Promote Healing and Well-being

Once we have shifted the frame and changed the lens we can respond with services that promote healing and well-being. Establishing safety, physical and psychological, for all people is a critical step in providing services that promote healing.

A trauma-informed approach (as defined by SAMHSA) is one that (1):

 
 

Trauma-Informed Practices for Early Childhood Providers Train the Trainer 

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Example: The initiative cultivated a team of trainers to expand awareness, increase knowledge, and develop trauma-informed practices with early childhood providers in Contra Costa County. It emphasizes the importance of caring, invested relationships and providing safety and support. This is achieved through routines, predictability, and self-regulated adults who understand how to reduce triggering and calm young children’s central nervous systems. There is a central focus on building skills and capacities in young children and the adults who care for them.

In addition to providing safety for healing, it is critical to ensure people’s basic needs are being met—such as food and shelter. Having people we can count on for concrete help and feeling socially and emotionally supported are important aspects of meeting our basic needs. The CDC also recommends strengthening economic supports for families.

A quarter (25%) of children in Contra Costa County face 2 or more hardships. A hardship was defined by as: basic needs not met, parental drinking or drug problem, parental legal trouble or incarceration, parental divorce or separation, family hunger, relocation due to problems paying rent or mortgage, foster care placement. 

 
 

Strengthening Families recommend the following protective factors for families in meeting basic needs (3).

  • Access to health care

  • Stable housing

  • Economic stability–ability to earn a livable wage

  • Social support–connections to family and friends

When parents are connected to the resources they need, they are more prepared to be nurturing and facilitate the growth and development of their children. 

  • Supporting a caregiver/parent’s safety, mental health, and well-being is critical to provide an environment of safety and to support a child’s experience of resilience.

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris also prescribes sleep, exercise, nutrition, mindfulness and a nurturing environment to reduce stress hormones and help the brain to recover from stress (2).

For example, the Black Infant Health Program works to improve African-American infant and maternal health and to decrease Black:White health disparities for women and infants, in Contra Costa County. In a group approach, women develop life skills, learn strategies for reducing stress, and build social support in the context of a life-course perspective. Participants access their own strengths and set health-promoting goals for themselves and their babies. Click here to learn more about the Black Infant Health Program. 

 

Sources:

  1. SAMHSA’s Trauma and Justice Strategic Initiative (2014). SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach. https://ncsacw.samhsa.gov/userfiles/files/SAMHSA_Trauma.pdf

  2. Nadine Burke Harris (2018). The Deepest Well. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  3. Center for the Study of Social Policy: Protective Factors: Action Sheets https://cssp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ProtectiveFactorsActionSheets.pdf