Court-involved professionals frequently lament the damage caused to children and families when they don’t receive quality services soon enough. When treatment is delayed or the goals and methods for services aren’t appropriately selected, conflict and dysfunctional behavior may become entrenched, and children may fail to master the basic emotional abilities needed to cope with trauma and achieve successful relationships. While some highly specialized treatment protocols have been developed, early intervention may also be possible through community resources, better tools and training, and better collaboration and training among court staff, private practitioners, the judiciary and community resources. Our multidisciplinary panel will discuss a variety of practical approaches to early intervention, taking a “both, and” approach to identifying families’ problems and enhancing resilience and coping skills. We will provide scientific and clinical information supporting an early intervention approach, and creative, practical approaches to adequate screening, providing appropriate services, and accountability.
Learning Objectives:
- Participants will be able to identify 3 benefits of early intervention to support children’s functioning and development
- Participants will be able to differentiate between normative stress, severe stress, and toxic stress or trauma
- Participants will be able to identify three obstacles to early systemic intervention and two methods to overcome them