Dr. Greg Manning

A Professional Trainer, Keynote Speaker and Consultant

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Dr. Greg Manning’s – Permanency in the News – Week of 7/20/20

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Permanency Tip of the Week:  Emotional Safety – Part 4 of 4 – Creating Opportunities to Enhance Emotional Safety

We need to first engage our Youth in the conversation and invite them to tell us who they want to be a part of the conversation.  This may lead to individuals that we have evaluated as being “unsafe.”  Instead of outright rejecting these individuals, we instead need to determine how we can engage them in the creation and sustainment of emotional safety for our Youth.  These open and honest conversations will go a long way in 1) Enhancing our Youth’s emotional safety; 2) Helping to strengthen our relationship with our Youth; 3) Helping to strengthen our Youth’s relationship with people who enhance their emotional safety, and 4) Helping our Youth to learn the skills needed to create and sustain emotional safety long after they have exited our systems of care.

 

Permanency Success Story of the Week: 22-Year-Old Daisy Gains A Forever Family in Florida’s 100th Virtual Adoption

Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption – “My life was a challenge from the beginning,” recalls Daisy, who was placed in foster care as an infant and spent the first two decades of her life without a permanent place to call home.  Daisy lost her grandmother at a young age. She was abandoned by other family members. And, when Daisy was 15 years old, her biological mother passed away before the two ever had the chance to meet. Those difficult losses added layers of grief to the trauma Daisy had suffered from so many years of instability.

“It was lonely and confusing,” Daisy shared. “I didn’t have much support or encouragement from anyone.”  After bouncing between multiple foster homes, Daisy went to live with the Steele family, of Jacksonville, FL. They welcomed her with open arms, but the transition wasn’t easy. “It’s always in the back of your mind, ‘When am I going to have to move again?’ Daisy said. “But the Steeles never gave up on encouraging and loving me…”

To Daisy, Nicole was always her mom. It just wasn’t official. Nicole was determined to change that. With support from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption’s Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program, Daisy was adopted at age 22 in June 2020.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the adoption was finalized via Zoom by Duval County Circuit Court Judge David Gooding. It was Florida’s 100th virtual adoption since the pandemic started.

“Before I was adopted, I felt like I wasn’t enough. I had this hole in my heart, and I never really knew why. I never knew what I needed to patch that hole until my mom asked to adopt me,” Daisy shares. “There is no hole in my heart anymore.”

 

Permanency Related Articles:

Supporting Connections & Community During COVID-19

Texas CASA – On June 23, 2020, Dr. Bruce Perry, M.D., Ph.D., renowned best-selling author, leading trauma expert and founder of The Neurosequential Model Network; Kevin Campbell, international permanency expert and model author of Family Finding; and Texas CASA CEO Vicki Spriggs had a conversation exploring ways CASA and others in the child welfare field can support children, parents and families to be connected and have a sense of community during COVID-19.

 

I Am A Foster Child – Poem

Diary of a School Nurse – I am a foster child. I wonder how long I will stay at this house. I hear my caseworker tell me that I have to move again. I see the outside of my “new House” and wonder what waits for me beyond the door.  I want so much more than what I am given.

I am a foster child. I pretend 7 different homes and families in 12 years is ok. I touch the warm tears sliding down my face. I worry about my safety. I cry myself to sleep because I am scared. I am a foster child.

I understand more than I should for my age. I say I look forward to coming to school & I mean it! I dream of nice parents who love me unconditionally. I try to believe in my uncertain future. I have hope.

I am a foster child.

Institutional Care Leads to Atypical Attachment, Developmental Delays in Children

Psychiatric Advisor – Institutionalization was associated with developmental delays and atypical attachment patterns in children, according to results published in The Lancet Psychiatry. Rapid recovery of developmental milestones was observed with deinstitutionalization, and the study authors advocated policy recommendations that prioritize kinship networks, including adoption and foster care.

Millions of children spend their developmental years in institutional facilities, and care quality varies widely, with poor food quality and sanitation, as well as high staff turnover and child-to-caregiver ratios, representing systemic issues.

 

To Protect Children During COVID-19, We Must Reach Vulnerable Families Early

 The Hill – Every parent is struggling with life during coronavirus. My heart breaks when I think about the emotional impact our new normal has had on my 10-year-old daughter, stuck in the house with her parents, missing her friends and the rhythms of daily life. Privileged families like mine have been frantically balancing jobs, caregiving, and myriad stressful adjustments to our daily routines to keep deadly infection at bay. But the truth is that families throughout our country have been waging life or death struggles since well before March 2020…

 The WHO recently released a report expressing concerns of increased risk of abuse and neglect worldwide as a result of isolation and increased stressors during the outbreak.  The pandemic has paralyzed our ability to identify children facing trouble at home. We can no longer rely on the watchful eyes of teachers, coaches, and camp counselors while children are quarantined at home. Other alerts have similarly been interrupted. Neighbors are shut-in, relatives stranded. Infants and toddlers where I live in New York City are being immunized 63 percent less than they were one year ago, stripping us of a critical opportunity for doctors and nurses to assess family well-being…

Now we need to ensure similar organizations across the country have the resources they need to do the same, and work to dramatically reduce risks for child neglect and abuse for our most vulnerable families. We can start by making a substantive investment in prevention through the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.

We can help kids stay out of the emergency room, avoid psychiatric hospitalizations, and stabilize families at risk of removal to foster care. Our nation’s leaders have an opportunity and an obligation in the COVID-19 crisis to empower and sustain our most vulnerable neighbors with a coordinated outreach system that keeps children safe, helps parents facing extraordinary stresses, and gives them the support and resources every family deserves.

 

CWLA Webinar — Responding to the Drop in Hotline Calls During the Pandemic: One State’s Experiences and Lessons Learned – Wednesday, July 29, 2020 — 1:00-2:30 p.m. EDT
Child Welfare League of America – A marked decrease in child protection hotline calls has been reported nationwide. The drop in calls aligned with the decision to end most in-classroom instruction in public schools. The decrease has caused concern about the possible impact on children and families not being seen by teachers, school personnel, and other community members. This webinar considers the response to the decrease in calls received by the State of Maine. Using a data-driven approach, the Maine Office of Child and Family Services implemented responses in partnership with the Maine Department of Education, Maine Center for Disease Control, and community organizations. This webinar will review these responses, which provide “lessons learned” for future responses, particularly for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Sincerely,

Dr. Greg Manning