Family-centered Practice in a Trauma-informed System

DCFS Division of Service Support 11

Family-centered Practice in a Trauma-informed System

12-13-101

Small Test of Change Data

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Goals for the Day• Goals:1. Family-centered practice using a trauma lens in child

welfare practice2. Implementing family-centered practice in every case,

every situation, every day using family-centered strategies

3. Facilitating family healing for the good of the child


Objectives for the DayObjectives:1. Define family-centered practice2. Explain how it applies to their role3. Practice engaging and assessing a family using the

4R’s from family systems theory4. Recognize that a child’s connection to parents/family

while in placement and the family’s connection to their placed child(ren) is important for the wellbeing of that child and the strength of the family as a whole

5. Operationalize family-centered facilitation skills for difficult conversations.

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We are reinforcing the importance of looking at the foundation and framework of each of our families homes so we can protect kids by strengthening families.


Video: Lackawanna Blues


Video Debriefing: • What is your immediate reaction to this

family?

• What is your reaction to the social workers?

• How would you have engaged this family?


How similar or different was this family from the families

you have worked with?


Working with an older youth who consistently runs back to his

home but he continually is placed further from home.

What influences your decision making in this example?

How does it impact your family-centered practice?


Mother and father are 19 and 20 with 3 kids under age four. The

garden apartment has no working stove and only a mini fridge. The one-year-old is diagnosed failure

to thrive.




When placing a child, dad’s step-brother is never considered a

possible placement.




14 year old youth reveals to his therapist and caseworker that he

is gay and wants to be placed with his gay uncle.




Morning Break


Welcome to the LC Family Feud – Question #1

• We asked 100 Researchers and Child Welfare Professionals, “What is family centered practice?”

• The top 5 answers are on the board.


LC Family Feud – Question #2• We asked 50 of you

and your peers, “How does being family centered shape your practice?”



LC Family Feud – Question # 3

• We asked 25 Learning Collaborative participants, “What are the basic steps to doing a Small Test of Change with a family?”



Family-centered practice according to the CFSR

We must:• Strengthen, enable, and empower

families to protect and nurture their children

• Safely preserve family relationships and connections when appropriate

• Recognize the strong influence that social systems have on individual behavior


Family-centered practice according to the CFSR (Cont’d)

We must:• Enhance family autonomy• Respect the rights, values, and cultures

of families• Focus on an entire family rather than

select individuals within a family


Family Centered Practice: What gets in the way?1) Write down two or three of your biggest

challenges to doing family-centered practice.

2) Identify creative solutions to the groups challenges.

3) Track the challenges and solutions on flipchart paper.


Illinois and Permanency – A 20 Year PerspectiveIllinois Children Exiting Foster Care

Permanencies 1988 1998 2008Cook

Reunifications 59% 27% 28%Adoptions 8% 42% 23%Subsidized Guardianships

- 12% 9%

Aging Out/Other 33% 18% 40%Downstate

Reunifications 73% 51% 52%Adoptions 7% 25% 26%Subsidized Guardianships

- 8% 5%

Aging Out/Other 20% 17% 17%* Adapted from 2008 Conditions for Children Report – CFRC University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign


Family for the Day

“We are better able to plan and implement effective services if we understand the context within which people live; the involvement of others in their problems; and the resources available from immediate family, friends, and extended kin.”

Working with Families of the Poor; Minuchin, Colapinto, Minuchin, 2007, 2nd Edition. The Guilford Press, Pg. 5


Family Strengths

• As we seek to support the safety and well being of the child:– What internal resources (protective factors)

exist within the family?– What external sources of support (friends,

extended family, substitute caregivers) exist?– What supports exist within the community?


Family Systems Theory

A mobile illustrates this: you pull on one side of the mobile and all the other pieces are put into a

state of interdependence – e.g., any change and they all shift around


Family Structure FrameworkThe 4-Rs

• Relationships - It is impossible to understand the relationships between family members without an understanding of “who” makes up the family system

• Rules - Family rules tell us a great deal about how a family operates.


Family Structure FrameworkThe 4-Rs (Cont’d)

• Roles - Roles tell us what is expected of each member of the family.

• Rituals - Rituals include dinnertime routines, bedtime rituals, the celebration of major events and holidays.


Mixed Role Activity

Part One: Operationalizing the 4-Rs


Mixed Role ActivityPart Two: Operationalizing the 4-Rs

When are you asking these questions already as part of your practice?What are the critical junctures for gathering this information?When and why are you challenged to do this?What are some solutions to help you do this more fully?What is something you could test next week?


4-Rs Activity Debriefing

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Lunch


Large Group Discussion:

Importance of being child-focused in a family centered system


Envision an intact family case with a young man age 13 who’s mother recently died in a DUI accident. The youth is identified as the problem in the family due to his difficulties

sleeping, nightmares, his withdrawal from the family, and his recent behavioral and

academic problems at school. Dad doesn’t know what to do with his son, he is constantly exhausted, and he recently hit him repeatedly

with a belt after the school called.

What is the trauma/adverse experience our young man

experienced?31DCFS Division of Service Support

Family-centered Assessment

1. Identify the stress and/or trauma experience that brought this family to our attention. (Consider inter-generational trauma if present)

2. Who was impacted by the most recent trauma experience?

3. Are there caregiver posttraumatic reactions?4. What is each person’s behavior following the trauma

experience?5. What family strengths have you tapped? What

supports are present?6. How will you use your self to help this family move

forward?32DCFS Division of Service Support

Affinity Group Discussion

What are the characteristics of families you enjoy working with and why?

What are the characteristics of families that challenge you?

What are some solutions or ways you could improve your family centered practice?


Affinity Group Debriefing

“We don’t give up on families and salvage individual survivors.”

- Froma Walsh


Afternoon Break


Family-Centered Communication Skills

• Shared understanding of the problems/ needs at hand;

• Collaboration among the professionals and with the family;

• Commitment to specific tasks by each party [including the family and the professionals];

• Consider how [not if] culture influences the interactions, observations and understanding of the meeting at-hand;


Mixed Role Discussion

How do you approach topics that make you uncomfortable or will potentially embarrass

the family? What types of conversation tend to make you or the family uncomfortable?

How do you gauge your readiness to discuss difficult issues?


Mixed Role Debriefing

Balancing courage with compassion


Family for the Day

• Identify a case event or difficult conversation that may be looming in your family case for the day.

• What skills do you want to use from the mixed role discussion to help you facilitate that event or engage the family in the difficult conversation?


Small Test of Change


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Family-centered Practice in a Trauma-informed System

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