What Is Caregiver Education?

Caregiver Education uses the Resource Parent Curriculum from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). It was created to educate caregivers on the effects of trauma on children and adolescents. Caregivers can include biological or adoptive parents, foster parents, or relatives. The curriculum is centered on nine essential elements including: recognizing trauma’s impact, understanding and providing physical and psychological safety, understanding and managing difficult behaviors and emotions, respecting and promoting relationships, developing a strengths-based life story, practicing advocacy, promoting trauma-informed services, and practicing caregiver self-care. The workshop is co-led by a clinical facilitator and a parent facilitator with lived experience raising a child who has been exposed to trauma.

How can Caregiver Education help?

Caregiver Education has two main goals:

1. Improve the caregiver’s understanding of the effect trauma may have on the children in their care.
2. Increase information and skills that will help caregivers effectively care for children who have experienced trauma.

Caring for a child who has experienced trauma can be hard. It can also be very rewarding with the right knowledge and tools to address the impact of trauma. Understanding how trauma affects children can help caregivers make sense of their child’s behaviors, feelings and attitudes. It can also help caregivers develop greater insight around how to help their child cope with the effects of trauma and help caregivers understand how to provide a safe and stable home environment.

The first element of trauma-informed parenting is to spot the impact trauma has had on your child’s life. When we view children’s behaviors through the “lens” of their traumatic experiences, then their behavior may begin to make more sense. When caregivers, caseworkers, and other members of the child’s team share this lens, they can work together more effectively.

Who can benefit from Caregiver Education?

Caregivers who care for a child who has experienced trauma would benefit from this group. For example, biological parents, kinship caregivers, adoptive parents, and guardians can all benefit from this model.

What is the length of time for Caregiver Education?

Caregiver Education group usually lasts 6-8 sessions. These sessions are often weekly for 1.5-2.0 hours.

Who is involved?

Caregivers of children who have been exposed to trauma are involved. These caregivers can be parents, grandparents, foster parents, or other guardians. The group has two facilitators who lead the group.