Supporting Youth in the Aftermath of Crisis, Trauma, and Loss: A Clinician’s Guide

Program Number: 24CE00133
November 13, 2024
8:00am-12:15pm
Thompson Alumni Center (UNO)
6705 Dodge St. Omaha, NE 68182

Activity Description

Segment 1: Supporting Youth Exposed to Trauma and Loss
The experiences of both trauma and bereavement in children and adolescents are widespread and can have lasting impacts on their mental health and ability to learn. For this reason, it is essential for mental health professionals who work with youth to utilize a trauma- and bereavement-informed lens when providing support. This segment will provide an overview of how to recognize signs of distress in children who have been exposed to trauma and/or loss and best practices mental health professionals can apply when providing support. Additionally, the training will discuss strategies for supporting children in the aftermath of a traumatic event, including mass violence.

Segment 2: Beyond Burnout: Exploring the Cost of Caring
School counselors, mental health clinicians, and others in helping professions must face the strenuous task of caring for others while also caring for their loved ones and themselves. This segment explores how our work as helping professionals can impact us individually. Participants will be given tools to decrease risk for compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress, and burn-out. Discussion will also explore ways to enhance compassion, satisfaction, and resilience through individualized strategies. This presentation seeks to re-frame the way we think about "self-care.""

Target Audience

This accredited continuing education activity is designed for social workers, clinical mental health therapists, school counselors, and psychologists.

Educational Objectives

At the conclusion of this activity, the participants should be better able to:

• Describe how to use a trauma- and bereavement-informed framework to support the emotional well-being and academic success of children and adolescents.
• Identify key indicators of trauma and grief in youth and their impact on mental health and learning.
• Discuss practical post-tragedy strategies and communication methods to support youth after traumatic events, including mass violence, with sensitivity and care.
• Define differences between secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout, as well as how to recognize these in themselves and others.
• Recognize how the indirect exposure to trauma and loss can negatively impact personal well-being of mental health professionals.
• Identify protective factors and strategies to enhance compassion satisfaction and vicarious resilience.

Accredited Continuing Education

				In support of improving patient care, University of Nebraska Medical Center is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
SOCIAL WORKERS				As a Jointly Accredited Organization, University of Nebraska Medical Center is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 3.0 clinical continuing education credits. The content level of this activity is intermediate.
PSYCHOLOGISTS/LICENSED MENTAL HEALTH PROVIDERS				Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs. This activity has been approved for 3.0 credit hours of continuing education credit.

This event is being hosted by the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN) and the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Counseling Department and is funded by the Nebraska Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS).