Tuesday, September 14, 2010
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Hilton Garden Inn
Oshkosh, WI 

 A Blueprint for Healing: Understanding the Collaborative Stage Model for Behavioral Transformation
(Brochure in PDF Format)

Workshop Description:

    If you feel overwhelmed by the complexities of working with traumatized children and their families, this training will give you tools and clarity.  First we will map out how trauma works with children in an understandable, applicable way.   Then, concrete directions are offered for navigating the challenging road of healing children who have experienced multiple, traumatic experiences.  You will learn how to use a three stage therapeutic model designed to give you a blueprint for structuring the process of change. Through visual, experiential and storytelling techniques, you will gain the knowledge you need to facilitate change.

Workshop Goals:

Participants will learn:  

• How trauma works neurologically and behaviorally in children

• The steps of the Collaborative Stage Model

• Strategies for creating safety with traumatized children

• Concrete clinical tools for healing children and teens from trauma

• How to apply the three staged model in a variety of clinical situations

 About the Presenter:

    Kelli Underwood is the Director of Child and Family Programs at the Center for Contextual Change in Skokie, IL.  She holds a Master's degree in Social Work from Indiana University and is a certified Marital and Family Therapist and an adjunct faculty member of the International Institute for Transformative Insight Imagery. In her work at the Center for Contextual Change, Ms. Underwood facilitates a collaborative journey towards healing and works with children, adolescents, adults and families by creating a safe context from which change can occur. She conducts numerous trainings for professionals and parents on a variety of topics and supervises student interns.  In her work, she utilizes the healing benefits of imagery, team building, EMDR and the three stage Collaborative Stage Model (CSM) co-created by Mary Jo Barrett, the founder of the Center for Contextual Change.

Note:  Mary Jo Barrett of the Center for Contextual Change was originally scheduled to present this topic; however, she had to cancel and Kelli graciously offered to take her place.  

Thursday, September 30, 2010
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Waukesha County Technical College
Pewaukee, WI

Workshop Description:

This workshop will be divided into two parts: 

Part 1: Ethics and Boundaries for In-Home Services

   The management of ethics, boundaries and confidentiality is especially challenging for human service professionals who provide services in client homes. This workshop will address the unique issues encountered during the provision of these services. Participants will learn new ways to address boundary issues and will learn how to avoid the potential for dual-relationships. This program is designed to be interactive as participants share challenging ethical issues encountered while providing services outside of the office.  Participants will also learn about the importance of an ethics audit in programs that cover both client services and personnel management.  Ethical decision-making processes will be addressed in a variety of contexts using case examples and best practice models to identify and address complicated scenarios within human service organizations.

 Part 2: Promoting Safety in Human Services

   Personal safety in human services has historically been a topic minimally addressed within many social service organizations.  It is crucial that human service professionals are knowledgeable of safety and risk dynamics associated with client services.  This workshop will discuss the importance of safety awareness, case scenarios where worker safety was compromised, legislative responses, causes of client violence toward helping professionals, predictive factors associated with violence, risky practice settings, office safety strategies, strategies for safer in-home services; appropriate worker responses to client violence, de-escalation techniques, strategies for addressing teen violence, and incident reporting.  Participants will develop an increased awareness for their personal safety while learning risk factors associated with potential client violence and strategies for successful violence prevention.

 About the Presenter:

    Jeanne Wagner is a Clinical Assistant Professor and the Director of Field Education Programs at the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at UWM-Milwaukee.  She received her MSW in 1991 at Jane Addams College of Social Work in Chicago, Illinois.

    Jeanne is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with extensive clinical, management and administrative experience. She has addressed issues related to conflict within programs including staff complaints, legal matters and conflict with community collaterals.  Prior to her last 16 years in child welfare, she worked in a variety of social service settings including mental health, developmental disabilities, geriatrics, AODA and private practice.  She also served on a Quality Assurance Committee for 10 years.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Hilton Garden Inn
Oshkosh, WI 

Suicide Risk Assessment: Practical Tools for Best Practices
(Brochure in PDF Format)

Workshop Description: 

   This best practice training follows the clinical standards of care developed by American Suicidology Association and Lifeline, the SAMHSA funded toll-free crisis line network. Participants will learn how to effectively elicit suicidal ideation; assess for suicidal desire, capability and intent; manage acute and recurrent suicide risk; gather the necessary clinical information to determine if consultation is indicated with a supervisor or crisis unit; and document necessary suicide assessment  information to ensure the practice and continuity of good clinical care. Whether working in a hospital, county mental health, residential facility, crisis line or counseling agency, this training will equip mental health professionals with practical tools for identifying, assessing and managing suicide risk.

Workshop Goals:

• Review suicide risk factors

• Identify the components of suicidality

• Learn to assess risk of suicide by eliciting risk factors and components using CASE approach

• Understand the formulation of suicidal risk
  *Acute vs. recurrent suicidality

• Consider the importance of consultation

• Determine appropriate dispositions
  *Hospital alternatives: community safety plans/no self-harm contacts, crisis stabilization
  *Voluntary and involuntary hospitalization

• Understand components of quality documentation

 About the Presenter:

    Nancy Pierce has been working as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in mental health crisis intervention and trauma for over 30 years at the Mental Health Center of Dane County. She provides suicide and violence risk assessments and develops alternatives to hospitalization by creating community crisis safety plans. As an Advanced Clinical Practitioner, Nancy provides staff trainings on acute and recurrent suicide risk assessment.

   Nancy provides training and consultation through Mental Health Crisis Consultants. She was the principal instructor for Wisconsin’s state-wide training for law enforcement and mental health on Best Practices in Crisis Intervention and 51.15’s, and DOJ trainer on Violence and Mental Illness.

  Nancy is a licensed clinical social worker who received her MA from the University of Chicago. She has served as a lecturer on crisis intervention at the UW-Madison, Graduate School of Social Work and as a presenter at national conferences for the American Association of Suicidology, Suicide Prevention Resource Center and is a regular presenter at the state-wide annual Crisis Intervention Conferences.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Holiday Inn – Campus Area
Eau Claire, WI

Ethics and Boundaries: Culture and Context
(Brochure in PDF Format)

Workshop Description:

   Wisconsin has some of the highest rates of disparities and disproportional representation of people of color in areas of poverty, child welfare, juvenile and adult justice systems, and infant mortality in the United States.  The National Association of Social Workers Standards for Cultural Competence standard #6 states: “Social workers shall be aware of the effect of social policies and programs on diverse populations, advocating for and with clients whenever appropriate.” This workshop will look at those disparities as a challenge to our social work ethics and values. Participants will review and discuss organizational and practice-based strategies for reducing disparities and disproportional ties.

Workshop Goals:

• Understand how cultural competence as a professional obligation is presented in the (NASW) Code of Ethics, the NASW Standards for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice, as well as by the Wisconsin Code of Conduct for Marriage and Family Therapy, Counseling and Social Work (Chapter MPSW 20).

• Develop cross-cultural knowledge and skills that impact the helping process and service delivery.

• Identify and resolve common cross-cultural practice challenges.

• Improve self-awareness and professional capacity to recognize and address the variety of personal, professional, client, colleague, organizational, and community values that present barriers to or support culturally competent practice.

 About the Presenters:

   Pat Parker serves as pastor of the Craig Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is currently a full-time trainer for the Milwaukee Child Welfare Partnership for Professional Development. She received her degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduate certificate in Community Mental Health from the Trinity College of Vermont. Ms. Parker has over twenty-eight years of experience working in the human services. She has provided in-home family services in Milwaukee, Madison, Wisconsin and Wilmington, North Carolina; worked in both public and private agencies; and offers consultation, technical assistance, and training services in 25 states across the country. She has expertise in family-centered practice models and services to incarcerated individuals and their families. An ordained minister, she currently serves as a volunteer Chaplin at Southern Oaks School for Girls and the Robert E. Ellsworth Women's Correctional Facility.

   Lisa D’Aunno, J.D, is Director of Training at the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice at the University of Iowa School of Social Work.. As an attorney, social work administrator, and trainer, Lisa has worked exclusively in child welfare and child custody issues for 25 years.  Lisa has trained on cultural competence in child welfare practice, supervising a diverse workforce, supervising culturally competent practice, and cultural competence as an ethical issue. She has taught courses in social work and law at the University of Iowa, University of Chicago, and University of Michigan, where she was an assistant clinical professor in the Michigan Child Advocacy Law Clinic and co-director of the Interdisciplinary Project on Child Abuse and Neglect at U of Michigan School of Social Work.

Thursday, October 28, 2010
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Waukesha County Technical College
Pewaukee, WI

Families Doing Time: Caring for Families Coping with the Impact of Incarceration
(Brochure in PDF Format)

 Workshop Description:

   According to the Ann E. Casey Fact Sheet on Children of Incarcerated parents, sixty-three percent of federal inmates and fifty-five percent of state prisoners are parents of children under the age of eighteen.  Parental incarceration has a negative impact on children on multiple levels.

   Helping professionals from several different disciplines have developed strategies to enable children and families cope with incarceration. The focus of this workshop will be on not only helping families cope, but enabling them to begin to heal from the trauma of the incarceration experience.

 Workshop Goals:

• Understand emerging family conflicts and transition issues as a parent enters into the prison system, including: traumatic loss and grief; shifting roles of relative caregivers; and shame.

• Consider challenges that arise for both incarcerated parents and their children during the term of imprisonment, including visitation issues, and learn strategies for supporting and advocating for parents and children to maintain connections;

• Explore the needs of families as a parent re-enters society and reunifies with spouse and children and identify key resources and family interventions to help facilitate a successful transition.

 About the Presenter:

    Pat Parker serves as pastor of the Craig Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is currently a full-time trainer for the Milwaukee Child Welfare Partnership for Professional Development. She received her degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduate certificate in Community Mental Health from the Trinity College of Vermont. Ms. Parker has over twenty-eight years of experience working in the human services. She has provided in-home family services in Milwaukee, Madison, Wisconsin and Wilmington, North Carolina; worked in both public and private agencies; and offers consultation, technical assistance, and training services in 25 states across the country. She has expertise in family-centered practice models and services to incarcerated individuals and their families. An ordained minister, she currently serves as a volunteer Chaplin at Southern Oaks School for Girls and the Robert E. Ellsworth Women's Correctional Facility.