/ Time:1 hour
Module Purpose:The reality for child welfare professionals is that they are exposed, at an often intimate level, to all forms of horrific abuse perpetrated on children and families. This exposure can easily lead to the development of vicarious trauma, which is similar to post-traumatic stress. Child welfare professionals can also be impacted by stressors from within the child welfare system, and that can lead to challenges as well.
Developing a resilient perspective and skill set is the key to participants being able to avoid the impact of various traumas. Participants have already worked with their Self-Care Toolkit extensively during their 2.5days, they have thoroughly reviewed these skills in Module 10, and they have practiced becoming clearer around their feelings and reactions to negative events over the course of working through the Maltreatments information in Module 11.
This module will debrief what they have learned and support their development of a second action plan, where they will identify a second skill from their toolkit that they will consciously work to implement in their lives over the last week and a half of Core classroom training.
/ Demonstrated Skills:
- Develop an action plan for self-care.
Materials:NA
Agenda:
Unit 14.1: Overcoming the Stressors Child Welfare Professionals Face to Achieve Resilience/Well-Being
Trainer Instructions and Script:
Display slide 14.0.1: Overcoming the Stressors of the Work of a Child Welfare Professional (PG: X1)
Trainer Instructions:
Introduce the module and its purpose.
/ Say: In this module, you will be asked to consider what you have experienced in the field and in class so far and identify specific challenges you have had and may face. You will also develop a second action plan for the application of another self-care tool.
Display slide 14.0.2: Module 14 Demonstrated Skills (PG: X1)
/ Say: At the end of the module, you should be able to identify techniques for your own self-care for prevention of secondary traumatic stress/compassion fatigue and burnout.
Display slide 14.0.3: Agenda (PG: 21)
Unit 14.1: Overcoming the Stressors in the Work of a Child Welfare Professional to Achieve Resilience/Well-Being
/ Time: 1 hour
Unit Overview:This unit provides participants with an opportunity to debrief their experience in the Maltreatments module, now that that experiencehas settled in, and they will develop an action plan to apply a second tool over the last week and a half of their Core pre-service classroom experience.
/ Learning Objectives:
- Generate an action plan for self-care tool application.
Trainer Instructions and Script:
Display slide 14.1.4: Vicarious Trauma: The Trauma Child Welfare Professionals Can ExperienceOvercoming the Stressors of the Work of a Child Welfare Professional to Achieve Resilience/Well-being(PG: X32)
Trainer Instructions:
Introduce the unit and its purpose.
Display slide 14.1. 5: Learning Objectives(PG: X32)
Trainer Instructions:
Refer participants to PG # and read through the objectives with them.
Answer any questions.
Display slide 14.1.16: Take a Little Time to Reflect(PG: X33)
/ Ask: How challenging was it to walk through all of what you walked through in the Maltreatments curriculum?
Ask: What did you learn as the result of completing your ‘Heat for the Week’ intensity arrows at the end of each day during our walk through of Module 11 on Maltreatments?
Ask: Does anyone have any thoughts or questions about their experiences either in the field or in the classroom that they would be willing to share?
Trainer Instructions
Listen to their thoughts, provide supportive comments.
Make sure that if you detect any distress that you have sidebar conversations with those participants at breaks.
/ Say:It is important that you realize that this is just the beginning. After Core and your specialization curricula where you learn about your specific responsibilities as a child welfare professional, you will be placed in the field. You will begin your career. And while you will still have a great deal of support around you while you ramp up your capabilities, it is important that you know that you will likely never be fully prepared for what you might see and experience.
Because of this, it is vital that you incorporate the ten resilience skills you learned in your Self-Care toolkit, as well as the various other strategies and sayings that were provided.
Trainer Instructions:
Share with participants one or more of your experiences in the field that really were challenging, and how you used specific Toolkit self-care tools to help you get through it.
Ask participants if they have any questions, and provide relevant supportive feedback.
Say: If you’re going to use these tools, you have to practice them. I’m going to ask you again to review your Toolkit and the ten resilience tools. Think about your experience so far – what you have learned about yourself and your reactivity levels throughout your work in Module 11 on Maltreatments =, what else you have learned about yourself in the process, and in general, what you have learned about how you react internally to stressors.
Take Before we complete this module, take ten minutes to review your Toolkit and and consider identify what tool you want to apply next. In this last activity, you will develop an action plan to apply the tool over the next two weeks of Core.
/ Say: If you’re going to use these tools, you have to practice them. I’m going to ask you again to review your Toolkit and the ten resilience tools. Think about your experience so far – what you have learned about yourself and your reactivity levels throughout your work in Module 11 on Maltreatments =, what else you have learned about yourself in the process, and in general, what you have learned about how you react internally to stressors.
Before we complete this module, take ten minutes to review your Toolkit and identify what tool you want to apply next. In this last activity, you will develop an action plan to apply the tool over the next two weeks of Core.
Display slide 14.1.17: Take a Little Time to Reflect (PG: X34)
/ Activity #1: Your Next Self-Care Action Plan
PG:34
Materials: None
Trainer Instructions:
- From your toolkit, select the tool you plan to use. Write the name and page number of that tool in your Action Plan.
- Next, consider what the training has been like and how you can help yourself remember to apply the tool you have selected.
- Finally, close your eyes and visualize yourself applying that tool once or twice. Open your eyes and write down how you see yourself using this tool.
- Debrief with the class. Ask a few participants who are willing to say what they will be using and explain how they intend to apply it.
/ Activity STOP
Segue to Module 15.
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