Dr. Greg Manning

A Professional Trainer, Keynote Speaker and Consultant

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Permanency in the News – Week of 3/5/18

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Greetings Permanency Champions,

Permanency Tip of the Week:  Everything Looks Fine from Here, So What is Their (child/youth) Problem?

As adults, it often is challenging to try and see the world through the eyes of a child/youth.  This challenge can be even more significant when we try to see the world through the eyes of a child/youth who is in out of home care, lacking in Permanency and has a history of trauma, abuse, neglect and loss.  When we find ourselves wondering why in the world they are reacting/not reacting in a certain way, let us pause (“something isn’t right”), read the situation (“they are confused, lost, and/or feeling unsafe) and react with compassion with a focus on providing emotional safety for the child/youth.

 

Permanency Success Story of the Week: Faith-based Organization Helps Trafficking Survivor Build a New Life

Scared, with no one to turn to, Carla (name has been changed to protect the privacy of the people we serve) was in a country where she didn’t speak the language. She had endured serious abuse as a victim of sex trafficking. She had already been trafficked across several states.  When the trafficking ring was raided by police, Carla was immediately placed in a detention center due to her immigration status. The law firm assisting her knew that Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington operated with support from the OTIP-funded Trafficking Victim Assistance Program and reached out to refer Carla for services.

While waiting for Carla’s release, the team at Catholic Charities went straight to work finding immediate shelter. When notice came that Carla would be arriving in the DC area within four hours with nothing but the clothing on her back, Catholic Charities was ready… Working with her closely for the first week, Catholic Charities helped with medical and dental care, new clothes, food, a phone, and personal hygiene items… Through the Employment Program at the Catholic Charities, Carla has found work in the evenings, so she can continue her intensive language classes during the day. Her English teacher says that Carla is the best student he has ever had. Carla navigates the DC area like a native, has begun making friends, and sees a therapist to help work through her years of abuse. While her journey to healing is a long road, Carla is looking forward to what is ahead and she continues to inspire everyone around her.

Catholic Charities is a sub-recipient of the Trafficking Victim Assistance Program. If your faith-based or community organization can offer services for victims of trafficking, email endtrafficking@acf.hhs.gov to get connected with details on program enrollment. #humantrafficking #csec #commercialsexualexploitationofchildren

 

Permanency Related Articles:

Seven Core Issues of Adoption – Part 1: Loss

Sharon Rozia – Adoption is a lifelong, intergenerational process which unites the triad of birth families, adoptees, and adoptive families forever. Adoption, especially of adolescents, can lead to both great joy and tremendous pain. Recognizing the core issues in adoption is one intervention that can assist triad members and professionals working in adoption better to understand each other and the residual effects of the adoption experience.

Adoption triggers seven lifelong or core issues for all triad members, regardless of the circumstances of the adoption or the characteristics of the participants:1) Loss; 2) Rejection; 3) Guilt and Shame; 4) Grief; 5) Identity; 6) Intimacy; 7) Mastery/control…

Loss – Adoption is created through loss; without loss there would be no adoption. Loss, then, is at the hub of the wheel. All birth parents, adoptive parents, and adoptees share in having experienced at least one major, life-altering loss before becoming involved in adoption. In adoption, in order to gain anything, one must first lose–a family, a child, a dream. It is these losses and the way they are accepted and, hopefully, resolved which set the tone for the lifelong process of adoption… #7coreissuesofadoption; #loss;

 

What Is Complex Trauma? A Resource Guide for Youth and Those Who Care About Them

Children’s Bureau Express – Many times, children and youth may have difficulty expressing how they feel or are affected by the negative things happening in their lives. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network developed a guide specifically for youth who have experienced complex trauma to help them get a better understanding of what it is and how it effects them. Complex trauma, or trauma that combines two or more forms of trauma exposure, such as sexual, physical, or emotional abuse; neglect; or domestic violence, among others, and its effects can be difficult for a child to understand or voice to adults. Clinicians, caregivers, and other adults can use this guide to help start and direct a conversation with youth about what complex trauma is, how it can impact them, and what coping strategies youth can use…

The resource guide: What Is Complex Trauma? A Resource Guide for Youth and Those Who Care About Them. #complextrauma, #nctsn

 

Is Time-Out Really the Best Method to Discipline Your Child?

Foster to Forever – Dr. Jane Nelson – My little boy would NEVER stay in time-out when I had to discipline him!  The ordeal of constantly moving him back to his time-out chair with his emotions (and mine) escalating exponentially became a horrifying punishment, not only for him but for me as well. (Admittedly, it was a good workout, especially if I had to dodge the chair he was throwing at me.) …

Because of a child’s early history of neglect and abuse, he may already feel disconnected from the family due to the lack of bonding in his earlier relationships.  The isolation of a time-out can encourage a child to disconnect from the world, and can reinforce the belief that he is alone in the world and can only rely on himself…

Instead of using time-out as a method of discipline, we have begun to use time-ins and do-overs.  Although my strong-willed defiant child is in constant need of redirection and discipline, we have begun to see positive changes in his behavior. #disclipline, #timeout; #timein;

 

Child Sexual Abuse: When Trust Gets Shattered

US News & World Report – Trust. It’s one of the strongest, yet most fragile bonds we form. Most of us develop our sense of trust and security during childhood. But what happens when that trust gets shattered? As I watched the Larry Nassar sentencing, I found myself asking that very question. I thought of the victims who trusted this professional to care for them, only to be hurtfully violated. I thought of the trust parents instilled in this physician to “treat” their daughters, only to find out that trust had been shattered.

Far too often children are sexually abused by adults who were supposed to take care of them. Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), reports that every eight minutes, child protective services substantiates a claim of child sexual abuse. In the U.S., it’s reported that about 63,000 youth are sexually abused, with 2 of every 3 cases occurring when kids are ages of 12 and 17 years… #sexualabuse, #trust

 

The Number of Kids in Foster Care is Growing and Parents’ Drug Abuse is Mainly to Blame

Circa – “The opioid crisis has been a big part in the influx of a huge number of children coming in to the system,” said Cynthia Booth, CEO of Indiana’s Child Advocates, an organization that helps train volunteers appointed by a judge to be advocates for children in the foster care system. In 2015, there were about 427,000 children in foster care, but that number jumped up by 10,000 kids in 2016 to about 437,000, according to the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health and Human Services.

 

Sincerely,

Dr. Greg Manning