Trauma Adapted Family Connections

Trauma Adapted Family Connections (TA-FC) builds on Family Connections principles and service components to provide trauma-focused interventions across these broad domains while integrating:

- trauma-focused family assessment and engagement;
- psycho-education to teach family members about trauma symptomatology;
- a focus on building safety capacity within the community and immediate environment;
- trauma informed parenting practices and communication; and
- trauma informed approaches to working with families.

‌Trauma Adapted Family Connections is a conceptual model for working with families experiencing complex developmental trauma was developed that identifies the core components for such work.

Activities associated with TA-FC include:

- training in trauma child welfare practice,
- professional development related to secondary traumatic stress,
- teaching graduate social work interns in trauma informed practice, and
- participation in various National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) committees that develop core components and competencies for trauma informed practice.

TA-FC General Information

TA-FC Fidelity Criteria

TA-FC Training Certification Guidelines

Proposed Implementation Plan

FITT Center

In 2007, University of Maryland’s School of Medicine and its partners, the University of Maryland School of Social Work, and the Kennedy Krieger Family Center, received a Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration grant for the Family-Informed Trauma Treatment or FITT Center.

NCTSN chose the FITT Center to serve as a national expert on the role of families in the lives of children impacted by trauma and to further the availability of effective family trauma treatments.

Many resources have been developed:

FANS Trauma - a practitioner instrument that is focused on families who have experienced trauma the ( https://www.fans.umaryland.edu)
Toolkit - a resource for trauma therapists interested in advancing practice in family informed trauma assessment, treatment planning and intervention (http://fittcenter.umaryland.edu).
Understanding the Impact of Trauma and Urban Poverty on Family Systems: Risks, Resilience and Interventions http://nctsn.org/products/nctsn-affiliated-resources/understanding-impact-trauma-and-urban-poverty-family-systems

The Trauma Education Connection Initiative (TECI)

The Trauma Education Connection provides an opportunity for Advanced Year Clinical Concentration students to gain additional expertise in trauma-informed practice.

The TECI program is intended to enrich the student’s program of study with integrated content and skills in evidence based trauma treatment practice. This area of treatment practice training may well enhance the employability of MSW graduates and provide them with an advantage in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

TECI integrates classroom and field experiences by linking the following components:

clinical elective trauma treatment course which introduces the Core Concepts of Child Trauma Treatment;
child trauma treatment training that includes attending a 2 day intensive skills based training in an evidence based trauma treatment method, and
an advanced year field placement where actual experience using the method and supervision with a field supervisor trained in this modality.

TA-FC offers a unique opportunity for students to apply trauma informed practices to a community-based family strengthening model.

For information about TECI contact Dr. Collins, trauma@ssw.umaryland.edu.