Reminder: Homeless Provider Training Series
Homeless provider staff in our CoC who have registered for trainings, please see the following for remaining sessions’ descriptions and locations:
9/5: Introduction to Evidence-Based Practices
9/6: Housing and Case Management
10/3: Motivational Interviewing Part 1, 344 Broadway, 2nd Floor Conference Room
Change is difficult for most persons, yet change is the driving force behind most service planning and goal-setting. Motivational Interviewing (MI), developed by Miller and Rollnick, is an intervention that helps people recognize and address problem behavior (present or potential), and is intended to help resolve ambivalence and to get a person moving along the path to change. MI serves as an important prelude to other treatment and services by creating an “openness” to change, which paves the way for further important therapeutic work. This training provides an introduction to the basic principles and skills associated with MI including OARS, expressing empathy, rolling with resistance, and avoiding common roadblocks to change. It also offers a foundation for Motivational Interviewing Part 2, which expands these skills into actual “change talk” and promotion of commitment to change.
10/4: Trauma and Its Aftermath: New Thinking about Trauma-Informed Care, 125 Sixth Street, Community Room – Cambridge Police Department
Though statistics vary, there is a consensus in the field that most consumers of mental health services are trauma survivors and that their trauma experiences shape their responses to outreach and services. Trauma Informed Care is an engagement technique that recognizes the presence of trauma histories and acknowledges the role of trauma in the lives of survivors. This training offers an overview of the new diagnostic criteria from the DSM-5 of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other trauma related disorders, as well as other symptoms and behaviors that can result from trauma. Assessment, safety issues, medication and symptom management are explored both on case management and programmatic levels. The training explores vicarious trauma issues.
10/5: Coordinating Property Management and Social Services, 344 Broadway, 2nd Floor Conference Room
Property managers and social service providers that work side-by-side in supportive residences can sometimes experience stressors or points of rub in their partnership (whether they work for the same agency or separate agencies). Though both have the goal of maintaining tenants’ well-being, each has a unique role in accomplishing that goal. This training is targeted to social service and property management staff working together in supportive housing settings. It examines the discrete roles of each of their two functions, as well as where the roles overlap. It also offers participants information regarding boundaries between roles, opportunities for quality collaboration, and how to maximize the collective work experience for best outcomes. Strategies are presented to develop and maintain clear lines of communication and establish forums for identifying and solving common problems.
10/31: Motivational Interviewing Part 2, 344 Broadway, 2nd Floor Conference Room
Altering behavior is complicated, and staff can either help the change process by becoming change agents in partnership with the service recipient or hinder the process by unwittingly pushing too hard. This training is a supplementary training for practitioners who have already mastered the Motivational Interviewing (MI) skills offered in the introductory MI training, such as OARS, expressing empathy, rolling with resistance, and avoiding common road blocks to change. In this training, participants learn how to use “change talk” to elicit client motivation. In addition, the training introduces common MI techniques such as DARN statements, reframing, agreement with a twist, and amplified and double-sided reflections. The goal of the training is to help practitioners promote persons’ commitment to change by advancing their use of MI techniques and avoiding traps that interfere with motivation.
11/1: Trauma and Its Aftermath: Supporting Persons with Trauma Histories, 7 Temple Street, Cambridge, MA, Library (Cambridge YWCA)
For providing services for persons with trauma histories, providing clinical support can be complicated. Well intentioned, but unskilled staff can inadvertently set persons with trauma histories into crisis by over-processing or not understanding how to help persons contain their thoughts when talking about trauma. An understanding of support strategies that offer safety and grounding to persons with trauma histories are covered in this full day training. Aside from the effects of trauma on individuals, trainees will gain a better understanding of the healing process including providing safety, mindfulness and grounding techniques.
11/2: Managing the Impact of Job-Related Stress for Staff in Human Services, 7 Temple Street, Cambridge, MA, Fuller Room (Cambridge YWCA)
Studies suggest that social service work can be very stressful, and that not addressing these stressors can impact service delivery. This training acknowledges the level of stress in this field and uses the same strengths staff use in their daily work to engage in a series of dialogues about personal self-care and organizational issues that often go unaddressed. The training also explores common sources of stress and provides strategies for managing and lowering stress levels. Discussions focus on acknowledging and addressing issues of burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma.