National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Minutes – Systems Integration Group Meeting
December 13, 2003
Members Present: Connie Carnes, Nicole Taylor, Mark Rains, Chris Siegfried, Jeff Wherry, James Van Den Brandt, Patricia Van Horn, Quincey Atkin (for Kevin Gully), Donna Humbert, Rita Ellis, Beth McKenzie, Nicole Farrell, Matt Epstein, Helen P. Kimmel, Joel Rosch, Dennis Hunt, Jim Henry, Ken Curl, Malcolm Gordon, MJ Sutcliffe, Heike Thiel de Bocanegra, Cassie Kisiel , Shannon Crossbear
ITEM / DISCUSSION / ACTION /Introduction of New Members and Guests
Overview of SIG activities for past 12 months
Review of data collection process and stages for SIG
Review of local stakeholders survey process
Followup to Plenary Session
Discussion of development of child welfare training product / · Charles asked people in the room to introduce themselves. Charles welcomed new members and visitors.
· Chris Siegfried, Nicole Taylor and Charles Wilson described the focus of the SIG group over the last 12 months. Chris mentioned the mission of the SIG group to determine how systems and systems interaction assist the healing of traumatized children and families and does not re-introduce them to trauma. She said that a diagram was created to show the many systems that interface with traumatized children and their families. SIG members had chosen a constellation of “back end” services to focus on, including dependency court, CPS, substitute care and mental health. A brief literature review had been done but didn’t turn up much.
· Nicole Taylor reviewed the stages of the data collection process that the SIG is engaging in. Nicole explained Stage 1 as being survey questions that SIG members themselves were answering from their own perspectives. Nicole said that 5 people had returned these surveys to her and she encouraged other members to complete them and send them to her by January 5.
· Nicole also described the national CASRC study that was surveying the three largest mental health providers in 92 carefully selected communities (Stage 2). Previous CASRC studies have been focused on child welfare administrators in these communities. SIG would add its “stakeholder” questions to this survey protocol for mental health providers. The 92 communities were selected to represent the national child welfare system as a whole. Chris Siegfried discussed having CASRC ask the stakeholder questions to their list of Child Welfare Supervisors as well if NCTSN could get some additional resources to CASRC.
· Nicole discussed the stakeholder interviews to be conducted by SIG members in their local communities (stage 3). Data collected in this way would both supplement information from the broader CASRC study but also be richer since SIG members were interviewing stakeholders they knew in their communities and stakeholders not being interviewed by CASRC. Group members said that they needed clearer definitions of who to interview and also instructions (interviews were to be done face-to-face when possible rather than over the phone, interviews would not be recorded, etc.) Shannon Crossbear suggested adding Indian Child Welfare Association to the list of local organizations to interview. The group agreed to add this group to the survey, where it applied. Jim Van Den Brandt asked about interviewing someone with schools and juvenile justice. Group members concurred that SIG members could conduct interviews in their communities with other stakeholders but these data would not be collected for the group. Joel Rosch asked about adding a general parent advocacy group, but the group decided to leave the foster parent organization as the family representative. Malcolm Gordon asked about how we defining trauma.
· New SIG members asked if they could have some time to study the survey instrument. Nicole asked them to return any comments by January 5.
· IRB issues were discussed. Chris said that John Landsverk at CASRC and Betsy Farmer at Duke had discussed the survey. John said it should not be a problem getting approval since the questions were not about the informants but rather about policies and practices. There were no HIPAA issues involved. Nicole will work with CASRC to take the survey questions through San Diego Children’s Hospital IRB. Chris said that other SIG members may want to take the stakeholder questions to their own IRBs as well if they needed to.
· Charles asked for comments on the plenary session for the All-Network meeting. Cassie Kisiel asked how SIG could broker a relationship with the Child Welfare League of America and perhaps add a trauma component to their work. Several people said that they thought we should connect with the AACAP/CWLA initiative focused on foster children. Joel and Jim Henry expressed interest in connecting with AACAP and the Child Welfare League of America. Patricia Van Horn said that she had done training for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and was interested in this group. SIG members from Open Arms also expressed an interest in working with this group. Mark Rains suggested writing a paragraph about the plenary and the Network for the newsletters of the groups represented on the panel. Joel said that there is also a national group of county mental health directors. Shannon asked about reaching out to NICWA and Terry Cross. Connie said that she is president of the Native American Children’s Alliance and would make the connection.
· Cassie Kisiel introduced the accelerated collaborative projects that the National Center had agreed to take on this year. She mentioned that several Network members, including Jeff Wherry, had submitted suggestions that the Network develop a training curriculum for child welfare system workers. She mentioned that Anne Holland had agreed to serve as a Steering Committee representative to this project. Ken Curl from SAMHSA had also agreed to be a liaison to this project. Cassie encouraged the group to think about partnerships, content and dissemination strategies. Charles mentioned that we had only $40,000 and 10 months to produce a product. He suggested that a subcommittee be formed.
· Connie said that the National CAC had a curriculum complete with videotapes that was recently developed and perhaps could be used or adapted. There is one product aimed at communicating practical CPS information and another on child sexual abuse trauma. Helen Kimmel said that we needed to be sure that the tape was aimed at “back-end” workers and not investigators.
· Mark said that this project should not just be the purview of the SIG. We should also involve the measures people and the experts in small children. He mentioned that states were working on their child mental health plans. The SIG members agreed that others needed to be brought into the process. Connie offered to chair a subcommittee to develop the product. Charles mentioned that the state child welfare training directors also have a national association that would be a good dissemination vehicle. He suggested that we add some child welfare folks to the subcommittee. The subcommittee will talk before the next SIG call on January 14. Sign up sheets were passed around for membership on the child welfare accelerated product subcommittee.
· The next SIG call was confirmed for January 14th at 11 a.m. / · SIG members will complete the Phase I surveys themselves and return them to Nicole Taylor by January 5.
· Chris Siegfried will pursue discussions to get additional resources for CASRC to add trauma-focused questions to its survey in 92 child welfare communities.
· Interviews with schools and other stakeholders (juvenile justice, etc.) were made optional.
· New SIG members will return any comments on the stakeholder survey form to Nicole by January 5. Nicole will amend the version of the local stakeholder survey to be used by SIG members in their local communities. Interviews will begin in January.
· Charles, Connie and others will determine the best way to follow up with national stakeholder groups and share the plan with SIG members.
· Connie will work with Cassie to develop a process for moving the accelerated project forward and putting a timeline together. Members who signed up for the accelerated project will be contacted for a conference call early in January.
· The next SIG call was scheduled for January 14th at 11 a.m.