Motivational Interviewing, Part I - Mindy Hohman

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a communication/counseling style that was originally developed for work with clients with substance use disorders who were ambivalent to change. The goal of MI is to access clients' internal motivators so they will be more likely to move in a positive direction. MI has rapidly spread to work with other types of clients who are working on behavioral changes, including domestic violence, safe sex practices, medication adherence, and diet/exercise. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to MI, the theoretical base behind it, as well as communication skills that include reflective listening, responding to client resistance, and eliciting client change-talk. How MI can be used within the child welfare setting will also be discussed and applied to examples. This workshop will also use interactive exercises to practice some of the skills. This is a two-part workshop. Please register for both parts of the workshop.

Drug Abuse - A Part of Child Abuse: How to Evaluate - Arne Graff

Drug abuse can often play a role in all forms of child/adolescent abuse and neglect. The use of medications to mask injury, inappropriate use of a child's medications by the caregiver, and inappropriate supervision (ingestion by child) and use of drugs in the presence of the child are types of drug abuse. The discussion on evaluation, including drug testing, will be presented.

The Social Worker's Role in Providing Quality Contacts - Rose Wentz

Whether it is a few minute phone call or an hour long face to face visit, each contact with the child provides the worker with an opportunity to enhance a child's life. The participants will be provided with developmentally appropriate questions that help to gather information from the child and assess the child's adjustment into care, safety, well-being and permanency. A four-step approach to how to conduct purposeful worker/child visits will be reviewed along with a complimentary tool supervisors can use to support this practice.

Connecting Children to Trauma-Specific Mental Health Treatment, Part I - Heather Simonich, Raelyn Soltis, and Jeannette Wetch

Traumatic life experiences can have a significant impact on the life of a child. Join us to learn more about the effects of childhood trauma on the developing child, the assessment of traumatic stress symptoms, and effective mental health interventions. A unique pilot project in Cass County designed to connect children to mental health services in an early point in a child welfare situation (e.g. CPS) will be described. This presentation will include an overview of a mental health screening tool designed to help child welfare workers make more trauma-informed decisions about the need for referral to trauma-specific and general mental health services. This is a two-part workshop. Please register for both parts of the workshop

Safety Planning 101 (for children and adolescents who have sexually acted out), Part I- Tanya Snyder

This presentation will review and use case examples to clarify the ages and stages of normal and problematic sexual behaviors in children and adolescents. We will briefly discuss assessment tools to use with these populations. The main part of the presentation will be focused on safety planning for clients in the home, school and community through the use of case studies. Finally, the workshop wrap up with a discussion of The Counseling and Psychotherapy Center's RULE treatment planning and management model, which works to increase safety within the community. This is a two-part workshop. Please register for both parts of the workshop

Parents Forever- North Dakota Parent Resource Center Network

Parents Forever is a research-based educational program designed to help parents in the process of making informed, child-supportive decisions during separation and divorce. The curriculum promotes the development of healthy children and positive parent-child relationships. The availability of the program will be discussed and detailed information will be shared for program referrals.

Child Fatality Response - Multi-disciplinary Panel

This workshop will be presented by a multi-disciplinary group of responders in fatal child abuse cases. The panel members will discuss what works well and what difficulties agencies and professionals involved face in dealing with child fatalities. Suggestions on how social services and law enforcement can work together effectively and supportively will be discussed.

Motivational Interviewing, Part II- Mindy Hohman

This is a two-part workshop. Please register for both parts of the workshop.

Nutritional Neglect- Arne Graff

Neglect accounts for 60% of all child maltreatment and almost 40% of fatalities in maltreated children. Nutritional neglect can result in growth retardation, poor brain development, failure to thrive and death. Early evaluation, documentation and intervention are keys to survival and healthy development of these children. A review of nutritional neglect for multidiscipline team members will be the focus of this presentation.

Planned, Purposeful and Progressive Visits- Rose Wentz

Children's visits with their birth family are a key part of the case planning process. How the parents improve their parenting skills is essential for determining the final permanency plan. Visits are one of the ways we can assess if the parent can consistently use his/her improved skills with their child. To conduct effective visits, the case planning team must know the purposes of visits and develop a visit plan that supports the case objectives. This workshop will present two tools. 1) The Impact of Separation Chart - A chart that provides concrete strategies to prevent visit problems and to help parents and caregivers prepare the child for visits. 2) Visit Planning Tool - A tool that provides best practice recommendations on the frequency, length, location, level of supervision and types of activities that should occur on visits based on the child's developmental age.

Connecting Children to Trauma-Specific Mental Health Treatment, Part II- Heather Simonich, Raelyn Soltis, and Jeannette Wetch

This is a two-part workshop. Please register for both parts of the workshop.

Safety Planning 101 (for children and adolescents who have sexually acted out), Part II- Tanya Snyder

This is a two-part workshop. Please register for both parts of the workshop.

Bright Beginnings- Debra Theurer and Stacy Kilwein

The Bright Beginnings,/i> curriculum is a parent education program which focuses on parenting young children from the prenatal period through eight years of age. It is focused on understanding and enhancing young children's growth and development. Some of the topics include: prenatal parenting, brain development, emotional intelligence, social development and the importance of play. Information on the availability of this curriculum and referral points will be discussed.

Changes in the North Dakota Century Code, which affect issues for children and families, will be presented. An opportunity to ask questions will be provided.

Looking Back, Moving Forward: Helping Parents Break Intergenerational Cycles of Abuse and Neglect- Marti Erickson

For infants and young children, health and well-being are influenced in powerful ways by how parents understand and respond to a child's needs. Parents, in turn, are influenced by how they were cared for in their own childhood, for better or worse. Attachment research demonstrates that it is not so much how a person was treated that determines later parenting behavior, but how the person has come to think about those past relationships. That finding offers both hope and poses a challenge to those of us who strive to help parents rise above a troubled history, especially if we are not trained to be "therapists." Drawing on more than 30 years of longitudinal research and 23 years of implementing and evaluating attachment-based interventions with high-risk families, Dr. Marti Erickson offers a theoretical framework and proven strategies to help identify strengths and needs in families and gently challenge and expand parents' understanding of their own relationship history and how it helps or hinders them in building strong, healthy relationships with their children. Repeated in D-1.

Addressing the Unmet Needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) Youth in Out-Of-Home Care- Bruce Reeves

This workshop is intended to provide training on building capacity, awareness and skills of social workers and other child welfare practitioners to better serve and respond to the needs of this population of youths. It will contain information on issues affecting LGBTQ youth in out-of-home care, their family members, other caregivers and service providers.

Intervention Strategies with Pregnant Women Who Are Abusing Substances - Larry Burd

This presentation will discuss risk factors for substance abuse during pregnancy, strategies for estimating risk of an adverse pregnancy outcome and risk reduction strategies. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders will be used as a model for this discussion. Repeated in D-3.

Culturally Sensitive Interviewing Practices- Katharine Cahn

Clues to child safety, parental engagement, and family strengths are deeply embedded in a cultural context. In one sense, every child welfare interview could be described as a 'cross-cultural' encounter because every family, every town, and every part of the state has a unique local culture, language, power structure, and set of strengths. However, the greater the gap between a client's cultural background and that of the child welfare worker, the greater the chance for cultural misunderstanding. The presenter will share lessons learned from practitioners in several states about culturally sensitive interviewing practices. Repeated in D-4.

Engaging Non-custodial Fathers or Absent Parents in the Child Welfare System- Ron Clark

The purpose of this workshop is to increase the capacity of child welfare staff to effectively engage fathers into the service delivery process. In specific, this workshop will offer best-practice information from successful father-involvement initiatives from across the country and also afford the participants an opportunity to hear directly from fathers about their experiences. Repeated in D-5.

An Inside Look at North Dakota's Drug Court Programs- Justice Mary Muehlen Maring and Judge Bruce B. Haskell

Participants will get an inside look at North Dakota's problem-solving courts. Justice Mary Muehlen Maring will present an overview of the juvenile drug courts, and Judge Bruce B. Haskell will present an overview of the adult drug courts. A panel comprised of team members from both adult and juvenile drug courts will discuss the challenges to running a drug court program, and the successes of the program including how drug court is changing the lives of families in North Dakota. A graduate and the parent of a graduate will speak about their experience with the drug court program. This session will describe who qualifies for this program, the roles of the team members, and the benefits of this program to the individual, parent, spouse, and community.

Historical Trauma- Deb Painte

Have you ever wondered why Native American children are over-represented in foster care? Why a disproportionate number of Indian children are being sent to institutions due to behavioral problems? Have you ever wondered why Indian people struggle with issues such as alcohol, gambling, abuse and violence? Or why Native American rates of suicide, depression and other health problems are so high? This training session examines the concept of historical trauma and its effects on present-day Indian communities. Repeated in D-7.

Looking Back, Moving Forward: Helping Parents Break Intergenerational Cycles of Abuse and Neglect- Marti Erickson

Repeat of C-1.

Identifying and Using Parent and Relative Search Tools- Panel Discussion

The panel will identify cross-agency search tools available with indications of strengths and challenges associated with these tools.

Intervention Strategies with Pregnant Women Who Are Abusing Substances- Larry Burd

Repeat of C-3.

Culturally Sensitive Interviewing Practices- Katharine Cahn

Repeat of C-4.

Engaging Non-custodial Fathers or Absent Parents in the Child Welfare System- Ron Clark

Repeat of C-5.

The New Parenting (formerly known as "custody") Legislation - Sherry Mills Moore and Bethany Abrams

SB 2042, referred to as the "Parenting Plan" bill, will go into effect in August of 2009. This legislation represents an overhaul of both process and substance of custody and visitation. Highlights of the legislation are new nomenclature, additional and "refined" best interest factors, the use of parenting plans, and the addition of parenting coordinators to the cast of characters available for parenting disputes. Presenters will discuss how this will change what you are going to see with families who raise children in separate homes and how it will impact child welfare agencies and social workers. The workshop will also address what agencies and social workers need to know in working with families who have shared parenting plans.

Historical Trauma- Deb Painte

Repeat of C-7.