Using Safety Organized Practice (SOP) for Resiliency Building in CWS Staff

Credits: 6 hours The Academy follows this process to assess for CE’s
Level: All
Modality: Classroom & Virtual Delivery
ICPM Category: Foundational – This is a worker-centered training, not a client-center training

Course Description:

It is well documented that CWS staff are at risk for developing PTSD symptomology due to repeated exposure to primary and secondary trauma (STS) based on their work with traumatized children and families. When not addressed, STS compromises CWS’s goal of providing safety, well-being and permanency to children because it impacts worker’s decision making, problem solving, and risk assessment abilities. Likewise, increased worker turnover/absence disrupts continuity of services, timeliness of investigations, and permanency planning for children. Many counties have implemented and embraced SOP as their practice framework for working with children and families. This training allows staff to deepen their knowledge and use of SOP through interactive activities that demonstrates how these same tools/principals can be applied to themselves in an effort to build their own safety, well-being (resiliency), and permanency (sustainability), thus creating a successful parallel process in which improved outcomes for staff and clients alike can be attained.

Intended Learning Objectives:

Handout on developing behaviorally specific learning objectives

• Understand and identify the benefits that SOP principals/tools have when applied to CWS workforce in building safety, well-being, and permanency
• Review CWS work from a balanced lens, to include benefits (CS, VR) and costs (STS, VR, CF)
• Awareness and identification of the three symptom categories of PTSD and how it can show up in the work
• Conduct a rigorous balanced assessment of their own well-being utilizing SFQ’s and the ‘mapping ‘tool
• Learn to keep a clear focus on enhancing safety/resiliency by creating danger statements and safety/resiliency goal statements and develop behaviorally-specific self-care plans using all domains of health to help mitigate the danger and build protective capacities.
  -*Appreciate the role that support networks play in their resiliency and utilize network tools to identify/increase support

Trainer / Developer Biography

Laurie Fortin, LCSW, has worked in the child abuse field for over 30 years. Specializing in sexual abuse, she has worked with both victims, offenders, and families impacted by sexual abuse and the associated trauma. She began her social work career as a Child Protective Services Worker with San Diego Child Welfare Services, investigating and managing child abuse cases. She then transitioned to more clinical work after securing her license as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in 1993, providing assessment, individual and group treatment, and case management services to juvenile & adult sexual offenders in various settings, including private practice, residential treatment, and military.
 
After nearly 10 years of offender work, Ms. Fortin began working as a forensic interviewer at Chadwick Center, Rady Children’s Hospital as well as Palomar Hospital, San Diego. In addition to conducting over 3,400 forensic interviews, Ms. Fortin served as Clinical Coordinator of the Forensic and Medical Program at Chadwick Center, training and supervising fellow interviewers, as well as coordinated the county’s Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) through the facilitation of Case Review and MDT Management meetings. She has been qualified as an expert witness in the area of child sexual abuse, testifying as such in over 100 court proceedings in military, juvenile, family, and criminal court settings, as well as for the Attorney General’s Office and civil court proceedings.
 
Ms. Fortin has developed and/or delivered over 300 trainings in the area of child sexual abuse dynamics, forensic interviewing, trauma-informed care, and secondary traumatic stress at the local, state, and national levels for an array of multi-disciplinary professionals. Likewise, she worked as a Practice Coach for San Diego Child Welfare Services for 5- years, supporting implementation and sustainability of Safety Organized Practice (SOP) with children and families. She has been a past member of various professional organizations, to include California Coalition of Sexual Offending (CCOSO), American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC), National Association of Social Work (NASW), and California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT). She has also served as an Advisory Board Member for various organizations.