Trauma Informed Assessment

In 2005 SAMSHA wrote, “Services for trauma survivors must be based on concepts, policies and procedures that provide safety, voice and choice, and like all good care, must be individualized. Trauma services must focus first and foremost on an individual’s physical and psychological safety. Services to trauma survivors must also be flexible, individualized, culturally competent, promote respect and dignity and be based upon best practices. The lessons learned by the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children ™ over the past twenty years support the SAMSHA 2005 statement. These lessons and their application when providing intervention to children individually and/or in group settings will be presented. They will address system practices that support or prohibit trauma informed care while also establishing the need fro trauma informed assessment.

Assessing for the presence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not difficult. Assessing the many processes children engage in as they attempt to manage their trauma experiences is more difficult, yet critical to intervention selection When we approach trauma as an experience versus a diagnostic category, applying interventions to alter that experience while reducing diagnostic symptoms become much more successful. In fact, a child’s answer to one simple question can provide the assessment needed to determine the most immediately appropriate intervention. This presentation will use evidence-based research, case study, and review of assessment tools and processes, which provide documentation regarding intervention selection and outcomes.

Brief Description of Instructional Format:

Didactic presentation and comprehensive child and adolescent case examples provide participants with the framework and support for using trauma informed and strength based assessment to best develop and implement trauma informed practices to enhance resilience and posttraumatic growth when moving children and adolescents from victim to survivor to thriver.

Goal:

To provide participants with a perspective from which to view each child and adolescent as a person with unique experiences and view of self and others as well as individualized needs before initiating trauma informed treatment.

Session Objectives:

To provide participants with a perspective from which to view each child and adolescent as a person with unique experiences and view of self and others as well as individualized needs before initiating trauma informed treatment.

Learning Objectives:

Learner will be able to:

• Discuss the importance of assessing traumatized and at-risk children and adolescents from a trauma informed, strength-based perspective rather than only from a deficit focus.
• Identify specific examples of how traumatized children and adolescents process and interpret behavioral and verbal interactions and expectations of others.
• Identify the key differences between survivor/thriver; relief and resilience.