1. NVTAC Virtual Learning Class
Trauma-Informed Care for Special Populations: An Introduction

2. Meet Your Instructors Nicole LaCorte-Klein, MA, CRC Cori Di Biase
Training Consultant at Atlas Research, Nicole brings years of experience providing job placement, vocational case management and direct service to individuals who are homeless. Nicole has provided technical assistance to HVRP, SSVF and other Veterans Administration staff for years, offering her experience as both direct service provider and trainer.
Cori Di Biase
NVTAC Project director at the Manhattan Strategy Group, Cori has provided services and consultation to support veterans and civilians in employment for more than twenty years. Cori prides himself on serving the staff and leaders who have dedicated themselves to serving our country.
Cindy Borden
As the Director of Technical Assistance and Training for the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV), Cindy conducts training, develops resources, and provides intensive coaching in program design and implementation to veteran service organizations. Cindy brings more than 20 years experience in both direct service and technical assistance to help organizations increase capacity and improve services.

3. course Objectives Over the duration of this VLC we’ll:
Explore various subpopulations of veterans
Focus on specific program strategies
Discuss how to adapt your program to meet the employment needs of individuals within these populations

4. Module Objectives During this VLC Module, we will discuss:
The overall framework for the course
Why understanding special populations is important for HVRPs
Trauma and its impact on homeless veterans
How to incorporate trauma-informed care into your organization

5. Introductions Who are you? Name Organization Title/Role
Why did you sign up for this course?

6. What is a “Special Population”?
For the purposes of this course, defined as a subgroup with unique experiences, culture, skills, or needs
Encompasses elements of JVSG SBEs and special populations
Every participant in HVRP belongs to at least two “special populations:
Veterans
Experiencing or at-risk of homelessness

7. Homeless Veterans Homeless Veterans Veterans General Public
People Experiencing Homelessness
General Public
Homeless Veterans
Veterans
General Public

8. Homeless Veterans HVRP Participants
Disabilities
Women
Younger
Justice Involved
Chronic
Rural
Aging
Veterans of Color
We are further defining this already unique population:
There may and will be overlap of these sub-populations. However, these groups are not homogeneous. We will be discussing commonalities amongst group members, but it is important to note each veteran is an individual.

9. Individual HVRP Participants
Veteran of Color
LGBTQ
Chronic
Justice Involved
Each veteran is an individual.
Advanced Education
MST
Each veteran brings a unique set of experiences, circumstances, skills and barriers. Association with a particular special population, while important, is only part of that individual’s story. ?? ??

10. Commonalties Across populations
Practices, strategies, skills for working with harder to serve populations,
Tailored to population
Tailored to individual
Trauma is a common, if not universal experience of HVRP participants

11. Trauma informed care SHIFT in Perspective SHIFT in Practice
Trauma-informed care is a framework for policies, practices, and culture that is separate from trauma services – which are the interventions or treatments used.
From To
What’s wrong with you?
What happened to you
From To
How can I fix you?
What do you need?

12. What is Trauma?
Trauma is an event, series of events, or circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life threatening.
An event become traumatic when it overwhelms our ability to cope with the situation and leaves people feeling unsafe, helpless, vulnerable, and out of control.
Traumatic stress: “After a traumatic experience, the human system of self- preservation seems to go onto permanent alert, as is the danger might return at any moment.
Source: SAMHSA, 2014; Herman, 1992; Macy et al., 2004)

13. Group discussion
What kinds of trauma have your HVRP participants experienced?

14. Veterans and Trauma Trauma can happen: Before military service
During military service
After military service
During homelessness

15. Reactions to trauma Feelings of guilt and shame Aggressive behavior
Suicidal thoughts
Source: Kathleen Guarino, American Institutes for Research

16. Trauma Responses Difficulty following through Seems “out of it”
Avoiding meetings
Aches and pain
Isolating
Difficulty training
Interpersonal conflict
Substance use and abuse
Easily agitated, angry, aggressive
Abusive relationships
Repeated victimization

17. Survival strategies
Trauma survivors develop strategies to manage but those strategies may be misinterpreted by others. What behaviors do you see from participants?
Examples include: manipulative, attention-seeking, resistance, laziness, lack of motivation, mistrustful

18. Possible Triggers Loud noises Uncertainty Small/confined spaces
Chaotic environment
Personal questions
Lack of privacy
Paperwork
Potential loss of benefits
Change in Case Mgr.
People of a particular gender
Authority
Can you think of others? Looking at this list, which or these do you participants encounter on a regular basis?

19. Trauma-informed practice
“Meeting clients in a safe, collaborative, and compassionate manner; preventing treatment practices that retraumatize people with histories of trauma who are seeking help or receiving services; building on the strength and resilience of the client in the context of their environments and communities; and endorsing trauma- informed principles in agencies through their support, consultation, and supervision of staff.”
Source: SAMHSA

20. SAMHSA’s Six principles of TIC
Safety – both physical and psychological
Trustworthiness and Transparency
Peer Support
Collaboration and Mutuality
Empowerment, Voice and Choice
Culture, Historical, and Gender Issues

21. trauma-informed practice
Provide support and services without retraumatizing participants
Our desire to help may undermine their sense of safety, trust and control which are essential to their recovery
Understand how our experiences shape our perceptions and responses.
Build on the strength and resilience of the veteran.

22. trauma-informed practice
Design policies, practices, and spaces to promote environment and emotional safety.
Use Motivational Interviewing to engage participants.
Provide opportunities for skill-building and mastery
Rebuild control by emphasizing client choice
Empower participants to make decisions
Remember: the participant is the expert in his/her life experience.

23. Organizational assessment
How is your organization doing?

24. Staff care
Providers who work with traumatized individuals may experience:
Burnout
Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS)
Compassion Fatigue
Vicarious Trauma
Tool: Professional Quality of Life Scale

25. Questions and Comments
Concerns?
Common misconceptions?
Looking ahead.

26. CONTACT INFORMATION
Cori Di Biase: Dallas Region Manhattan Strategy Group Cindy Borden: San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Atlanta Regions NCHV Nicole LaCorte-Klein: Boston and Chicago Regions Atlas Research