Healing Relationships: Preventing the Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma

Sunday April 26 & Monday April 27, 2009, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Institute on Trauma and Adjudicated Infants and Toddlers

Tuesday April 28, 2009 Ann Arbor, Michigan

in collaboration with the Michigan State Court Administrative Office — Child Welfare Services Division

 

Speakers

Bruce Perry, MD, PhD
The ChildTrauma Academy Houston, TX
Brenda Jones Harden, MSW, PhD
University of Maryland College Park, MD
Maria Muzik, MD
University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI
Patricia Van Horn, JD, PhD
San Francisco General Hospital San Francisco, CA

 

Welcome!

Dear Friends,

As the current President of the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health, I am especially pleased to be able to invite you to our thirty-first conference, focused on the timely and serious topic of trauma as it reverberates in the lives of babies, young children and within their relationships. We would all wish that this world were better able to protect our infants and children from experiencing trauma and the consequences of trauma upon those around them. But whether engaged in clinical work, research, policy and systems creation, direct service, management, or prevention efforts, each of us knows that such a world is far from a reality, yet nonetheless is a crucial goal.

The outstanding plenary speakers and workshop presentations chosen for this MI-AIMH conference, as well as the policy luncheon and other special activities that have become trademarks of our conference, are the splendid results of the thoughtful planning and hard work of a passionate group of MI-AIMH members who compose this Conference Committee, under the wonderful guidance of co-chairs Nichole Paradis and Carol Oleksiak. As you look through this brochure, I think you will agree that this is a remarkable assembly of offerings with nationally renowned leaders. They represent broad and deep expertise gathered to help us ponder not only how trauma impacts our infants and their families, but also how to use our specialized infant mental health knowledge to assist them clinically and systemically to recover from the effects of traumatic experiences. We must especially learn to help prevent parental trauma from being re-experienced by children.

Of special note this year is MI-AIMH’s collaboration with the Michigan State Court Administrative Office — Child Welfare Services. We welcome the opportunity to share information and to learn from court officials, attorneys, and social workers who work with infants and families. The special one-day Institute on Trauma and Adjudicated Infants and Toddlers features topics of special interest to those who labor where our disciplines meet. This gathering can also offer collective support and collegial relationships to participants as we wrestle with how we continue to do the work we do without succumbing to the effects of vicarious trauma. My experience of years of attendance of the MI-AIMH conference has always reinforced the enormous value of coming together, to think and listen and learn in this wonderful setting with a group of individuals who are exceptionally warm and passionately committed to bettering the lives of infants and toddlers and their families. If you are new to our conferences, know that you will be welcomed and encouraged to actively participate and share your perspectives and ideas. Don’t miss this opportunity for learning and renewal.

I look forward to seeing you at our exceptional conference!

Warm regards,

Bonnie Daligga MI-AIMH President

Dear Friends,

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this exciting Post Institute program on Trauma and Adjudicated Infants and Toddlers.

This child welfare training event is being cosponsored by the State Court Administrative Office, Child Welfare Services Division, and the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health, and is being held in conjunction with the 31st Annual Conference of the MI-AIMH.

Today’s program was planned by the Post Institute Conference Committee, which included members of the MI-AIMH and SCAO staff. We hope you will be pleased with the plenary speakers and the workshop presentations and will benefit from their insights on how family trauma can affect young children. We also hope that your experiences here will lead to greater collaboration in providing services to children and families who have experienced trauma.

It has been a privilege for SCAO to work with the MI-AIMH in the planning of this event. We think you will find new opportunities and an abundance of information during the three days of the MIAIMH conference.

Thank you for attending.

Sincerely,

Daniel J. Wright Director for Child Welfare Services

“For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is... a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.”

–President Barack Obama, from his inaugural address on January 20, 2009

Welcome to the Institute on Trauma and Adjudicated Infants and Toddlers

Welcome to the 31st MI-AIMH Conference!

I join MI-AIMH President, Bonnie Daligga, and Conference Co-Chairs, Nichole Paradis and Carol Oleksiak, in welcoming you to this year’s extraordinary conference. There is enthusiasm in the air as we gather together to think about policies and approaches that help to hold and heal very young children and families in face of tremendous risk. I am thankful for the generous support of individuals and of organizations that allows us to bring speakers of national and international regard to our conference. I am also thankful for each of you who have made commitments to the promotion of social and emotional well-being in infancy, early childhood and early parenthood. I hope that you leave refreshed, energized and newly challenged to nurture better beginnings for all babies, young children and their caregiving families.

With warm regards,

Deborah Weatherston, Executive Director, MI-AIMH

Thank You

With support from and in collaboration with the Michigan State Court Administrative Office - Child Welfare Services, Michigan Department of Education — Office of Early Childhood Education & Family Services, MI-AIMH Metro Detroit Chapter, the Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Agency, and the University of Michigan School of Social Work.

The Michigan Association is an Affiliate of the World Association for Infant Mental Health.

MI-AIMH Conference Planning Committee

MI-AIMH offers special thanks to Carol A. Siemon, J.D., Director, Child Welfare Training Institute, Department of Human Services for her vision and support.

2009 Awards

Selma Fraiberg Award

This award honors the legacy of Selma Fraiberg who pioneered relationship-based services for infants and their families. In 2009, the MI-AIMH Selma Fraiberg award will be presented to Erin Werth to recognize her outstanding contributions in support of services for infants, toddlers and families. Ms. Werth has been working with infants and toddlers in multiple capacities for over a decade. She spent many years doing direct work with infants, toddlers and their families as an infant mental health specialist. Recently, Ms. Werth began with a collaborative group of community members exploring the needs of infants, toddlers and their families who are involved in the court system. Through this process the Maltreated Infants and Toddlers Treatment Center (MITC) was developed and Ms. Werth became the coordinator. In this position she trains and nurtures new infant mental health interventionists, educates the court on needs of the infants and toddlers, and collaborates with the Department of Human Services and court representatives regarding cases taken into MITC.

Betty Tableman Award

The MI-AIMH Betty Tableman award recognizes those who provide exemplary service in the development or sustenance of systems of care for infants, toddlers, and their families. The 2009 Tableman award is being presented to Veda Sharp, Acting Director of the Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Agency, who exemplifies leadership and commitment to the children and families of Detroit-Wayne County. Ms. Sharp is one of those gifted administrators who has never forgotten the importance of providing effective clinical and administrative work, always encouraging collaboration and never losing sight of striving for the best quality of life for all persons and their families. Ms. Sharp has listened when system barriers needed to be removed and she has provided support when others in the county would not. Her ability to assist with developing partnerships and collaborations among the service provider system and the other county systems has been remarkable and her work shows her diplomacy and professionalism and her drive to expand the knowledge and expertise of the public system.

Hiram E. Fitzgerald Emerging Scholar/Researcher Award

This year MI-AIMH is announcing a new award to honor an emerging scholar/ researcher who is committed to strengthening relationships between infants/young children and their families. This award is named in honor of Hiram E. Fitzgerald’s unwavering dedication to research in the field of infant mental health. In 2009, the first Hiram E. Fitzgerald award will be given to Erika London Bocknek, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Family and Child Ecology and the interdisciplinary Graduate Specialization in Infancy and Early Childhood program at Michigan State University. Ms. Bocknek’s hands-on research training has been intense. Her growth as a researcher reflects both her effort and her deep commitment to using strong evidence-based models to assure significant quality improvements in early child learning environments, quality parenting and parent-child relationships, and positive community commitment — the core elements for successful transformations in skill acquisition during infancy and early childhood.