Trauma Training Home Visitors 2018

BRIDGE TO SUCCESS
100 N. ELM ST.
2ND FLOOR

WATERBURY, CT 06702

(203) 754 0040

Trauma-Informed Care Workshops for Home Visitors

In the winter of 2018, BTS collaborated with Wellmore Behavioral Health Role (n=16) 14%
to organize a series of three workshops over the course of three months. Home visitor 29%
The workshops focused on trauma-informed care. 101 focused on the Family support provider 14%
background and relevance, trauma 102 addressed self-care and support, Engagement/FRC
and trauma 103 addressed resources in the communities for families.

Twenty-four (24) participants attended one or more of the sessions Parent educator 14%

(trauma 101: 16; trauma 102: 22; trauma 103: 17). During the first Clergy 14%

session, demographic information was collected showing that of the first Supervisor 14%

16 participants, 88% was female and 12% male. Slightly over half (56%)

identified as Hispanic, one person (6%) identified as Black/African American, and 38% identified as White.

Participants were asked several factual questions at the beginning of the first workshop and at the end of the last
workshop. There were 13 people who completed both a pre- and a post- survey. The number of people who knew
what the letters A.C. E. stands for (Adverse Childhood Experiences) increased by 22%. The number of participants
providing DCF as a resource for families with trauma reduced with 25%.

Additional data on knowledge was collected by Wellmore; these data were not paired.1 They did seem to indicate
that participants increased their familiarity with protective factors and secondary trauma.

Increase in factual trauma knowledge

Identifies three protective factors for families with trauma 31% 59%
Estimates number of kids with trauma (10,000,000) right 33% 59%
Somewhat familiar with secondary trauma
Very familiar with secondary trauma 0% 13%

25%
35%

After workshop (n=17) Before workshop (n=15)

Before the start of the workshops, participants were asked what they hoped to learn. After the workshop series the
same participants were asked what they learned over the last three months. Overall, participants learned more
than they had hoped for. The exception being resources; the percentage of participants who had hoped to obtain
resources to refer families was larger than the percentage of participants who indicate that they learned new
resources for the families they serve.

1 Paired data implies that the same individual completed a pre and a posttest. When pre-and posttests can not be linked we
cannot say with 100% certainty that changes over time can be attributed to the intervention (here the trauma workshops).

At the end of the three-month Expectations (n=13) Hope to learn Learned
workshop series, all participants were Understand own trauma history better 38% 62%
asked about the impact of the newly Understand my reactions in context 46% 77%
obtained knowledge and skills. Most of Learn to talk to clients with trauma 69% 85%
the participants (strongly) agreed with Able to recognize trauma 92% 92%
85%
the statements. Participants were least Resources to refer families with trauma 92%

likely to have increased the number of

self-care activities, even though they received a hand out with over 50 ideas for self-care.

Impact of the workshops (n=17)

Workshops helped me increased my self-care activities 6% 6% 41% 41%
29% 82%
Workshops helped me understand the impact of my work 12%
on my wellbeing 59%

Workshops helped me deal with my own trauma better 12%

I plan to use the information learned in my work 12% 88%

This workshop series was helpful in my work 18% 82%

Gained new knowledge on trauma 24% 76%

This workshop met my expectations 12% neutral 88% strongly agree
(strongly) disagree agree

Participants did not only provide quantitative data on their learnings. They also answered also the open-ended
question: “Did you learn what you hoped for”:

• “Yes. I learned that my own reaction is also very important during the visit”
• “Yes! And more. The important thing I learned was how to become more comfortable discussing

trauma with families”
• “Yes. I had somewhat of a trauma-informed care background but gained more knowledge in

particular to how it affects young children”
• “yes, I learned how to recognize trauma and be more

aware of why families may react to certain
situations/triggers and how to de-
escalate situations.”

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