It’s been ten (10) years since Dr. Bruce Perry published his groundbreaking work, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog. If you haven’t read his book, especially if you are involved in any trauma-related work, it should be on your next-book-to-read list. In the book, Perry shares a story that involved a child involved in a foster care court case. In Dr. Perry’s recount, he shares that during his years of work in clinics and mental health, he had little introduction to those involved in child protective, special education, or juvenile justice, even though over 30% of the children being served in their clinics were in one or more of those systems. Let’s remind ourselves that although Dr. Perry’s book was published in 2007, the recount of his stories happened earlier still. Dr. Perry also commented in the book of his observation that the public systems that worked with high risk families were overwhelmed, and went on to say that the compartmentalization of services, trainings, and points of views of these different agencies were staggering and in his estimation, very destructive.
Reading Dr. Perry’s experience and valued opinion, validated my own, and since he is an expert on childhood trauma, I felt good about that. My related experience was during a site observation at a residential facility when I was allowed, with permission of the family to participate in a Team Meeting regarding one of the student residents. Sitting around the table were the director of education, the nurse, the case manager, the therapist, the psychiatrist, and lastly, the student. As in Dr. Perry’s example, each participant all had different measures and metrics they were responsible for obtaining and reporting. I watched as the interchange took place, observing various nuances that indicated varying levels of involvement from each of the members and again, all from different points of view.
In December, I was honored to be invited to a Congressional Briefing in Washington, D.C., regarding trauma-informed policy. One of panelists shared information on his program through the eyes of a client named “Johnny”. Johnny, not unlike the child in Dr. Perry’s book, not unlike the resident in my observation, had several agencies involved in his life, all with different goals and strategies for reaching them. The panelist went on to share that his organization had a goal to develop an integrated approach that would help segment the disconnects to lessen the negative impact on Johnny. This panelist had realized what Dr. Perry and I had and that was the issue of fragmentation.
What are some creative ideas for addressing this issue? What innovative models and best practices are successfully in use? We need strategies and solutions. The initial trauma or ACE has the effect of breaking down a person psychologically and emotionally. Fragmentation, disconnected programs, and systems only serve to exacerbate the problem and possibly further traumatize the child or person. We say that our goal is integration (no inference on the goal of the panelist) or depending on the system, reunification, yet the mechanisms underneath put in place to support this goal are as disconnected, disjointed, and chaotic as any we have ever seen. Systems in America are built and fueled with disaggregation and delineation as the centerpiece to their existence. We spend our life creating division and then wonder why people and systems are so divided. How can we move forward to create unity of services and in so doing, contribute to the unity of a person?
Dr. Ivy Bonk is Educational Psychologist/Consultant with IMAGINAL Education Group, Founder/President of ReThink Learning, Inc.
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