THE FITT TEAM HOPES THIS FINDS YOU, YOUR LOVED ONES AND YOUR COMMUNITIES STAYING WELL AND FINDING WAYS TO REMAIN POSITIVE IN THE FACE OF LIFE-CHANGING EVENTS.
IN OUR VARIOUS ROLES, WE HAVE BEEN RESPONDING TO FAMILIES AND STAFF WITH AN EYE ON THE STRUCTURAL INEQUITIES THAT UNDERGIRD THE LARGER SYSTEMS IN WHICH WE LIVE AND WORK. THERE ARE STORIES OF CREATIVITY, SHARING RESOURCES, SMALL WINS AND BIG LOSSES.
THERE IS A LOT OF HELPFUL ADVICE OUT THERE BUT WE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE ESPECIALLY USEFUL TO COLLECT AND SHARE INSIGHTS FROM INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY STORIES ABOUT ADAPTING TO EXTREME STRESS OVER THE LONG HAUL.
The FITT Team is pleased to share a new resource called “Family Members/Caregivers: Things to Consider Before Serving on Advisory Boards.” It is based on contributions of family members and caregivers to help others make well-informed decisions about serving on Advisory Boards.
In this episode, listeners hear from Sarah Gardner, Director of Clinical Services at the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kennedy Krieger Institute and a member of the Family-Informed Trauma Treatment (FITT) Center at the University of Maryland.
The FITT Center is a unique collaboration among the University of Maryland’s Schools of Medicine and Social Work and the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kennedy Krieger Institute. The FITT Center combines the institutional expertise and resources of these separate entities in efforts to advance the child trauma field by increasing delivery of trauma-informed services to families who have suffered chronic trauma and to expand knowledge and skills to promote family resiliency and positive outcomes, including behavioral health equity.
National and local efforts to understand the impact of trauma, especially complex trauma, on families; to recognize that families are the foundation through which children comprehend and cope with their traumatic experiences; and to understand that family trauma interventions optimize healing.
The FITT Center will enhance system capacity to address the needs of children and their families using a three-pronged approach:
1: Increase availability of training and tools for child service systems’ workforces to work with family exposed to chronic trauma by widely disseminating the FITT Toolkit and developing innovative training curricula focusing on family informed, evidence-based trauma interventions for mental health professionals and master and doctoral student.
2: Improve access to three effective family trauma treatments, Strengthening Families Coping Resources (SFCR), Trauma Adapted Family Connections (TA-FC), and a family based assessment and treatment planning tool, Family Assessment of Needs and Strengths-Trauma (FANS-Trauma).
3: Develop messages and tools designed to help families experiencing stress and trauma be heard as they advocate in the public arena and within child service systems.
"When a family or any member of a family experiences trauma, family trauma interventions support healing.”
