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This year’s 27th Rosalynn Carter Symposium will focus trauma and its long-term effect on children. It will be webcast live. The National Association of Children's Behavioral Health (NACBH) will be ably represented by Beth Chadwick, President and Pat Wilcox, Klingberg Family Centers Traumatic Stress Institute who will be joining an illustrious gathering of national leaders, advocates, policy makers, practitioners and researchers as they meet to bring this most pressing issue into greater focus and resolution. 27TH ANNUAL ROSALYNN CARTER SYMPOSIUM ON MENTAL HEALTH POLICY TO COVER TRAUMA’S LONG-TERM IMPACT ON CHILDREN EXPOSED TO JUVENILE JUSTICE, WELFARE, AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Estimates suggest that millions of American children and adolescents experience trauma each year, through exposure to physical or sexual abuse, a life-threatening illness, natural disaster, or the loss of a loved one. Although effective treatments are available to prevent the long-term impacts of trauma on a chi...

Carlos storms into the nurse’s office. “Are my glasses here yet?” He demands in a loud voice. “No” Amy, the nurse, says. “I haven’t heard from them. I’ll call you when I get them.” “Well did you call them?” Carlos asks. “No, they will call us when they come in, Carlos.” Amy replies. “You should call them! I’ll bet they have them already!” Carlos is becoming more agitated. “Carlos I’ll let you know if I hear from them.” “No! Call them now! Give me the number! I’ll call them! Why can’t I call them? Give me the number!” Carlos was becoming angrier. His staff starts to move in. As the staff starts to encourage his return to the unit Carlos yells “I’ll bet they are already made! Give me the number! No one understands that I need those glasses! I can’t see! Doesn’t anyone care?” After Carlos leaves, Amy can be heard saying “that child is so demanding! He thinks the world revolves around him and no one has anything else to do besides call about his glasses. He has to learn to be more patient ...

I have had the privilege of hearing Dr. Laurie Pearlman speak twice in the last month. The first time was at the ATTACh conference, where she was a keynote speaker. The second was in a distance learning training that the Traumatic Stress Institute did for its trainers. This was an interview with Dr. Pearlman by Dr. Steve Brown of TSI. Laurie is developing the concept of “vicarious transformation”. We always discuss vicarious traumatization (a term she also invented) which refers to the negative effects on helpers of working with trauma survivors. Vicarious transformation refers to the positive changes in the helper which come about through empathetic engagement with traumatized people and active engagement with the changes in ourselves. In Risking Connection© training we do an exercise which draws from participants both the negative and the positive ways that their work has affected them. In the positive section, people often say that they have grown as a person, become more patient, m...

As part of the same ATTACh Conference workshop with Michael Trout, Karen Buckwalter, LCSW from Chaddock presented the Adult Attachment Scale. The Adult Attachment Interviewis a twenty question guided clinical interview with a specific scoring protocol. It was developed by Mary Main and her colleagues, and has extensive research validation to support it. A parent’s score on the Adult Attachment Interview is highly correlated with the attachmenmt reaction of their child in the strange person test. The questions themselves can be the beginning of thoughtful discussions. They include questions such as: • Choose five adjectives or words that reflect your relationship with your mother starting from as far back as you can remember in early childhood. • To which parent did you feel the closest, and why? • When you were upset as a child, what would you do? • Did you ever feel rejected as a young child? • What is your relationship with your parents (or remaining parent) like for you now as an ad...