Written by Administrator

C-01 - Emotional Injury and Recovery in Children Exposed to Domestic Violence (Part 2 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.

C-02 - Everything Victim Advocates and Clinicians Who Work with Victims Need to Know About Sexual Offenders

David Prescott

The myths regarding sexual assault and sexual offenders are rampant. For example, treatment for sexual offenders is more effective than aspirin for heart attacks. Sexual offenses are not a life long disease and sexual offenses are not addictive. In this talk we will questions you may have and also present a list of myths and realities that may be helpful in these roles. It is critical to understand the facts in working with sexual abuse survivors.

C-03 - Performance Based Contracts (Panel)

Dan Ashby/Tammy Cordova/Connie Lambert-Eckel

This session will present an overview of Performance Based Contracting for Services required by 2SHB 2106, and the procurement for these services currently being administered by the DSHS Children’s Administration.  The presentation will include:

• A review of material previously presented at Bidder’s conferences, regional meetings, legislative events
• A broad overview of the Request for Proposal process
• Values and Guiding Principles
• Service Array
• Roles & Responsibilities
• Overview of Monthly Regional Case Rate
• Anticipated time lines and next steps
• Work currently underway

It is important to understand that May 9, 2011, is the deadline for the submission of proposals in response to the Request for Proposal for Performance Based Contracting for Services for the Children’s Administration that is currently underway.  As a result, there will be little or no new information available to share at the time of the Children’s Justice Conference.

C-04 - Can You Do Best Practice on a Shoestring Budget? An Agency’s Guide to Implementing Evidence Supported Treatments (ESTS) for Abused Children

Monica Fitzgerald, PhD

This workshop offers approaches and tools that mental health practitioners and agencies with limited resources can use to implement evidence-supported treatments (ESTs) with abused children. We will discuss the challenges and successes that mental health professionals and agencies often experience when learning, implementing, and sustaining the use of ESTs. Creative solutions to overcoming common barriers (e.g., limited funds, time, and resources for training, consultation, and materials) to EST implementation will be discussed. This workshop will describe several individual, organizational and community approaches that practitioners and agencies surviving on a shoestring budget can use to learn and implement ESTs in their work

C-05 - Self-Assessment and Verbal De-escalation (Part 2 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.

C-06 - Evidence-Based Treatments for Ethnic Minority Youth (Part 2 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.  

C-07 - Interviewing Techniques for Asset Forfeiture in Child Abuse Cases

Julie Kenniston MSW, LSW/Christopher Kolcharno, BS

Forensic interviewers have an opportunity to ask questions that assist law enforcement officers with not only corroboration, but also asset forfeiture.  By understanding child molester behavior and formulating good questions, consequent search warrants can result in forfeiture used to further fund investigation and prosecution of child abuse.

C-08 - Establishing and Maintaining a Juvenile Mental Health Court for Offenders

Judge Anna Laurie, BS, JD

In early 2005 Kitsap County Superior Court, through its Juvenile Services Department, surveyed the youth offenders residing in detention.  The survey covered a six month period and reviewed over 100 youth.   The results were staggering: over 40% of those offenders had a mental health referral.  Thus was the need identified for the Individualized Treatment Court.  Children with mental health disorders or co-occurring disorders involving drug or alcohol abuse that result in criminal behavior are voluntarily admitted to a “mental health court” and monitored on a drug court model therapy court.  After six years of operation and facing challenges such as lack of funding, stigmatizing from the community, and some prosecutorial resistance, the ITC is now a flourishing and much sought after alternative to traditional probation.
This presentation will identify the history of the ITC, the challenges faced and surmounted, and lessons learned.  We will also provide our forms developed over the years, including the contract, the releases used, and the treatment program outline.  

C-09 - Forensic Evaluations of Children: When Sexual Assault Allegations are Unclear and Reunification is Likely (Part 2 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.

C-10 -How Fostering Connections and Capta Should Impact Your Work: Federal Laws That Affect Our Cases

Howard Davidson, JD

The 2008 federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, and the 2010 reauthorization of the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, should have a major impact on how child protection and foster care agencies deal with children and families.  This session will describe important federal law provisions that those who are involved in child protective services interventions, and child welfare court proceedings, should know about,  Examples of issues addressed in these federal laws are: requirements for notifying family members when children enter foster care; hosptial referrals of children born with signs of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, health care standards for all foster children, requirements for lawyers to be trained in child development, greater youth participation in the transition out of care process, etc.

C-11 - Making Conditions Count

Gerry Hover, PhD/Detective Michael Luchau/Lindsay Palmer

The transition of sex offenders from incarceration to community raises concerns for most citizens.  Learn from a panel of experts from the Sex Offender Management Team in King County how disciplines within the sex offender management system are working together to educate and promote prevention strategies and conditions which reduce the reoffense rates of sex offenders.   Participants will gain an understanding of the role each discipline plays in managing sex offenders how they can assist community in the prevention of sexual violence.  Disciplines represented include:  Victim Advocacy, Law Enforcement, Sex Offender Treatment Providers, Prison and Community Corrections Officers from Department of Corrections, and Juvenile Sex Offender Treatment, Probation and Parole.

C-12 - The Foster Care Experience: A Youth’s Perspective!

Passion to Action  

Children’s Administration recognizes the need for current and former foster youth to have a voice in its policies and practices. In this session participants will learn about our State’s innovative approach to include the foster youth voice in the decision making process as they make changes in the foster care system.

This workshop will enable participants to hear from the statewide Youth Advisory Board (Passion to Action) about their experiences in foster care; ways to assist foster youth in their transition into adulthood; the necessity of a foster youth’s voice in making policies and practices in the child welfare system; and ways the Youth Advisory Board can be utilized.

C-13 - Native Youth Gangs - A Direct Threat to Tribal Sovereignty (Part 2 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.

C-14 - The Indian Child Welfare Act

Michelle Demmert/Steven Hassett/Commisioner Michelle Ressa

Presentation will address legal and cultural issues related to enactment of new statute creating a state ICWA and will consider practice implications as well as distinction between legal status of Indian children based on relationship to a sovereign political entity and overlapping issues of race and ethnicity.

C-15 - Alienation: Effective & Ineffective Legal and Clinical Interventions (Part 2 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.

C-16 - Best Practice for Use of Psychotropic Medications in Children and Adolescents

Christopher K. Varley, MD

This workshop will provide an overview of the psychiatric conditions in children and adolescents for which there is an established evidence base for use of psychotropic medications. Guidelines for appropriate use of psychotropic medications will be discussed, with particular attention to significant side effect issues, such as increased appetite with atypical antipsychotic medications, and mood-related side effects with antidepressants. There will also be a discussion of the use of alternative approaches, including the use of herbal preparations to treat mental health issues. Finally, there will be a review of the practice of prescription to children and adolescents based upon studies that have been done for psychiatric disorders in adults.