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Second Annual Trauma-Informed Care Conference Offers Important Insights

A sold-out crowd of 240 attended the second annual workshop hosted by the Upper Northeast Ohio Regional Trauma-Informed Care Collaborative on April 26. The event, entitled “The Cost of Helping: An Organizational Approach to Building Resiliency in the Helping Professions,” was held with the support of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board of Cuyahoga County and The Center for Health Affairs. The event’s two presentations and panel discussion were aimed at building on attendees’ understanding of trauma-informed care and giving them tools and skills to put what they learned into action.

Ken Yeager, PhD, LISW-S, LICDC, presented on vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout within the helping professions. He discussed how healthcare staff can recognize the ways they are affected by the traumas of caregiving and move toward resilience in themselves and within their teams and organizations. Yeager is associate professor for The Ohio State University Department of Psychiatry and director of the STAR Program and STAR Trauma Recovery Center at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Carol O’Connell, Psy.D., who works as a consultant and in private practice, provided a two-part presentation on the “Organizational Response to Compassion Fatigue,” with an introduction to developing an organizational approach and an afternoon work session for participants to begin creating their plans.

Finally, Heather Leffler, MBA, regional liaison, Northeast Region Division of Policy and Strategic Direction, Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, moderated a panel discussion entitled “Addressing Compassion Fatigue in Organizations.” Panelists described how their organizations came to embrace the concepts of trauma-informed care and how that has positively impacted their staff and clients. Participating in the panel were:

• Habeebah Rasheed Grimes, M.A., Psy.D., LSPSY, chief clinical officer, Positive Education Program
• Andy Maidlow, chief operating officer, Community Supports, Inc.
• Cynthia Vrabel, MD, medical director, Frontline Services, Inc.
• Travis Bosanac, research specialist, Oriana House 

Conference attendees reported gleaning insights on ways to address trauma concepts systematically; the connection between chronic stress, trauma, burnout and fatigue; and the importance of creating a resilient staff to decrease burnout and turnover.

For more about trauma-informed care and available resources, contact us.