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TRANSCRIPT
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Welcome to the Webinar
Presenters:
•Marilyn J. Bruguier Zimmerman, MSW, PhD, Tribal Senior Policy Advisor, Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention
•Terri Yellowhammer, Attorney Indian Child Welfare Law Center and ICWA Consultant, MN Board on
Guardians Ad Litem
•Gaynell RealBird, MSW, Rocky Mountain Regional Meth Initiative Coordinator/Child and Family Specialist,
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Rocky Mountain Regional Office
Facilitator:
Jennifer Rose, Consultant, Futures Without Violence
Building Trauma-Informed Tribal Child Welfare Systems: New
Shifts in Policy and Practice
August 9th, 2016
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Federal Coordination
• US Department of Justice– Office of the Attorney
General
– Office of Justice Programs
• Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
• Office for Victims of Crime
• National Institute of Justice
– Office on Violence Against Women
– Office of Community Oriented Policing
– Executive Office of US Attorneys
• US Department of Health and Human Services
• US Department of Education
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Goals of the Defending Childhood Initiative
• Prevent children’s exposure to violence.
• Mitigate the negative effects experienced by
children exposed to violence.
• Develop knowledge about and spread
awareness of this issue.
Overview of Strategy
• Research and Evaluation
• Direct Action in Communities– Comprehensive Demonstration Project
– Safe Start Program (www.safestartcenter.org)
– OVW Children Exposed to Violence grants
• Training and Technical Assistance
• Attorney General’s Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence (www.justice.gov/defendingchildhood/cev-rpt-full.pdf)
• Action Partnerships with Professional Organizations
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BUILDING TRAUMA INFORMED
TRIBAL CHILD WELFARE
SYSTEMS:
NEW SHIFTS IN POLICY AND
PRACTICE
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Marilyn J. Bruguier Zimmerman
Tribal Senior Policy Advisor
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Understanding Trauma and
Children’s Exposure to
Violence in Indian Country
10What is trauma?
Trauma is Not an event, but a
response to a stressful experience, where one’s ability to cope is overwhelmed
Trauma overwhelms the ability to adapt and generates feelings of helplessness and terror
11Conduit to Trauma Exposure
• Child maltreatment and neglect
• Substance abuse in caregivers
• Depression and other mental health disorders in caregivers
• Domestic violence exposure in the family, in particular witnessing the mother treated violently
• Intergenerational trauma
• Historical Trauma
• Community violence
• Proximity to suicide
• Experiencing a traumatic accident
• Death of primary caregiver
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National Crisis
Exposure to violence is a national crisis
that affects approximately two out of every
three of our children. Of the 76 million
children currently residing in the United
States, an estimated 46 million can expect
to have their lives touched by violence, crime,
abuse, and psychological trauma this year.
Report of the Attorney General’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence Defending Childhood Initiative, 2012
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Families living in under-resourced and dangerous communities are exposed
to multiple traumas, including current dangers and trauma reminders. . .
www.nctsn.org
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Physical Abuse
Puts children at high risk for lifelong problems with medical illness, PTSD, suicidality, eating disorders, substance abuse, and deviant sexual behavior. Physically abused children are at heightened risk for cognitive and developmental impairments, which can lead to violent behavior as a form of self-protection and control.
Report of the Attorney General’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence
Defending Childhood Initiative, 2012
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Sexual Abuse
Places children at high risk for serious and chronic
health problems, including post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), depression, suicidality, eating
disorders, sleep disorders, substance abuse, and
deviant sexual behavior.
Report of the Attorney General’s
National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence
Defending Childhood Initiative, 2012
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Intimate Partner Violence
Within families puts children at high risk for severe and potentially lifelong problems with physical health, mental health, and school and peer relationships as well as for disruptive behavior. Witnessing or living with domestic or intimate partner violence often burdens children with a sense of loss or profound guilt and shame because of their mistaken assumption that they should have intervened or prevented the violence or, tragically, that they caused the violence.
Report of the Attorney General’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence
Defending Childhood Initiative, 2012
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Community Violence
Violence and ensuing psychological trauma can lead children to adopt an attitude of hyper-vigilance, to become experts at detecting threat or perceived threat — never able to let down their guard in order to be ready for the next outbreak of violence. They may come to believe that violence is “normal,” that violence is “here to stay,” and that relationships are too fragile to trust because one never knows when violence will take the life of a friend or loved one.
Report of the Attorney General’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence
Defending Childhood Initiative, 2012
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Complex Trauma
When the individual experiences multiple or
chronic and long-term, adverse traumatic
events; most often adolescents will have
experienced abuse from caregivers.
www.nctsn.org
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“For us in Rosebud, our reservation, the question is not who has been exposed to violence, it’s who hasn’t been exposed to violence?”
Mato Standing High, Attorney General,
Rosebud Sioux Tribe
20Historical Trauma
• Loss of Sovereign Powers
• Loss of Homeland
• Loss of Language
• Criminalizing of Spirituality
• Reservations
• Boarding Schools
• Child Welfare
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“A collective complex trauma inflicted on a group of people who share a specific group identity or
affiliation. . .It is the legacy of numerous traumatic events a community experiences over
generations and encompasses the psychological and social responses to such events”
(Evans-Campbell, T., 2008)
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The Indian Child Welfare Act
of 1978: Recent Changes
Terri Yellowhammer, Attorney
Indian Child Welfare Law Center
Minneapolis, MN
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Purpose of ICWA
• Address high rate of removal of American
Indian children from their homes and
placement into foster care
• Prevent the breakup of the Indian family
• Provide a way for tribes to intervene in state
court child protection proceedings where Indian
children are involved
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Problems in Implementation
• County by county, state by state, people do
things differently
• Very little guidance given to states on how to
implement the law
• BIA Guidelines of 1979 attempted to provide
clarity, but not binding authority
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Guidelines vs. Regulations
• Guidelines or agency guidance is considered
secondary authority, though can be
persuasive in providing intent of the law
• Black letter law or primary authority is found
in statutes, case law (court decisions,
published and unpublished), at the state and
federal level
• One is optional, the other is not
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Updated BIA guidelines issued
In March 2015
• During this time, listening sessions conducted
for the Department of the Interior to gather
feedback
• Great improvement over the guidelines issued
36 years prior
• Set the stage for proposed regulations,
though there are differences
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ICWA Regulations
• Proposed black letter law goes further in implementing
ICWA nation wide by providing consistency and binding
authority
• Because it was rulemaking, under the Code of Federal
Regulations, public listening sessions held, with the first
at the NICWA conference in April 2015
• Tribal Consultations held in conjunction with public
sessions
• Public comment period followed. Much opposition to
the regulations ensued, including lawsuits brought
against the federal government
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Regulations finalized
• Issued on June 8, 2016
• Go into effect 180 days from release date to
give state systems time to prepare to
implement
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What is different?
• Active Efforts, defined
• 11 different examples given
• Important because states hadn’t been given
clear guidance on what AE means
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Tribal Involvement
• Crucial in ICWA cases to address trauma of
foster care
• Encourages culturally appropriate service
provision
• Best interests standard different for Indian
children
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Defines
• Child Custody and continued custody – a
response to Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl
(AKA Baby Veronica case)
• Indian Foster Home
• Domicile
• Involuntary proceeding
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Excludes
• Consideration of factors that give rise to
Existing Indian Family Exception
• Voluntary placements
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Provides
• Extending application of ICWA to cases
involving youth over the age of 18, where
youth turns 18 during case
• Request of information to establish tribal
affiliation for adult adoptees
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Implementing Trauma Informed
Child Welfare Programs and
Practices
Gaynell Real Bird, Bureau of Indian Affiars
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Our Goals Today
• Provide information about concepts associated
with trauma informed response for child welfare
workers on the Crow Reservation in Montana.
• Gain increased understanding of the implications
of trauma screening tools and response for child
protection workers.
• Identifying and understand the complex issue
surrounding “child removal” policy, and how to
change and shift practice to keeping the family
safe and together.
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Child Welfare Staff Response before
“Trauma Informed” lens change
• Referral-Centralized Intake-Law Enforcement-Community members-Schools-Hospitals
• Intake-Review of Case information, including history
• Removal-foster care placement action removing an Indian Child from his or her parent for temporary placement in a foster home, guardian or conservator (i.e. relative placement)
• Placement-Extended Family member-Grandparents, etc.
• 25 CFR Part 23.2 Definitions
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Child Welfare Staff Response after
“Trauma Informed” lens change
• Referral-Intake-Staffing
• Trauma Screening Tool
• Interview with family & children if possible
• Solution-Differential Response
• Monitoring
• Support with service providers
• Support for the family
• Keeping families together
• Acknowledging family strength & weakness-acceptance
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Child Welfare Worker Perceptions
Before• Refusal to change or improve
existing perception
• My way or no way
• Children in the system longer
• Children not provided with adequate service
• View that family was unwilling to help themselves
• Community Service Agencies were too busy to help
• Lack of empathy-(i.e. IEP)
After• Acceptance of the importance
of being “trauma informed”
• Self care-environment care
• Open lines of communication
• Children provided with wrap around services-met the need
• View that families had strength and needed support
• Community Agencies were “Trauma Informed” educated
• Sharing of cases-including the tribal agencies
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Questions?
Please take a moment to take a short survey regarding today’s webinar and future webinars.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8BD3BXD
August 9th, 2016
This project was supported by Grant No. 2011-MU-MU-K011 awarded by the
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice
Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view in this document are
those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official positions or
policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Building Trauma-Informed Tribal Child Welfare Systems: New
Shifts in Policy and Practice