May is National Foster Care month, and here at CASA of Tarrant County, we wanted to share with you one of the most helpful tools we have in working with children, families, and service providers in the foster care field: a trauma-informed care approach.
We’ve known for decades that trauma has a toxic impact on a child’s developing brain and body, often called complex developmental trauma. The toxic impact of trauma can ultimately show up in a child’s beliefs about their ability to trust others, their self-esteem, their sense of how effective and powerful their voice is, their neurochemicals, and their behaviors. The initial trauma and the lingering impacts on their brains and bodies can be chronically painful for children and teenagers, and make it difficult for supportive adults to carefully and sustainably meet their needs. Ultimately to recover from trauma, children need to have their needs met warmly and consistently by safe and attuned caregivers.
Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®) is one type of attachment-based, trauma-informed care model designed to help caregivers and other service providers do just that – to meet the complex needs of children in foster care. TBRI® is an evidence-informed intervention that equips caregivers, service providers, and CASA volunteers to help children heal from their developmental traumas[1]. TBRI® is based on years of attachment, sensory processing, and neuroscience research, but the foundation of TBRI® is helping foster children heal through warm and consistent relationships. Through the support of our donors and volunteers, CASA staff and advocates use TBRI® to understand how a child’s mental health or behaviors could stem from their trauma, and they help educate other adults in the child’s life to ensure all adults caring for the child are on the same page and have a research-based understanding of the child’s mental and behavioral health. By using TBRI®, CASA of Tarrant County creates long-term solutions for children in foster care, preventing the harm unresolved trauma inflicts on their mental and behavioral health.
This month, we are grateful for the research and resources available on trauma and trauma-informed care, and we are thankful for the work our volunteers do to help provide the stability, consistency, and warmth children need to thrive!
If you’d like to learn more, here are some great resources on trauma-informed care:
Nadine Burke Harris’s TED Talk: How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime
The Connected Child by Karyn Purvis, David Cross, & Wendy Sunshine
Parenting from the Inside Out by Dan Siegel & Mary Hartzell
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
Director of Grants & Contracts, Catelyn Devlin, was recently featured on the podcast About Mansfield where she talks about the impact of trauma during April’s Child Abuse Prevention Month. The segment on trauma starts at approximately 16:38.
[1]Purvis, K., Cross, D., Dansereau, D., & Parris, S. (2013). Trust-based relational intervention (TBRI): A systemic approach to complex developmental trauma. Child & Youth Services, 34(4), 360-386. DOI: 10.1080/0145935X.2013.859906