JULY 13, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A9
FOSTER,
continued from Page A1
Only 57 percent of kids
move placements one or two
times over the course of their
time in care. At the other end
of the spectrum, 22 percent
move more than fi ve times,
according to Marion County
foster care data aggregated by
the University of Kansas.
Brundidge spoke about
the seven levels of safety—
one feeling safe in public and
seven feeling completely at
ease all the time. The fourth
level of safety is “Am I safe
even if I provoke?” This is
often a diffi cult question
for foster parents to address,
because provocation as a
gauge of safety is one of
the negative coping skills
traumatized kids develop to
test their environment.
“And that’s what they get
an answer of no to all the
time,” Brundidge said.
Traditional DHS foster
homes often aren’t equipped
to handle kids with acute
trauma experiences, who
have developed negative
coping skills to handle their
sense of trauma. When
a kid is found to have a
severe enough emotional or
behavioral problem, they’re
often referred to agencies
that contract with DHS to
provide therapeutic homes
for foster kids. Therapeutic
foster care is known as
“treatment level” for kids
who have been designated by
DHS as in need of Behavior
Rehabilitation
Services
(BRS)—essentially,
kids
who need more than just a
stable home environment to
heal from their experiences.
Therapeutic foster homes
receive special training and
accommodation to deal with
the needs of traumatized kids
who haven’t learned to cope
with their trauma.
Trauma is diffi cult to
quantify in a person’s life.
How trauma impacts behavior
Kids are resilient. Kids can heal from a
single traumatic event—depending on its
nature and impact—sometimes without
long-term side effects.
But chronic trauma is something
else. Traumas like persistent abuse and
neglect that occur throughout a person’s
childhood can have long-term health and
neurological effects.
“Trauma lives with us throughout our
lifetime,” said Brandi Ware, supervisor
of therapeutic foster care at Maple Star
Oregon.
Negative behaviors in youth who
experience trauma are discounted by
some as merely acting out, but a trauma-
informed approach to care acknowledges
that reversing the neurological damage of
a traumatic childhood takes time.
“When our kids aren’t doing well,
it’s not because they don’t want to, it’s
because something is in their way,” said
Ware.
In addition to inhibited self-control
and diffi culty with emotion regulation,
the specifi c nature of a child’s trauma
can impact their experience, especially if
they have an ingrained “trauma trigger.”
However,
the
Adverse
Childhood
Experiences
Study (ACES) aims to
measure the level of trauma
a person endured before
their eighteenth birthday
in a series of 10 yes-or-no
questions: whether they
were physically, emotionally,
or sexually abused, whether
they were neglected, whether
their parents used drugs,
suffered from a mental illness
or were generally absent.
Every “yes” answer adds a
point to the ACES score.
According to an ACES
survey of youth in children’s
programs in Oregon, over 90
percent of the youth served
in therapeutic foster care
have an ACES score of 4 or
higher.
When children endure
trauma without respite—
which is what the average
To explain trauma triggers, Ware uses
the example of a kid who was neglected
because of their parent’s drug abuse. If the
kid’s father smoked marijuana and used
other drugs, and the kid’s needs weren’t
met as a result over an extended period of
time, the smell of marijuana can become
ingrained as a trauma trigger for the
child. So, fi ve years after being removed
from the home, the smell of marijuana
can trigger a stress response in the child,
and the kid might act out as a result.
A trauma trigger “kicks them right
back to the trauma they experienced,”
Ware said. Trauma triggers don’t just
have to be smells—they can be facial
expressions, individuals who hurt them or
resemble people who hurt them, or even
a particular month in the year. In the case
of a calendar trauma trigger, that can be
the date a child was removed from their
home or when a particularly traumatic
event occurred. Sometimes the child may
not even be aware of what’s triggering
their stress response, they just begin to
feel more stress and anxiety because “it’s
infused into their bodies that this is a hard
time,” Ware said.
ACES score suggests happens
for many kids who end up
in treatment care—their
brains develop in a way
that inhibits self-control.
These neurological problems
result in severe behavioral
problems. (See sidebar for
more information about how
trauma impacts behavior.)
“These kids are in
treatment really because of
the signifi cant issues they’re
having. Our job is to stabilize
them, get them evaluated, and
see if we can get them settled
down to be able to go down
to a lower level of care, or go
home if they have a home,”
said Debby Lute, executive
director of Connections365,
a therapeutic foster care
agency based in Salem.
Connections365
typically
works with kids ages 12
to 18, and currently works
with eight certifi ed families
fostering 12 kids in the Salem
area.
Therapeutic Foster Care
(TFC) agencies use the
guidelines of the DHS foster
parent training, but include
additional
elements
on
caring for traumatized kids,
how trauma impacts brain
development, and how kids
use negative behaviors to
communicate when trauma
has impacted the way they
think and see the world. Aside
from special training for foster
parents, TFC agencies employ
mental health counselors and
mentors on staff to provide
the most support for kids, as
well as around-the-clock on-
call support for foster parents.
“If you think about
treatment foster care, [the
foster kids] are part of a
wraparound team,” said Lute.
This team includes the foster
youth, the foster parents, the
caseworker—also
typically
an employee of the TFC
agency and not DHS, so they
have a smaller caseload—
the mental health counselor,
and any other individuals
party to the child’s case,
including biological relatives,
or necessary for the youth’s
recovery, including outside
drug or alcohol counselors.
Due to an increased
number
of
youth
in
foster care who need this
specialized treatment, and
the intensifi cation of youth
behaviors in recent years,
the need for therapeutic
foster homes has expanded.
However, in terms of homes,
“the system is compressing
right now,” Lute said.
This is particularly tough
on
childcare
agencies,
considering TFC homes
can’t take as many children fi cation requirements, pass
per home as general foster background checks, and have
care—in TFC, single parents the time to devote one-on-
can have up to four kids in one attention to a high-needs
the home, including their foster youth—ideal thera-
biological children, and peutic foster homes include
couples can have up to fi ve a stay-at-home or work-
kids total in the home, a from-home parent or retired
reduction from the norms for parents. But the system also
needs “foster parents that are
traditional foster families.
Brandi Ware is the curious and willing to learn.
therapeutic
foster
care Willing to try things that are
supervisor at Maple Star unconventional in parent-
Oregon. Maple Star is a ing,” said Ware, because trau-
childcare agency based in matized kids don’t respond
Portland, which serves youth to traditional parenting tech-
ages 6 through 21 living on niques. (For one example of
the I-5 corridor between unconventional, trauma-in-
Portland
and
Eugene, formed parenting, see Where
including Marion County. is the strength?)
Most importantly, they
Ware said that they serve
about twenty youth in their need parents who can
TFC service range, and they give kids a better outlook
are currently at capacity— on life and open up the
but she still receives 50 new opportunities that have been
referrals for BRS youth every closed off to them by their
circumstances.
month.
“[Youth] have to have
“A lot of them I have to
say no to because we don’t hope. And hope is not built
on their failures and their
have the beds,” said Ware.
A lack of treatment care mistakes and their behaviors,
opportunities for struggling it’s built on their capacity and
foster youth can have their resilience,” said Lute.
Connections365
hosts
consequences down the road.
informational
The importance of treatment open-house
intervention,
Jessica sessions for parents interested
Carpenter, Connections365’s in either long-term fostering
Community Outreach and or providing short-term
Development Director, said, respite care.
Upcoming informational
is that TFC agencies are
“the last chance for these sessions:
Tuesday, July 24, 4:30-6
kids before they are adults
and everything they do is a p.m., 4890 32nd Ave S.E. in
permanent criminal behavior Salem.
Tuesday, August 28,
and effects their ability to get
a job, have a place, get a car, 4:30-6 p.m. 4890 32nd Ave
become a parent.” Providing S.E. in Salem.
To fi nd out more about
these services to all the youth
who need them is essential, getting involved with Con-
but there aren’t enough nections365 and other thera-
therapeutic foster homes peutic foster care agencies,
to serve every youth who visit FosterPlus.org
could benefi t from
treatment care.
The cyclical nature
of dysfunctional par-
enting techniques, in-
carceration and sub-
stance abuse concern
those who work in
One
goal
of
trauma-
this fi eld—disrupting
informed parenting is to fi nd
this cycle is the goal
the positive, even in problematic
of treatment care, so
behaviors, so youth can see
as this generation of
potential in themselves. Debby
foster youth age out,
Lute, executive director of
they can become bet-
Connections365, a therapeutic
ter parents, healthier
foster agency based in Salem,
individuals, and more
provided an example of what
productive members
fi nding the positive in a
of society. Unfortu-
behavioral situation looks like:
nately, when there’s
“Let’s say a kid kicks the wall
not enough resourc-
and makes a big hole. What do
es to provide treat-
you mean where’s the strength?
ment for every youth,
There’s something going on
they’re likely to fall
here. So you say things like, and
back into the nega-
this is truly trauma-informed,
tive cycle from which
‘Wow, you have a lot of guts.
they came.
I mean to do something like
That’s why thera-
that, you have a lot of guts. So,
peutic foster homes
Johnny, I would think based on
need more parents
the strength of who you are, that
who are willing to
you might have enough guts to
take on the respon-
apologize for your piece of this.’
sibility. Therapeutic
… ‘I know you’re upset and all
foster agencies like
that.’ I said, ‘Do you think you
Maple Star and Con-
could do that?’ And he smiles
nections365
need
and said, ‘Yeah,’” said Lute.
parents who can
complete the certi-
Where is
the strength?
WorshipDirectory
These Salem-Keizer houses of
worship invite you to visit.
Call to list your church
in our Worship Directory:
(503) 390-1051
PEOPLESCHURCH
4500 LANCASTER DR NE | SALEM
503.304.4000 • www.peopleschurch.com
Father Gary L. Zerr, Pastor
Saturday Vigil Liturgy: 5:30 p.m.
Sundays: 8:15 a.m. & 10:30 a.m.
La Misa en Español: 12:30 p.m.
SUNDAY
SERVICES
4505 River Road N, Keizer • 503-393-4507
www.FLCkeizer.org
Sunday School - 9:00 am
Worship Service -10:00 am
452 Cummings Lane North • 393-0404
8:30 am • 10 am • 11:30 am • 6 pm
Faith Lutheran Church , ELCA
Pastor Linda Matz Easterling
John Knox Presbyterian Church
JOIN US FOR
SUNDAY WORSHIP
9:00 am
Children’s Programs, Student and Adult Ministries
1755 Lockhaven Dr. NE Keizer
503-390-3900
www.dayspringfellowship.com
and
10:45 am
www.KeizerChristian.org
Rev. Dr. John Neal, Pastor
Worship - 10:30 a.m.
Education Hour - 9:15 a.m.
Nursery Care Available
www.keizerjkpres.org