Supporting System Involved Youth Who Exhibit Challenging Behaviors

Pamela Parkinson, Ph.D., LCSW

Training Description

Learn what a system involved youth’s challenging behaviors are attempting to communicate! While it is necessary to understand the function of the child's behaviors (since it is a communication to us), we also need to understand what this means in the context of the family relationships. This understanding will allow us to better support caregivers and teachers as they attempt to help system involved youth to be successful in school, maintain a placement, be reunited with family, etc.

Learning Objectives

Training participants will be able to:

· Explain at least one function of the child's behaviors from a behavioral perspective and from a Pain in the Heart (PITH) perspective that takes into account the family relationships & what this system involved youth is trying to accomplish systemically within the family.

· Identify at least 2 things that caregivers and teachers need to better support system involved youth and develop effective behavior plans with the family and school.

· Build an effective case plan utilizing the 4 essential ingredients of a proactive plan

Agenda

10:00 –10:15AM  Sign In

10:15–11:45AM  Section I: The relationship between family dynamics and youth behaviors.

· Reasons that our system-involved youth often have challenging behaviors.

· How family relationships can influence the behavior of our system-involved youth

· The difference between managing symptoms vs. helping to heal the pain

· Unbalanced hierarchy in the family and how our youth can hold unwanted “power”

· How emotional boundaries relate to challenging behaviors

· Trauma, neuroception and challenging behaviors

11:45AM –12:00PM  BREAK (CE hours will not be offered for this time)

12:00–1:00 PM  Section II:  Power struggles and behavior theory

· How to know when we are in a power struggle with the youth and/or their family

· Defining the function of the behavior

· How to figure out the function by identifying the ABC’s of behavior theory

· The difference between the function and the relational function of the behavior

1:00–1:30PM  LUNCH (CE hours will not be offered for this time)

1:30–2:00PM  Section III: Culture and parenting!

· Identifying different parenting styles

· Discussion of how different cultures see the roles of parents.

2:00–3:00PM  Small group practice to develop plans to support system involved youth

· What are negative consequences

· Listing the primary ingredients that make a negative consequence effective

· How incentives make the best negative consequences

· How to decide when to end a negative consequence

3:00–3:15PM  BREAK (CE hours will not be offered for this time)

3:15–4:15PM  Reviews of some things that do not work & Questions and Answers

· The tools needed to create a behavior plan

· The importance of developing a proactive plan first

· Presenting your plan to the team and to the system involved youth

· How to integrate the relational function into your new behavior plan for the best success.

4:15–4:30PM  ADJOURNMENT

Meet Our Trainer

Pamela Parkinson, PhD, LCSW, is a clinical psychologist and clinical social worker, whose specialty area is working with youth and their families who are being served by our continuums of care. Dr. Parkinson’s emphasis is on the importance of family engagement and the healing of traumatic attachment ruptures. Pamela is also a certified PCOMS evidence-based practice trainer. She currently works as a child/family consultant to CBO’s in the Bay Area and Pamela has worked in level 14 residential, NPS, hospitals, and a variety of community-based settings including outpatient clinics, schools, diversion, kinship, etc.

This course meets the qualifications for (5.5) BBS CE hours for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.