Substance Use: Its Impact on Youth and Families – Supporting and Engaging Youth and Families for Professionals

Training Summary: 

This interactive training targeted at caregivers and professionals emphasizes the importance of providing a trauma-informed, harm reduction model when working with birth families and youth. The focus of this training will be understanding trauma-informed care, harm reduction and cultural humility, and how these frameworks are essential in building healthy relationships with birth families and youth. We will discuss setting boundaries, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, building rapport with caregivers, and how to incorporate knowledge and strategies in serving youth impacted by addiction.

Participants in this training will be able to define concepts and understand trauma-informed care and a harm reduction model. This training will utilize strength-based, culturally-humble and trauma-informed philosophy in order to best understand how substance use, dependency and abuse impact birth families and youth, family systems as well as those working with them, caregivers and professionals. Participants in this training will learn to respond to substance use in a way that leverages youth and family strengths, relationships, community resources and support that lead to the best outcomes for young people/ best outcomes for reunification.

Class Objectives: (what knowledge, ideas or skills will participants explore, learn, and practice etc. during the training) 

Participants will:

·       Obtain an overview of harm reduction, trauma informed care, and building rapport with youth and birth families impacted by substance use/ addiction

·       Learn how to develop successful relationships, incorporate training materials in their role as caregivers/ in supporting birth families

Understand why a trauma-informed harm reduction model with boundaries is essential to providing culturally-humble, compassionate relationships with youth and their birth families.

How can participants utilize their new skills and knowledge after the training to reinforce learning?

·       By gaining a better understanding of the needs of youth/ birth families and best ways to address behaviors surrounding substance use, abuse and dependency.

·       Recognizing race, culture, privilege, and bias in working with youth/ birth families in order to reduce victimization and discrimination in supporting reunification

·       Participants will develop strategies to engage in conversations with youth/ birth families in ways that will focus on relational and youth-centered needs.