Due to the ongoing emergency situation with Covid-19 we have had no alternative, in line with Government directives,than to postpone the International Trauma Conference, due to take place on Monday 15th June 2020. It will now take place on a date as yet to be determined sometime next year. 

NEWFOCAS is a Centre of Excellence for the management and treatment of Childhood Trauma.

CREPT is Chester University’s Social and Political Science department’s Centre for Research and Education in Psychological Trauma.

NEWFOCAS is organising a one day conference, with experts from CREPT, to bring together specialist practitioners and educators in the field of Trauma who will share their collective knowledge and expertise about how the impact of unrecognised or untreated childhood trauma will disadvantage victims.

Through 3 keynote speakers, 4 workshops and a dynamic chair, participants will be assisted to understand and cascade that learning  back into their workplace and organisation.

KEY OUTCOMES

WHAT YOU WILL TAKE FROM THE CONFERENCE ?

Attendees will gain essential academic and practical knowledge about the risks of unrecognised and untreated childhood trauma for current society and those working in caring professions and social justice fields.
Attendees will learn to understand in some detail how a healthy brain develops, how childhood trauma negatively impacts this; how to easily identify trauma in their particular client group, gain practical solutions, and ways of working to ameliorate the damage, empowering the carers.
Attendees will learn to recognise how secondary trauma for the professional working constantly with trauma damaged client groups may be impacting their own and their organisations’ practice  and ways to manage such risk

WHO IS THE CONFERENCE FOR?

We aim to upgrade the knowledge of key professionals working with families in need across the spectrum, to recognise the impact of Trauma Damage and pick up on this with urgency to prevent further negative and often costly impacts from a psychological and societal perspective.

If you are linked to any of the following, you will therefore gain significantly from this conference:

Professional bodies of those working specifically with trauma: -  social workers;  child care, child protection , safeguarding agencies; young person’s services; schools, teaching staff and their managers; family placement teams and their managers; Commissioning managers;  commissioners, staff and managers involved with the protection of vulnerable adults;  youth justice and court reform personnel; Guardian ad litems;  PVPU, police & family protection units; CAMHS and psychological services, senior educational personnel,  teachers; health services, general practitioners, midwives, health visitors mental health nursing staff and those working in trauma crisis teams, psychiatrists, psychologists, academics in the field of trauma.

Delegates who work with children in the social care system and beyond, who have experienced severe childhood trauma, impacting their ability to manage everyday life situations as they grow to adulthood. They may well be seen needing assistance from Health and Social Care settings from a very young age, from youth Justice systems, Psychological Services, including CAMHS. It is beneficial for anyone working with psychological trauma victims in any age range, including law enforcement agencies, vulnerable adults and the prison systems.  It further explores the knock-on effect on professionals and carers who work with and care for such victims, their organisations and the societal implications from a social justice perspective.

Aimed at all those working with psychological trauma victims, concentrating on getting professionals to change their mind-set when working with people who have experienced serious trauma.

The concepts explored within this conference, delivered through highly experienced practitioners and theorists, will offer participants a depth of knowledge about the neurological damage which can be caused by trauma and how best to assist recovery.

How many of us really understand the depth of damage to a small child’s brain and emotional development if they are systematically exposed to negative external influence such a domestic violence or severe neglect?
How often have you heard said, “they are only a baby, they will adjust to their new home without a problem”, for an adoptive or fostered child?
How do you best work with people, of any age, who are suffering the effect of severe psychological  trauma?
How best can you understand and recognise how trauma manifests for those caring for or advising, in a Trauma Informed way?
How does the mismanagement of trauma impact upon society and social justice?
How does an organisation manage the effects of secondary trauma on its professional staff team and the wider organisation?
We will explore one recovery model in some detail, and offer opportunities for participants to explore, in smaller workshops, how they can take new knowledge back to their own professional working environment, be it direct care of a trauma damaged person, working in a managerial or theoretical capacity or planning service delivers for an organisation.
We will look at the impact of secondary/vicarious trauma from an organisational perspective, and one model successfully used to do this.
We will look at the impacts of undiagnosed or untreated trauma form a societal perspective, impacting education, psychological, justice and health systems.
We will look at some of the research around a supportive way to help children to develop and sustain their resilience and look at a range of interventions with children in schools that help to provide calming self -efficacy, connectedness and hope.
We will look at the theoretical overview from an academic perspective and some of the latest research.

AGENDA

8.30-9.30 Registration

9.30-9.45 Introduction from the chair: David Weaver

An overview of the importance of the early recognition of need within families, early identification and ongoing treatment of trauma and not stigmatising people, particularly children, within social systems.

9.45- 10.30 Speaker one: James McAllister - IRCT

Implications for the developing brain of complex trauma and recovery from the effects of developmental trauma

(35 Minutes talk- 10 minutes questions)

10.30-11.00 Break

11.00-11.45 - 4 x Workshops (Choice from the list below the Agenda)

11.45-12.30 Speaker two: NEWFOCAS - Mandy Starkey & Helen Taubman

NEWFOCAS -Trauma Informed Therapeutic Foster Care Agency, a Centre of Excellence for helping children who have suffered severe childhood trauma. NEWFOCAS will share with delegates some of its journey, the development of a working recovery model and offers a tantalising mixture of theory, case study & practice to bring trauma informed understanding to your own understanding and professional development.

The speakers will demonstrate how important it is to have a multi-discipline, cohesive team around each child, working closely and in an informed manner to enable all concerned to move the child forward in a joined up fashion, working to clear plans and reviewing on a very regular basis. It will examine how an organisation can recognise when one or more of those professionals may become enmeshed in secondary (vicarious) trauma and what to do about it.

We will also talk about how to identify skills and aptitudes in applicant carers, how the rigorous assessment process contributes positively to the building up of a robust team  and how we aspire for better futures for our young people, all of whom come to us having experienced significant Trauma Damage and frequently, repeated rejection. We will look at how we stop the merry go round and stabilise such children so that they can then go on to achieve.

(35 Minutes talk- 10 minutes questions)

12.30-1.30 Lunch

1.30-14.15  - 4 x Workshops (Choice from the list below the Agenda)

14.15 – 3.00 Speaker three: Christina Buxton from CREPT (Centre for Research and Education in Psychological Trauma).

CREPT will look at the lifespan of the traumatised brain, offer an understanding of ongoing trauma reactions from a theoretical perspective and reflect for participants the best way to achieve a Trauma Informed Organisation which manages secondary trauma well. This workshop will allow participant an opportunity to understand the most up to date information of trauma, its management, its impact upon professionals working with traumatised individuals, and how brain development is impacted by severe trauma.

 (35 Minutes talk- 10 minutes questions)

3.00 Break

3.15 – 4pm - 4 x Workshops (Choice from the list below the Agenda)

4.00-4.45pm - Chairs plenary David Weaver - bringing it all together by linking the effects of trauma within the wider picture of social Justice.

4.45 Thanks and closing comments

4 x Workshops (Choice 3 from the list below)

Dr Catherine Frogley, Developmental trauma and how this affects a child in utero and post birth.

This workshop will explore how you can develop connections with people from all walks of life; understand their stories from a psychological perspective, how you can best assess and identify their strengths and work on the parts of their life they want to improve. It will explore ways in which all professionals, whatever their role can more easily identify trauma damage and then work more productively with someone with complex needs, frequently provoked by a background of trauma damage.

Helen Kerslake & Jane Roller Supporting school communities following the Grenfell fire tragedy.

Stories of courage, kindness and hope. This workshop will look at some of the research around supportive ways to help children to develop and sustain their resilience. They will examine a range of interventions with children in schools that help to provide calming self -efficacy, connectedness and hope. During this workshop the presenters will talk about how BiBorough Educational Psychologists worked with school communities in the immediate days and weeks following the Grenfell Fire tragedy, and over the one-year anniversary period. They will share ideas and interventions from their workshops; “Supporting children following frightening events’, and ‘Supporting children to stay strong’ which were underpinned by psychosocial and appreciative inquiry frameworks. Their approach was to try to promote resilience by respecting the independence, dignity and coping mechanisms of communities and to work to elicit the stories of courage, kindness and hope to counteract the stories of distress and trauma.

NEWFOCAS - Helen Taubman & Mandy Starkey.  Bringing trauma management to life through case studies and other interactive methods.

Learn more about the impact of working with trauma and ways of managing this effectively. A mixture of theory and practice, this workshop will help you to understand just what it means to be a severely traumatised child trying to make their way through their damaged childhood and out into adulthood. NEWFOCAS receives referrals for their specialist foster placements from all over the country for children who have frequently ‘bounced’ around foster care systems, and been subjected to multiple rejection thus exacerbating the psychological damage already present. During this workshop we will explore how we learned through mistakes to avoid pitfalls; how we used trauma research and mentoring positively and how this contributes to the ongoing development of agency practice and our working model, the Neurosequentially Informed Recovery Programme which, in its entirety,  offers a clear tool for measuring and recording progress. It will also look at how a Trauma Informed Organisation manages the secondary trauma suffered by staff and carers as a result of caring for traumatised youngsters. This workshop will, through case studies and discussion, explore with you how you could use a similar model in your own work setting. This knowledge is transferrable to all settings.

CREPT - Christina Buxton & Dave Taylor- Trauma interventions for pre-verbal children, most up to date research and theories explored in an open forum.

This workshop will explore the most up to date and relevant theory and current practice, from both an academic, practical and bearing in mind the social and political science perspective impacted through severe childhood trauma. It will look in detail about the implications from a recent detailed piece of research which opens up exciting possibilities for professionals day to day practice with pre-verbal children.