Trainings for Residential Care/Foster Care
- Maximizing the Therapeutic Potential of Residential Workers and Foster Parents: Caring for the Traumatized Child/Youth
- Understanding and Managing Behaviours of Children/Youth in Out-of-home Placements
- Silent Victims: Children and Youth Who Witness Violence in Their Homes
- Connecting with Relationship Resistant Children/Youth
- Milieu Treatment – “Back to the Basics”
- Separation and Saying Goodbye!
These workshops are available by request.
If your organization or group is interested in any these workshops please contact: Sandra Marshall – Coordinator, Training and Development
training@ckmconsultation.com
Maximizing the Therapeutic Potential of Residential Workers and Foster Parents: Caring for the Traumatized Child/Youth
Length: 1 day
Description:
The goal of this training is to increase understanding of children/youth in out-of-home placements and develop strategies for successful intervention.
The impact of abuse, neglect, and other traumatic experiences on children and youth can have a detrimental effect on their emotional, behavioural, physical, spiritual, intellectual, sexual, cognitive, and developmental well-being. An abused and/or traumatized child’s capacity to form attachments with caregivers (foster parents, adoptive parents, and residential counsellors) can also be compromised.
In this session, participants will learn how abused and traumatized children understand the world around them, how they interact with others, and how their issues manifest themselves in their behaviour. Other ongoing challenges faced by these children such as anxiety, trauma triggers, mental health issues, and relationship struggles will be discussed.
In this workshop participants will learn:
- How to live with the day-to-day challenges of abused and/or traumatized children/youth
- How to develop a therapeutic relationship with the child/youth
- To identify the stress associated with these children/youth living in foster care
- How to ensure the environment in which the child resides is sensitive to their many challenges and worrisome behaviour
- Concrete strategies on how to deal with these many challenges, and how to improve the relationship between the child and caregiver (foster parent or adoptive parent)
Who should attend:
This workshop is designed for Residential Staff, Foster Parents, and Clinicians who are working with children in out-of-home placements.
Understanding and Managing Behaviours of Children/Youth in Out-of-home Placements
Length: 1 day
Description:
Children and youth in placements are often diagnosed with learning difficulties, mental health problems, and trauma. Children who feel unloved and unattached are often rageful and rebellious, often becoming locked in defiant opposition with adults. Working and living with ‘adult-wary’ children and youth can be an exhausting endeavor, requiring constant vigilance and practice to establish and maintain positive therapeutic relationships.
This training will address the key issues involved in caring for these challenging children/youth. The training is both theoretical and practical; focusing on strengthening the residential worker/foster parents’ important role in managing children/youth’s behaviour. The training will provide participants with an understanding of effective strategies.
This workshop will address:
- Why children/youth behave the way they do, and why they are relationship-resistant
- How abused and traumatized children/youth understand the world around them, and how they interact with others
- How abuse/trauma issues manifest in behaviour and ongoing challenges with anxiety, trauma triggers, mental health issues, and relationship struggles
- The importance and significance of the foster parent and/or residential workers in the child’s life
- How to develop therapeutic relationships; common mistakes made in parenting these children; and tips on helping foster parents and/or residential workers develop capacity to provide better care
- How to strengthen the residential workers/foster parents’ role in managing children/youth’s behaviour
- Effective strategies to use with challenging children/youth
Who Should Attend:
This workshop is designed for Residential Staff, Foster Parents, and Clinicians who are working with children in out-of-home placements.
Silent Victims: Children and Youth Who Witness Violence in Their Homes
Length: 1 day
Description:
They are the innocent bystanders….the hidden victims…and the silent witnesses. These are the individuals that struggle in school, fear leaving their home, have sleep disturbances, worry about their safety and their family’s safety, have increased somatic complaints, intrusive thoughts and memories, and increased anxieties. Children and youth who witness violence in their homes are often as traumatized as those who are directly affected by violence.
This workshop will focus on the impact of violence and fear on the development of the child. It will look at how violence can alter the development of the child’s brain, resulting in changes in social, emotional, behavioural, and cognitive functioning. The goal of this workshop is to help participants gain a better understanding of the complexities of the impact of children witnessing family violence.
Participants will have an opportunity to discuss the challenges, difficulties and struggles working with these children/youth. Important and effective prevention, intervention, and treatment approaches will be reviewed.
Who Should Attend:
This workshop is designed for Clinicians, Social Workers, and Child & Youth Workers working with children/youth in the community.
Connecting with Relationship Resistant Children/Youth
Length: 1 day
Description:
The things we say and do with children and youth determine the kind of relationship we have with them. Children who feel unloved and unattached are often rageful and rebellious. They become locked in defiant opposition with adults. These are the children who become “adult-wary”. In this workshop, participants will learn: why these children are relationship-resistant; how to develop therapeutic relationships; the importance of the role of the foster parent in the child’s life; common mistakes made in parenting these children; and tips on helping foster parents develop capacity to provide better care.
Who should attend:
This workshop is designed for Clinicians, Social Workers, and Child & Youth Workers working with children/youth in the community.
Milieu Treatment – “Back to the Basics”
Length: 1 day
Description:
This workshop will focus on the challenges and difficulties of a milieu environment. In an effort to improve the quality of life of the children, youth and staff in a milieu setting for emotionally disturbed children, we need to focus on the essential elements, process and climate of the therapeutic milieu. The Milieu program should be attuned to the individual, and his or her capacities and choices. Key elements in the therapeutic milieu: self-esteem, relationship building, realistic expectations, and planned daily activities will be explored.
Participants will also have an opportunity to examine novel ways of reinforcing behaviours and understanding how to best communicate with each child and each other within the milieu environment.
Who Should Attend:
This workshop is designed for Residential Staff, Foster Parents, and Clinicians who are working with children in out-of-home placements.
Separation and Saying Goodbye!
Length: 1 day
Description:
How we deal with youth who are leaving their home, leaving residential care and/or foster care has a powerful effect on pre- and post-placement adjustment. Many foster parents and/or residential counsellors come into the lives of young people with the goal of helping them to leave us. Ideally, separation begins at intake! The purpose of this workshop is to understand the issues of separation in relation to the youth and the foster parent/residential counsellor; understanding youth’s relationship (loyalty) with their parent, and how the foster parent/residential counsellor can support them; what they need in order to re-build their lives; and how to best understand the decisions others adults (judges) in their lives have made.
Who Should Attend:
This workshop is designed for Residential Staff, Foster Parents, and Clinicians who are working with children in out-of-home placements.