university. During the weekly training sessions, participants learn the content of three core Trauma-Informed Approaches certificate courses. They also develop a 12.5-hour training module that they will use to train more than 1,000 front-line employees across the three divisions.

[For more on this story, go to https://news.delaware.gov/2018...eting-needs-clients/]