Description

This is a COAP Webinar - Please register using the link below. All details will be provided with registration.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-resilience-in-children-affected-by-caregiver-substance-abuse-tickets-1986646417915?aff=oddtdtcreator

Workshop Overview: This workshop will focus on understanding the far-reaching effects of caregiver substance abuse on children, and explore strategies for building resilience in those affected. Participants will learn how substance abuse by a parent or caregiver can significantly disrupt a child’s social development, leading to difficulties in forming healthy relationships and functioning within peer groups. The session will also cover how behavioral challenges, such as increased aggression or withdrawal, often stem from the instability and unpredictability present in the home environment. Emotional and psychological consequences—such as anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem—will be discussed, along with insights into how chronic stress and trauma can alter a child’s neurobiological development, affecting brain function and stress regulation. In addition to examining the impacts, the workshop will introduce evidence-based parenting support programs designed to foster resilience in children and aid in the recovery process for caregivers. Attendees will be introduced to interventions aimed at strengthening the caregiver-child relationship, enhancing positive parenting skills, and providing resources for substance abuse treatment. These programs not only support the caregiver’s journey toward recovery but also equip children with coping strategies and emotional support, ultimately promoting healthier outcomes and breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma.

Learning Objectives: By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Identify the social, behavioral, and emotional impacts of caregiver substance abuse on children.
• Understand how chronic stress and trauma can affect children’s neurobiological development and stress regulation.
• Learn how this situation impacts relationships between the child and caregiver as well as others (e.g., peers, teachers, and other adults)
• Explore evidence-based parenting support programs that could be embedded in treatment facilities and/or regimens to foster resilience in children and assist caregivers in recovery.
• Learn about interventions to strengthen caregiver-child relationships and enhance positive parenting skills.
• Gain practical strategies and resources to help break the cycle of intergenerational trauma and promote healthier outcomes for families.

About the Presenters: Dr. Diana [“Denni”] Fishbein is a Nova Scholar with the Nova Institute for Health, and a senior neuroscientist in the FPG Child Development Institute at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She founded and directs the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives(NPSC), a large professional organization dedicated to the transfer of knowledge from science to public health policies. And she retains a part-time research faculty position at The Pennsylvania State University. Her expertise in the fields of prevention science, neuroscience, and behavioral science, supported by NIH, other federal agencies, and foundations, seeks to determine impacts of deleterious physical (e.g., heavy metal exposure, traumatic brain injury) and social contextual factors (e.g., trauma, family dysfunction, poverty, racism) on brain development and behavioral/mental health in children and adolescents. Her research supports the premise that underlying neurobiological mechanisms interact with the quality of our environmental contexts to alter trajectories either towards or away from negative outcomes, and that compensatory mechanisms can be strengthened with evidence-based practices, programs and policies.

A wide range of translational approaches are applied toward equipping local, state, and federal organizations and agencies with the tools to implement, sustain, and scale strategies to prevent poor outcomes and promote health and wellbeing in children and families. Through NPSC, Dr. Fishbein advises congressional members, state legislators, state and federal agencies, national organizations and other entities regarding well-tested strategies shown to avert trajectories away from psychopathology.

Dr. Sharon Kingston is an associate professor of psychology at Dickinson College. She received her doctorate degree in clinical psychology from the University of Rhode Island. As a doctoral student, Dr. Kingston worked on federally funded grants to provide training, technical assistance and evaluation of state-wide effort to support community substance abuse prevention coalitions. Prior to coming to Dickinson College she worked as an Associate Research Scientist and T32 Postdoctoral Fellow in Prevention Science at the NYU Child Study Center. Her research interests include neighborhood effects on individual and family well-being in high-risk urban neighborhoods, prevention and health promotion in low-income communities and factors related to early initiation of substance use among children and adolescents. Dr. Kingston is the Secretary of the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives. Check out their link for continuing education opportunities at https://npsc.thinkific.com/