Hello.
I'm Joe Roberts, director for the Clark County School District Crisis Response Team.
Thank you for joining us for Building Trauma-Informed Schools to Support Student Mental Health and Learning, a partnership between the University of Nevada Las Vegas and the Clark County School District.
Joining me are Anne Marie Abruscato, a visiting lecturer with the UNLV School of Social Work.
As a licensed clinical social worker, she has provided trauma-based therapy for children and adults in the Las Vegas Valley for over 21 years.
Dr. Dambo is the founder of Genuine Intelligent Respectful Ladies Soaring, a 503(c) holistic organization that advocates for 6th to 12th grade youth.
She is a licensed school counselor, principal and teacher.
She has served as an assistant professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
Dr. Dambo has five years in higher education as a counselor-educator, six years as a high school counselor, and 18 years experience with organizations that serve youth from underrepresentative groups.
Niki Maloff, a licensed masters school social worker with 15 years of experience in the Clark County School District.
She's a school social work liaison who helps and supports our school social workers and safe schools professionals.
Kristin Barnson has 25 years of experience in school counseling within the Clark County School District.
Kristin is currently in her ninth year as a counselor specialist in the Clark County School District School Counseling Department where she provides professional learning support and resources to site-based school counselors.
And Joe Roberts, with over 20-plus years of experience in public education, having served as a teacher, school administrator, school psychologist and the director of the Crisis Response Team.
I'm looking forward to a thoughtful discussion on trauma-informed instruction, especially in these difficult times where a variety of traumas have become apparent.
Today we will review tier 3 interventions.
We will then discuss the very important topic of educator wellness.
Dr. Dambo, what comes to mind when people hear the word "trauma"?
(Dr. Neffisatu Dambo) The word "trauma" has elicited several responses from diverse populations and groups.
This slide displays responses from individuals from diverse backgrounds, ranging from Helen Keller to Oprah Winfrey.
Trauma has crossed all races, ages, socioeconomic groups, genders, nationalities, exceptionalities and time periods.
While the existence of trauma has been prominent throughout history and our present time, most individuals who have experienced traumatic experiences have become successful adults, individuals who have shown great resilience in the face of adversity, while many are overcomers who contribute to society as leaders, philanthropists, counselors, researchers, educators, politicians and more.
-Dr. Dambo, what is "trauma"?
-Trauma is an undesired situation or circumstance experienced by an individual that has the potential to negatively affect a person's socioemotional health, well-being, development and life progression.
-What types of trauma may students experience?
-Some students have experienced racial trauma, abuse, neglect, medical trauma, bullying, natural disaster, grief and loss.
We have also have students who have been exposed to school violence, community violence and intimate partner violence.
When students experience trauma, it can influence their behavior, academics, socioemotional health and careers.
Therefore, it is imperative that trauma-informed schools are proactive and assuring quality supports and interventions are in place.
-Thank you, Dr. Dambo.
Anne Marie, when should a child be referred for individualized support?
(Anne Marie Abruscato) They should be referred for extra support when their traumatic stress reactions are interfering with their academic performance.
This might be that their behavior is getting in the way of their learning, or maybe even other students' learning.
If they're engaging in self-harming behavior, if they're having frequent complaints of physical problems, if they repetitively express traumatic information either through what they say or what they're writing or what they're drawing or maybe they're reenacting traumatic scenes in their play, if they display excessive guilt or self-blame or hopelessness, and lastly, if they talk about death or suicide, they should be referred.
-Those are good points, thank you.
Kristin, does misbehavior always equate to the need for tier 3 intervention?
(Kristin Barnson) Joe, great question.
Misbehavior does not always equate to tier 3 interventions.
Tier 3 interventions could focus on academics, social-emotional as well as behavior.
So a school counselor could be working with a student on misbehavior, and in that conversation the misbehavior actually stemmed from academic struggles or social interactions with their friends or family situations.
So it's critical to talk with the student and really listen to what the needs the student has to best support them.
-And are these long-term interventions?
-They don't have to be long-term interventions, not necessarily, because our goal is to work with the student to build and strengthen those skills in themselves so they can be successful on their own.
-Niki, can you talk about tier 3 supports?
(Niki Maloff) I can.
Tier 3 support is provided to students who need that additional targeted, individualized support that they did not receive in tier 1 and tier 2.
Tier 3 supports trauma-related concerns but in the School District, it also supports academic and social-emotional readiness needs as well.
Some examples of tier 3 would be your one-to-one student meeting, a one-to-one parent conference or guardian conference, offering families some community resources or even your individualized student tutoring.
-Can you give me an example of when a student may need a tier 3 support?
-Sure.
Deciding when a tier 3 intervention is needed for a student, it's important to understand why tier 1 and tier 2 was not enough to meet that need of that specific student.
The school-based intervention team would need to explore the reasons why they didn't fully address the need of that student and why further targeted, individualized support is needed.
Tier 3 interventions will be the direct individualized support as opposed to tier 1 and tier 2 where the interventions were provided to the entire school and a small group of people.
So this will allow for that one-to-one interaction with the student geared towards addressing that specific student's deficit, and many times when students are identified for tier 3 services, they have shown concern through their behavior, their academic performance and sometimes their own admission of their faulty thinking patterns.
And a lot of times our students just need a little more extra support navigating through their friendships, overcoming hardships or even guidance on their academic goal-setting.
-Thank you.
Kristin, can you talk about trauma-informed and culturally responsive approach with respect to tier 3 practices?
-Joe, thanks for asking that question.
At any level, multicultural competence begins with self-awareness.
We need to be aware of our own biases and our assumptions as it relates to mental health and the communities that we work in.
So a way to address cultural responsiveness and trauma-informed care is to talk about mental health and to decrease the stigma that's around it in understanding working with our families, how they view mental health, so that we come at it as a conversation, as a place of understanding and not of judgment.
-Very good.
Dr. Dambo, how can teachers best support students?
-Teachers can support students by being culturally responsive, listening, establishing relationships, providing unconditional positive regard, maintaining a student-centered approach and creating a safe environment.
Applying a strength-based approach is also valuable.
Educators can cultivate students' gifts and talents by encouraging students, acknowledging their successes, maintaining high expectations and providing support.
Educators can help support students by engaging in self-care activities that promote their personal wellness.
It is important for educators to be healthy.
When educators are healthy, they are prone to be more patient, creative, engaging and model expected behaviors.
This can promote learning, positive school climate, as well as positive interpersonal interactions with students and families.
Healthy educators are more likely to model deescalation skills.
They refrain from unhealthy behaviors that may retraumatize students, unnecessarily evoke triggers and intentionally provoke negative responses.
-Kristin, what are some challenges that teachers might face with regard to traumatized students?
-Joe, as you know our teachers make a huge difference in the lives of our students' learning and their resilience, but you're right.
They may face challenges when working with traumatized students.
They may not feel confident in what to say or what not to say or afraid to say the wrong thing, especially because they're also working with many students in the classroom, teaching the curriculum successfully, dealing with other things that are happening within the classroom.
So it's important that our teachers reach out to their school counselor or social worker or psychologist for further help.
They're the mental health professionals that can help them working with those students.
-Thank you.
Anne Marie, can you talk about how educators might be affected when working with traumatized students.
-So in this video series, we've talked so much about how trauma can impact children and how educators and staff can help these students, but now we want to focus on the educators and staff themselves, as they can be profoundly impacted by working with traumatized students even to the point that their personal and professional lives are affected.
This is called "secondary traumatic stress" when the trauma didn't happen to you directly but it still affects you.
And we should also keep in mind that 50% to 60% of adults have experienced at least one trauma.
So in addition to a secondary trauma, some school staff may be struggling with primary traumatic stress at the same time from what happened to them.
And then on top of all this, teachers and staff experience the same life stressors that happen to all of us from time to time, family issues, health challenges, financial concerns, and stress can impact professional effectiveness, being good at what you do, by influencing interaction with students, and it can also affect career satisfaction, being happy with what you do.
And then on a larger scale, if a significant amount of school staff are struggling with their emotional well being, organizational culture can be affected as well.
-Can you say more about secondary traumatic stress.
-Sure.
Again, primary traumatic stress involves reactions from your own exposure to trauma, and as a reminder, PTSD can include symptoms of intrusions, so repetitive thoughts or nightmares; avoidance of people, places or situations or thoughts; changes in thinking like self-blame or guilt; changes in mood, having more anger, sadness, and hyperarousal, like being on the lookout for danger.
While secondary traumatic stress, also known as "compassion fatigue," can result from exposure to details of a child's trauma through what they say verbally or in their writing, drawing or play, and what this can look like is actually having similar symptoms to primary traumatic stress so cognitively having concentration or memory problems or being preoccupied with the student's trauma; having changes in worldview, like being more cynical or pessimistic; emotionally, feeling irritable, nervous, hopeless, helpless; or checking out from feelings altogether and being numb; physically, being exhausted, muscle aches and pains and behaviorally, being impatient with students, colleagues or even loved ones; having sleep problems; or reexperiencing a student's trauma by having repetitive thoughts or even dreams about what happened to the student.
Lastly, feeling detached from others so even your own loved ones, perhaps even withdrawing from professional or social connections.
All of these symptoms are going to have an impact on someone's personal life and relationships.
Finally, we should note that educators and staff with a personal history of trauma are more vulnerable to the effects of secondary traumatic stress.
-So knowing all this, what can educators and staff do when they realize they are affected by secondary traumatic stress?
-So first, remember that they are not alone and having some of these struggles does not mean that somebody is weak or ineffective.
Even the most experienced educators and staff can be affected by secondary traumatic stress.
It's also important to know that taking steps to address secondary trauma can improve not just emotional well being but also how someone is feeling physically.
Overall, enhancing wellness not only improves current symptoms, it can also help strengthen one's resilience for future work-related stressors.
-Educators and school staff already have so much to do, so many things on their plate so to speak, by talking about wellness activities and self-care, aren't we just adding more to their plates?
-That's a really good question but actually, prioritizing wellness might not mean adding anything to your to-do list.
It might even be saying no to the next social invitation, actually giving yourself more time.
It's understandable that there might be a concern about time.
Those that work in schools are already giving so much of their knowledge and their care and their attention and their time, so their personal time is precious.
And we all consume a certain amount of news, social media, television.
We decide who or what gets our attention and time, and we tend to fall into these patterns of behavior.
But just because something is a habit does not mean that it's helpful.
So someone who wants to enhance their wellness can consider what in my personal life is bringing me joy, fulfillment or relaxation, and what does not?
Is there something I should do more of or less of?
Also in terms of wellness, every single person is unique and what works for one person may not work for another person, and even just identifying one new idea to implement can make a big difference.
Also, a wellness activity could just take one minute.
For example, when someone is feeling anxious or fearful, they can do a one-minute reset.
Taking a few long, slow breaths will send a message to the brain that you are safe, and that will calm your stress response.
If someone is feeling overwhelmed or scattered, taking a mindful pause, just closing your eyes, focusing on breathing, letting thoughts come and go without judgment can help someone refocus and be able to return to what they were doing with a better sense of control and effectiveness.
Lastly, some may think that all this talk about focusing on ourselves sounds a bit selfish, but it's actually the opposite.
Attending to our wellness helps other people.
We can't regulate a traumatized child if we aren't regulated.
We can't support a colleague who's overwhelmed if we are upset.
Most people already have strategies to calm themselves when stressed.
Sometimes though, just working with numerous traumatized students can be so overwhelming that those reliable go-tos just aren't as effective as they once were.
By trying some new, even very brief techniques, we can expand our toolkit.
There's always the opportunity to enhance our skillfulness and emotional regulation, and the more we practice calming strategies, the better they're going to work when we really need them.
-Thank you.
Dr. Dambo, what are some tips for teachers?
-Educators can promote their wellness by maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
It is beneficial for educators to establish self check-ins, utilize emotional gauging and identify signs of compassion fatigue.
Self-care and healthy coping practices are also beneficial.
Educators can utilize consultation and collaborative teams when supporting students.
It can be extremely valuable for educators to share responsibilities among interdisciplinary teams and to have a positive support team.
-What are some strategies, Dr. Dambo, for maintaining wellness?
-The six primary areas of wellness we would like to address are physical, intellectual, spiritual, financial, social and environmental.
Coping strategies that can be used to maintain wellness in these areas include exercise, sleeping, healthy eating, reading, professional development, monitoring financial budgets, prayer, church, social activities and nature activities.
Educators may benefit from having a self-care accountability partner and participating in work place self-care groups.
It can also be beneficial to practice organizational skills, time management, assertive communication, boundary setting and a healthy work-life balance.
Monitoring one's social media intake can also be helpful.
Please feel free to view the bingo slide to reflect on activities that you may have participated in this month to enhance your wellness.
Activities may have included journaling, gratitude practices, self-compassion, listening to music, dancing, gardening, scrapbooking, spa activities or even trying a new recipe.
-Anne Marie, what is something that educators and staff can do right now to assess their wellness?
-So just tuning in is first step to wellness.
So right now, consider taking a moment to just check in with yourself.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how are you feeling physically?
If you're feeling good, no body aches and pains, that's a 10.
Using the same scale of 1 to 10, how are you feeling emotionally, right?
If you're relaxed and content, maybe you're a 9 or a 10.
Each day try and get a sense of how you're feeling and then label it.
Strive to be specific with your labeling instead of that catch-all term, "stressed."
Are you depleted or overwhelmed, sad or disappointed?
Tell yourself what is happening physically and emotionally.
For example, my shoulders feel tight.
I'm anxious about how much there is to do today.
I'm really worried about this one certain student.
This kind of specificity will not only be more cathartic, it can also help direct us to what we need in order to feel better.
Think of unpleasant body sensations and difficult emotions as signals.
Another benefit of monitoring and labeling emotions is that this helps us stay out of numbing, which can have a really detrimental impact on personal well-being and professional effectiveness, and remember we don't have to wait until the stresses go away in order to have healing.
Simply monitoring and then acknowledging our current physical and emotional state can provide some relief.
Try and verbalize it to a colleague or loved one.
Connection with others is not only a wellness activity, it's also a predictor of well-being and happiness.
So overall we want to regularly assess how we're doing so we can adjust our activities as needed.
Try and give yourself permission to rest and restore energy in whatever way you need at that time.
The good news is once someone realizes they're out of balance, there are always steps that can be taken to improve well-being.
And ultimately when educators and staff take care of themselves, they're going to be even better equipped to provide a trauma-informed educational environment for their students.
-Thank you for that, and there's always steps to take when you know you're out of balance.
Love that.
For staff support when you're feeling overwhelmed by trauma or life stressors in general, please utilize the following confidential resources.
As we have done in the past sessions, we would like to now cover some frequently asked questions that will be helpful for you as our staff.
Niki, what should a teacher do when they experience a student who is in crisis?
-When a student is experiencing a crisis, the first thing is you want to make sure that the student is safe and let them know that you are there to get them the help they need.
You want to contact your school counselor or school social worker for immediate assistance.
You never want to leave the student alone or unattended, and of course if it's a medical emergency to notify 911, but also let your school administrator and school nurse know as soon as you can.
-Kristin, what about suicidal ideation?
-Joe, Clark County School District has set procedures in place to address suicidal ideation.
If a student reveals that they're struggling with suicidal thoughts, first and foremost you want to make sure that the student is safe, and then you want to contact a member of your site-based intervention team.
Your school counselor, your social worker, your school nurse and your psychologist are all trained in the suicide procedures at the school site, and those are the people that you'd want to go to for assistance to help those students.
-Niki, can you remind us who our SBIT members are?
-Sure.
The school-based intervention teams, also known as the SBIT members, are composed of your licensed counselors, your school psychologists, your school nurses, school social workers and safe school professionals.
Each school may differ a little bit depending on what professionals they have on-site.
-For all CCSD employees, there are additional resources or professional learning courses that can be accessed through the Enterprise Learning Management System, ELMS, by searching the keyword "trauma."
Your school counselor and/or school social worker at your school site will also have additional resources and information.
On the screen now, you will see additional resources available to you.
So in conclusion thank you, panelists, for your insightful points and strategies to help us as educators assist our students living with trauma, as we discussed today tier 3 interventions and educator wellness.
On behalf of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Clark County School District and Vegas PBS, we'd like to thank our panelists for joining us today.
Anne Marie Arbruscato, Dr. Dambo, Niki Maloff and Kristin Barnson.
We appreciate your insight into this extremely critical issue.
I hope we were able to provide you with information about tier 3 interventions as well as ideas regarding teacher wellness.
And thank you to the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act for funding this project, exemplifying their commitment to the welfare of Nevada's children.
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