Greetings Permanency Champions,
Permanency Tip of the Week: Seeking Permanency – Teaching Our Youth a New Habit
For some of us, experiencing Permanency in our lives is 2nd nature as it has always been present. For many of our Youth however, the opposite can be true. This can be one of the key factors in explaining why the adjustment into Permanent relationships can be so challenging for our Youth. It is critical for us to not under-estimate the profound size and scope of the leap of faith that we are asking of our Youth when we introduce newly found / rediscovered Permanency into their lives. With this compassionate mindset, we can more easily access the patience, grace and tenacity that will be required in order to maximize the chances of the Permanency taking hold in their lives and being sustained.
Permanency Success Story of the Week: Man Turns Heartbreak into Mission to Adopt
When Steve Allen lost his wife to cancer in 2011, he didn’t know what to do with all the love that was left in his heart. “Where do I go from here? I thought we’d be together forever” Allen told the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Where he went next was a four-year journey that ended with the adoption of his son Logan.
Logan had been in foster care and already had two failed adoptions, he was about to give up hope when his adoption worker convinced him to go to one more meeting. That’s when he met Steve. The adoption took about a year and just this past Christmas the pair celebrated one year together as a family.
Steve says Logan was shaking the Christmas gifts under the tree. He asked him, “Which one do you think you will like best?” With sheer love in his voice, Logan replied, “As long as I have you for a dad that is the best Christmas gift I could have.”
Permanency Related Articles:
Foster Focus is a monthly magazine dealing exclusively and entirely with the Foster Care Industry. The core of the magazine are seven monthly featured sections, Anonymous Faces, Ask a Pro, Editor’s Notes, Family Adventures, Guest Speaker, What Do They DO? A nonprofit profile, Alumni Perspectives and Lawmakers. These sections coupled with cover stories and coverage of events focused on foster care will, in fact make for the most in depth view of the Foster Care Industry ever published.
Accomplished doctors, attorneys and psychiatrists and New York Times bestselling authors make up the writing staff for Foster Focus they add credibility and project a sense of understanding to our readers. A range of stories and subjects are covered, highlights include; interviews with Country star Jimmy Wayne and from the NFL’s New Orleans Saints Jimmy Graham & Actress Nia Vardolas, exclusive stories by Dr. John DeGarmo, Rhonda Sciortino, FCAA CEO Adam Robe and Casey Family Programs CEO William Bell.
New Podcast: Collaborating Between Child Welfare and Mental Health
Children’s Bureau – Listeners will hear about a joint training and collaborative effort that occurred outside Baltimore, MD, designed for child welfare and mental health professionals to better understand each other by sharing target outcomes for children and families, developing a common language to care, understanding each systems’ particular needs, and learning how to recognize and assess signs and symptoms of potential mental health disorders. This joint training, developed from a grant from the Children’s Bureau, addresses both sides of the child welfare/mental health relationship, leading to increased permanency while supporting clinical strategies and behavioral goals.
Extension of Foster Care Beyond Age 18
Child Welfare Information Gateway – This factsheet presents state laws regarding the options available to youth transitioning to independent living, including the ability to voluntarily extend their placement in out-of-home care. The requirements for remaining in placement and the programs and services available to support the transition to independence also are discussed. Summaries of laws related to these issues for all states and U.S. territories are included.
Self-Compassion as an Antidote to Empathy Fatigue
Psych Central – Are you a mental health professional or caregiver? Would you like to know how to avoid burnout or compassion fatigue? Many of us know that we need to watch out for compassion fatigue (Figley, 1995) but are at a loss on how to do this. Compassion fatigue is “a state experienced by those helping people or animals in distress; it is an extreme state of tension and preoccupation with the suffering of those being helped to the degree that it can create a secondary traumatic stress for the helper.”
Contrary to Figley, Kristin Neff, Ph.D. argues in her “Art of Self-Compassion: Accepting your Imperfections,” workshop that there is no such thing as compassion fatigue. You cannot feel too much compassion for yourself or others. There is only empathy fatigue. This post will provide you with some of Neff’s simple techniques for preventing empathy fatigue as you care for patients, clients or loved ones…
Key Ingredients for Making Trauma-Informed Care a Standard of Care
Center for Health Care Strategies – Health care professionals across the country, like Rahil Briggs and Edward Machtinger, increasingly realize the value of acknowledging trauma to improve care for patients in need. Drs. Briggs and Machtinger are participants in Advancing Trauma-Informed Care, a national initiative led by the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) and made possible through support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Through the collaborative, leading national champions of trauma-informed care are exploring how trauma-informed approaches can be practically implemented across the health care sector…
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Take care and keep up the Permanency work – Our children, youth, young adults, families and communities are depending on it!