Trauma-Informed Care for Fathers and Families [Training + Free Resource]

Working with fathers and families often requires a multi-faceted approach. Diverse backgrounds, cultures, and experiences demand it. But has your organization considered a “trauma-informed” approach to care?

According to the Trauma-Informed Care Implementation Resource Center, “Trauma-informed care shifts the focus from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” 

A trauma-informed approach to care acknowledges that healthcare organizations and care teams need to have a complete picture of a patient’s life situation — past and present — in order to provide effective healthcare services with a healing orientation. Adopting trauma-informed practices can potentially improve patient engagement, treatment adherence, and health outcomes, as well as provider and staff wellness. It can also help reduce avoidable care and excess costs for both the healthcare and social service sectors.

Trauma-informed care seeks to:

• Realize the widespread impact of trauma and understand paths for recovery;
• Recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma in patients, families, and staff;
• Integrate knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and
• Actively avoid re-traumatization.”

Fortunately, SAMHSA offers an excellent, free manual that introduces the concept of trauma and offers a framework for becoming a trauma-informed organization, system, or service sector. The manual provides a definition of trauma and a trauma-informed approach, and offers six key principles and ten implementation domains.

➡️ Download SAMHSA's Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach to go deeper.

Ready to use a Trauma-Informed approach with the dads you serve?

** Note: the training featured below has concluded. Stay tuned, as we may offer this training again in 2023!**

We have just nine seats remaining for our upcoming webinar, Trauma-Informed Care for Fathers, on Thursday, November 17, 2022, from 1 pm EST – 5 pm EST.

Presented by National Fatherhood Initiative® and delivered by Good+Foundation Trainers, participants learn how to apply a trauma-informed lens to their work with fathers.

Training Description
Acknowledging that there are some fantastic fatherhood programs across the country, it has been communicated by both program staff and program participants that a component that could be strengthened is a trauma-informed lens in father engagement. In this course, participants will learn how to identify various responses to stress; recognize reactions to trauma triggers; understand how to develop and support resilience, and identify ways of interacting with and helping trauma survivors.

Trainer Bios:

Sandra Chase has over forty years of experience in child welfare, mental health, clinical supervision, training, and cultural responsiveness. She currently serves as the co-chair for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network’s (NCTSN) Culture Consortium, which explores cultural responsiveness related to trauma-informed care. She has extensive experience in integrating cultural humility into projects and service delivery, addressing systemic inequities, racial disparities, and implicit bias in the mental health, educational systems, and child welfare. She is an advanced trainer in NCTSN’s Core Curriculum on Childhood Trauma. Ms. Chase is an adjunct professor at Columbia University School of Social Work in New York and an adjunct professor at Antioch University in Los Angeles.

Dr. Alan-Michael S. Graves serves as the Senior Director of Teaching and Capacity Building with the Good+Foundation. He focuses on a broad range of multidisciplinary activities, from research and program development to training and advocacy for policy change. Having worked in the human services field for the past 20 years and currently leading a national initiative on policy change through training social workers on race, bias, and father engagement, Dr. Graves utilizes his knowledge and expertise to strategically and positively impact the lives of children through his work with parents.