Written by Administrator

B-01 - Emotional Injury and Recovery in Children Exposed to Domestic Violence (Part 1 of 2)

Lundy Bancroft

This workshop examines the emotional, behavioral, educational, and value-system effects on children of exposure to a man who abuses their mother, with a particular eye to research findings. Typical unhealthy family dynamics that result are also reviewed. The discussion then moves to the recovery and resilience process for children. Mr. Bancroft explains why the most commonly-accepted approaches to intervention can sometimes make conditions worse rather than better for the children, and provides a road map to professionals for holding abusers accountable, empowering versus blaming the mother, and best-practice interventions for facilitating children’s safety, recovery, and healthy future.

B-02 - Pornography and Male Adolescent Sex Offenders; A Lack of Relationships?!

Paul Ban PhD/Andrew Dennis

Pornography has oft been assumed as an etiological factor for sexual aggression by adolescent males. Very little research has been conducted that actually assesses the relationship between viewing pornography and sexual aggressive behaviors. In this research with a rather large sample we examined these relationships and found very few significant relationships. Treatment and research implications will be discussed.

B-03 - Impact on Children Whose Parents Suffer from Combat Related Traumatic Brain Injury

Paul Ban, PhD/Mona Johnson, MA, CPP, CPD/Armando Mejia, MS

The Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Office (CAF-BHO) is helping to organize a major and emerging agenda for the United States (U.S.) Army involving the development of School Behavioral Health (SBH) and Child and Family Assistance Center (CAFAC) services for military students and families on several Army Installations with high levels of deployment of soldiers.  High levels of PTSD, depression, TBI and other behavioral health conditions are prevalent among returning veterans. This presentation will focus on the adverse impacts of TBI and PTSD on the soldiers and their families, other stresses being experienced, and how innovative SBH and CAFAC services are being developed and implemented to assist children, youth and families in contending with deployment and other related traumatic events.

B-04 - Talking About the Tough Stuff: Specific Emotion-Focused Communication Strategies for Professionals Working with Maltreated Children

Monica Fitzgerald, PhD/Kimberly Shipman, PhD

This workshop will provide professionals with specific strategies for talking with children and their caregivers about emotionally-arousing events (e.g., child maltreatment, traumatic events, home transitions, adoption, supervised visitation, and grief/loss). Professionals will gain an overview of AFFECT, a Family Focused Emotion Communication Training Program (AFFECT; Shipman & Fitzgerald, 2005), an evidence-informed program that provides concrete, behavioral strategies for promoting communication and building emotion regulation skills in children and families. AFFECT skills include Active Listening, Emotion Coaching, and Emotion Support Skills. Professionals will learn how AFFECT is integrated into existing ESTs. Learning activities will include didactic presentation, observation of video, role-plays and discussion.

B-05 - Emotional Survival

Kevin M. Gilmartin, PhD

This presentation is designed to assist law enforcement professionals by the development of behavioral strategies to inoculate against loss of idealism and inappropriate behavior patterns. It will review the short and long-term effects on law enforcement officers on both the personal and professional aspects of their lives.  The course will discuss how the initial enthusiasm and desire to professionally contribute can be transformed into negative cynicism, social distrust and hostility to the world at large that significantly impacts the professionals work performance, decision-making and ultimately over-all quality of life. The course will also review the impact on the children of law enforcement families in terms of school functioning and health.  The goal of the course is to have the law enforcement professional review the potential impact the career causes in the personal life and to develop strategies for overall emotional survival.  The strategies are designed to permit the professional to continue functioning effectively and ethically without “burning-out” and without resorting to emotional isolation from friends and colleagues.

B-06 - Self-Assessment and Verbal De-escalation (Part 1 of 2)

Robert Graham, BS

This workshop will give staff a framework when dealing with individuals who are escalating their behavior and working toward a “fight or flight” response. The first topic is Self Assessment and recognizing what our “hot buttons” and reactions are when that occurs. We will then cover the common behavioral cues and the typical escalation cycle. Attendees will learn to assess the level of escalation and to implement tested intervention techniques to de-escalate and calm those individuals. Finally, participants will discuss several pre-attack indicators and when to remove themselves from a difficult situation.

B-07 - Evidence-Based Treatments for Ethnic Minority Youth (Part 1 of 2)

Stanley Huey, PhD

This workshop provides a synthesis of the literature on psychotherapy effects with ethnic minority youth, with a particularly focus on evidence-based treatments (EBTs). The workshop also summarizes different perspectives on cultural-responsiveness and whether adapting treatments for minority youth is effective.

B-08 - Minimizing Miscommunication in Child Forensic Interviews

Julie Kenniston, MSW, LSW

Children acquire language in a cultural context.  The meaning of words does not come as quickly as the use of those words when communicating. Some words are less reliable, such as pronouns and prepositions.  Other words are not reliable because the cognitive processes needed to understand the use of these words have not been mastered by the child. This presentation will provide information on children's use of language as preschoolers and as school-aged children.  These concepts will be applied to the process of gathering information from children in forensic interviews.  By understanding children's abilities to communicate, a forensic interview can be linguistically sensitive to the child's needs and be conducted in a legally sound manner.

B-09 - OFCO in Action 2011: Select Child Welfare Issues: Psychotropic Medications and Children in Foster Care: Implementation of HB2106

Patrick Dowd, JD/Mary Meinig, MSW

The Office of the Family and Children's Ombudsman was created to ensure that social service agencies respond reasonably and appropriately to families and their children who may require state protection due to child abuse, neglect or abandonment.  OFCO fulfills its mission by investigating and intervening in individual cases, and by identifying systemic concerns and making recommendations to the legislature and the Governor.  This workshop, which is relevant to a broad cross section of professionals, will highlight recurrent child safety concerns and social work practice that trigger complaints, and provide examples of OFCO interventions. Presenters will highlight issues and collaborative efforts to improve the child welfare system, such as “Safe Sleep” and “The Period of Purple Crying” discussed in OFCO’s 2010 Annual Report.  This workshop will also address challenges and solutions related to two current systemic issues: psychotropic medications and children in foster care; and the implementation of HB 2106.  

B-10 - Forensic Evaluations of Children: When Sexual Assault Allegations are Unclear and Reunification is Likely (Part 1 of 2)

Laura Merchant, MSW, LICSW

This 3-hour workshop is geared towards mental health professionals who provide or are interested in providing forensic evaluations of suspected sexual abuse. Components of a forensic evaluation will be addressed, to include use of standardized measures, interviewing the alleged perpetrator, interviewing the non-offending caregiver, interviewing the child, what collateral information is important to review and include, clinical impressions and relevant recommendations. The second half of the presentation will be spent on how to determine if and when reunification is appropriate, and if so, how it should be structured.

B-11 - Improving Child Welfare Services:  Plans for the Future

Marie Jamieson, MSW/Deborah Purce, JD/Lois Ward

In 2010, a federal Child and Family Services Review occurred in Washington State.  This presentation will discuss the results of the State Assessment and On-site Review and the plans to address the areas identified as needing improvement.  The plan will include actions to improve the consistency of services statewide, reduce racial disproportionality, expand family engagement, and improve contracted services in order to:

• Safely keep more children in their homes
• Safely reunify children in out-of-home care
• Safely and more quickly find permanent families for children who cannot go home

Workshop participants will gain an understanding of the child welfare practice changes which will be occurring in the next two years to address the findings of the federal review.  These changes will children and their families, CA staff and managers, courts, service providers and others who work with children and families.

B-12 - Female Adult Sex Offenders: An Overview

Susan Robinson, MSW

Within the area of sex offender treatment, there is a significant body of research and treatment information on males who have committed sexual offenses. Comparatively, the research on females who have committed sexual offenses is small. Although there are many similarities between male and females who have sexually offended, differences are also evident and need to be acknowledged and addressed. The workshop will provide an overview of the research on female adult sexual offending. Typologies, risk factors, treatment needs, and clinical issues will be discussed. Case studies will be included to illustrate the offending dynamics and clinical needs of this population.

B-13 - Engaging Non-custodial Fathers in Child Welfare Cases:  What Advocates Should Know

Howard Davidson, JD

There is evidence, from Washington and elsewhere, that child welfare agencies and courts have not done enough to identify, locate, establish paternity for, and engage non-custodial fathers, after a child enters foster care from home home where the father wasn’t present or involved in the abuse or neglect.  The impact of father absence in the life of a child has significant negative impact, as will be discussed.  Research indicates that father involvement after children enter foster care results in faster family reunifications and overall better outcomes for these children.  This session will describe strategies for lawyers, judges, and other child and parent advocates, learned over the course of a five-year federal project.  Practical steps for engaging dads, and ideas on how to overcome legal barriers to their engagement, will be discussed.

B-14 - Native Youth Gangs - A Direct Threat to Tribal Sovereignty (Part 1 of 2)

David Rogers, BS

The evolution of youth gangs is a relatively new event in Indian Country. Youth gangs have grown and evolved significantly in the last 10 years. One common denominator found with most youth gang members is a lack of connection to their tribal culture, language and family history. One of the unique tools that can be used to work with intervention and prevention of Native gangs is the culture and spirituality assets of the tribe.

B-15 - Alienation: Effective & Ineffective Legal and Clinical Interventions (Part 1 of 2)

Linda Chodos, MSW, RSW/ Justice Clifford S. Nelson/Jacqueline Vanbetlehem, BSW, MA, RSW, Acc. F.M.

This workshop will consider an array of effective and ineffective legal remedies and clinical interventions with alienated children and their families. Relying on the relevant social science literature and our clinical experience, we will compare and contrast  models of intervention and the role of the court in these cases, treatment goals, and specific interventions and strategies, illustrated by case examples. Alienation as a form of emotional abuse will be fully explored.  Perspectives for and against custody reversal will be summarized. We will include consideration of those cases in which the interests of the child may require that the legal system not attempt to compel the child to have a relationship with the alienated parent. A comparison of judicial approaches to enforcement issues in Canada and the United States will be included and illustrated with case law.

B-16 - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A Review of Phenomenology, Diagnosis and Evidenced-Based Treatment

Christopher K. Varley, MD

In this workshop, the signs and symptoms of ADHD will be reviewed. The optimal approach to making this  diagnosis will be discussed, particularly differentiating ADHD from other psychiatric disorders, such as PTSD, and to consider other issues such as stress, and grief and loss issues in the differential diagnosis. Evidence-based treatment for ADHD will be presented, including appropriate guidelines for monitoring of medications and consideration for alternative treatments such as the use of herbal preparations..