Trauma and Parenting groups

Hi Erica,

I have been working on a grant-funded project working with trauma-impacted parents where we focus on brain development and basic attachment principles at each well child check for the baby's fist year.  We utilize Promoting First Relationships during the visit. PFR has been around for a while and is strength-based, which we like.  Another program recommendation I would give is for Circle of Security.  It was created for use in a shelter for homeless teen moms and is excellent for helping parents to recognize (gently) how they might have been parented and how it can affect their own parenting, even subconsciously through what they have labeled "Shark Music".  We have run some groups for parents in collaboration with our local YMCA (to provide child care and space) and have had incredible feedback from the parents who have participated. I don't know if you have the means to attend either of the trainings, but even the videos available on the COS website (free and meant to be shared) are a very helpful tool.  I love the NBH TED Talk video for the nursing students that I work with, but it might be too much for traumatized parents.  Depends on who they are, I suppose.  

Promoting First Relationships

Circle of Security

Hope this is helpful, thanks for doing the good work!

Kim

Hi,

Have you got a link for the TED talk video? I could not find it? 

http://www.ted.com/talks/nadin...lifetime?language=en

The Family Center in Nashville, TN, includes an ACE module in parenting education classes for court-mandated parents and incarcerated parents; most have very high ACE scores. 

I work with trauma-impacted children and their families.  My experience with giving adults (usually parents) information about trauma and PTSD has been really good. Most of the parents respond with an "a-ha" kind of moment, as all their symptoms and behaviors suddenly make sense in the context of the trauma they experienced.

I would encourage you to be careful, however, especially if you are not a clinical therapist.  Sometimes bringing this stuff up can really trigger people and you have to be prepared to handle that. People may start to cry or leave the room. You might want to warn folks about the topic of your discussion in case they want to skip group or give them the option to leave at any time. Make sure to come prepared with places to refer these folks who may want treatment after you give them the information on trauma. 

I think using Nadine Harris's talk might be a good idea. It's been a while since I watched it, but from what I remember she's very passionate and personable in the talk.  I think most people could understand what she is talking about, but it really depends on the functional level of the adults in the room.  Good luck!

A similar question came up, when Vermont's Legislature was considering House Bill 762 in 2013, requiring ALL Vermont Health Care Providers to screen All patients, regardless of age, for ACEs. One ACEsConnection member there was involved in drafting the screening questions, that I knew of. Hopefully, she'll "weigh-in" on this.    

Similarly, when the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the ACE screening tool for their 2013 assessment of the World's Healthiest Children, they modified the scope of ACEs to include Poverty, as a cause of "toxic stress"....and developed a USER'S GUIDE for their WHO ACE International Questionaire. You can access the Users Guide, along with the ACE international Questionaire, on the WHO website. Perhaps they've included an explanatory note in the USER's Guide.

Hi Erica, Great question. I listened to Dr. Felitti discuss the ACE Study numerous times over 3 days. What he said is that they were required to have a telephone contact available for any of the patients they were studying to call in case they reacted negatively to the information they were receiving about ACE's during the Study. He said they never got a single call. Instead, he talked about a study they conducted for two years, with over 35,000 patients, who filled out an online ACE questionnaire. Their response, according to Dr. Felitti, was a 1/3rd reduction in doctor office visits for a period of 2 years. It does not appear that exploring ACE's or Toxic Stress is in itself traumatizing to people if done with compassion. When I had 50 Alaska Native tribal members in for a conference on ACE's, we had behavioral health counselors present in case they had problems, and they really had none, so my experience is similar to Dr. Felitti's.

Dr. Felitti is a member on this site, I believe, and would probably be more than happy to elaborate on what I write. Good luck with your work.

Jenny Combs posted:

I work with trauma-impacted children and their families.  My experience with giving adults (usually parents) information about trauma and PTSD has been really good. Most of the parents respond with an "a-ha" kind of moment, as all their symptoms and behaviors suddenly make sense in the context of the trauma they experienced.

I would encourage you to be careful, however, especially if you are not a clinical therapist.  Sometimes bringing this stuff up can really trigger people and you have to be prepared to handle that. People may start to cry or leave the room. You might want to warn folks about the topic of your discussion in case they want to skip group or give them the option to leave at any time. Make sure to come prepared with places to refer these folks who may want treatment after you give them the information on trauma. 

I think using Nadine Harris's talk might be a good idea. It's been a while since I watched it, but from what I remember she's very passionate and personable in the talk.  I think most people could understand what she is talking about, but it really depends on the functional level of the adults in th

Kim Ander posted:

Hi Erica,

I have been working on a grant-funded project working with trauma-impacted parents where we focus on brain development and basic attachment principles at each well child check for the baby's fist year.  We utilize Promoting First Relationships during the visit. PFR has been around for a while and is strength-based, which we like.  Another program recommendation I would give is for Circle of Security.  It was created for use in a shelter for homeless teen moms and is excellent for helping parents to recognize (gently) how they might have been parented and how it can affect their own parenting, even subconsciously through what they have labeled "Shark Music".  We have run some groups for parents in collaboration with our local YMCA (to provide child care and space) and have had incredible feedback from the parents who have participated. I don't know if you have the means to attend either of the trainings, but even the videos available on the COS website (free and meant to be shared) are a very helpful tool.  I love the NBH TED Talk video for the nursing students that I work with, but it might be too much for traumatized parents.  Depends on who they are, I suppose.  

Promoting First Relationships

Circle of Security

Hope this is helpful, thanks for doing the good work!

Kim

 

I will look into this. Thanks very much.