Strengthening Military Families Project

Military families with children who have special needs may be dealing with both the realities of a child’s disabilities and the demands of military life. The Family Support Network of North Carolina (FSNNC) offers a special affiliate program, which is called “Strengthening Military Families with Children Who Have Developmental Disabilities”. This project was developed with the aim to connect military families more directly to state and local resources, activities and services. It started in 2009 and is a five-year project. Through the Strengthening Military Families project, service agencies within the community and the military work together to give families one primary place to turn to when they need help.

The project offers lots of different services:

• Information and referral are given to both civilian and military services and resources in the community.
• Parent-to-Parent Matching connects military families seeking support with trained military “Support Parents” who provide emotional help and practical information.
• Family Service Plans facilitated by the Family Support Coordinator are individualized plans that shall help the families to identify and achieve their goals.
• Workshops and Training are hold on topics such as educational advocacy, preparing for transitions, and finding resources.
• Support groups are provided for parents, caregivers, grandparents, and others.
• Sibling Workshops are offered for siblings of children who have special needs.
• Social Activities are arranged to connect families that have children with special needs. 

All services are provided at no cost to families.

To be eligible to the program all families must be enrolled in the Exceptional Family Members Program (EFMP) of the military. The EFMP is a mandatory enrollment program that works with other military and civilian agencies to provide comprehensive and coordinated community support, housing, educational, medical, and personnel services to military families with special needs. Thus the EFMP program ensures every attempt is made to mesh military career and special needs whenever possible. You find more information about EFMP on http://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/pdf/r608_75.pdf

The Strengthening Military Families project is being piloted at Camp Lejeune and will target Marine Corps service members who live off base. These families need special support as they have to face the everyday challenge of navigating both the military and civilian systems.

We had the great opportunity to attend a meeting with the Program Coordinator and the Outreach and Family Support Coordinator.

We had the chance to attend the “State Collaborative Partnership Meeting” which was held at the UNC School of Social Work.  Accomplishments of “Year One” and plans for “Year Two” were discussed and developed. One major focus in the early stage of the project is to fully establish the program and inform the families on its availability. The project expects to serve 60 families by the second year. One further aim is the establishment of peer support groups. Furthermore, we talked about evaluation instruments and first results.

We also got the great opportunity to attend a meeting with the Program Coordinator and the Outreach and Family Support Coordinator of the Strengthening Military Families project. This meeting was held at Camp Lejeune at Crystal Coast, Jacksonville, which is a several hours drive away from Chapel Hill. At this meeting, the Coordinators gave a detailed report on their work during the last year. We also talked about first senses of achievement, obstacles and concrete next steps that are to take in the course of the further development of the project. Is was highly interesting to get in contact with a military family mother, who attended the meeting with her children and openly talked about her own experiences and challenges, especially as the family had to move to a different base a few weeks later. She gave us an insight in both her daily pleasures and struggles, having to face an uncertain future. Her example illustrated impressively how much needed the project is. Furthermore, we profited a lot by talking to the Coordinators, who have lived at military bases for many years and therefore were able to talk about characteristics and challenges of family life in the military out of their own experience. As the meeting was held at the Camp, we even had the possibility to explore the military context as we got insight into the life next to a military base and also the related infrastructure.

As Camp Lejeune is located close to the East Coast, this trip offered us the nice chance to see a new aspect of North Carolina´s landscape: Topsail Island!

Topsail Island is a 26-mile long barrier island off the coast of North Carolina, just south of Camp Lejeune and contains the communities of North Topsail Beach, Surf City and Topsail Beach. Together with our instructor and her lovely colleague we enjoyed a wonderful walk along the quiet beach and a delicious dinner at a local fish restaurant.

All in all, our trip was a very enriching experience for us that will stay in our mind.

Family Support Network of North Carolina

During our stay at Chapel Hill we got the great opportunity to gain profound and highly valuable insight into the work of the Family Support Network of North Carolina (FSNNC). One of our instructors, who is the director of this network, and her very kind team members made it possible for us to attend several meetings of the Network and also to visit two of its local programs.

The Family Support Network of North Carolina is a statewide network of affiliated local programs, which provide support for families with children who have special needs.

Since 1985 FSNNC promotes the involvement of family members in the development and implementation of family-centered practices in North Carolina. Furthermore, it provides parents and professionals with information and linkage for services and support. FSNNC operates the Central Directory of Resources (CDR), which is a computerized directory of resources and services for children with special needs: http://fsp.unc.edu/referral/parents. Furthermore, FSNNC supports the development of a statewide network of community-based parent-to-parent programs.

These local programs offer a variety of services and activities:

- Parent-to-Parent support

- Information and referral

- Sibling workshops

- Support groups

- Workshops and training for families and service providers

All services are confidential and free of charge.

It was extremely interesting and beneficial for us to come to know the Parent-to-Parent support. Parents seeking information, resources and support are connected with experienced and trained Support Parents who have had similar family and disability experiences. Through these one to one matches the Support Parents provide emotional support to families and assist them in finding information and resources.

The FSNNC local program affiliates facilitate parent "matches" and provide follow-up support to each match. Moreover, they provide Support Parent Training using an established curriculum. The training includes for example an introduction to Parent-to-Parent support and its effectiveness. Communication skills and understanding confidentiality are other important aspects of the curriculum.

The Family Support Network of North Carolina is a member of Parent-to-Parent USA Alliance. Parent-to-Parent USA is a national organization of state Parent-to-Parent programs. Visit the Parent-to-Parent USA (P2PUSA) website: http://www.p2pusa.org/

Another very important service of the FSNNC is the provision of information and referrals. Families get help in finding information as well as services and get connected with resources in their community. They also get the possibility to learn more about the disability or diagnosis of their child.

The FSNNC conducts comprehensive research and evaluation to determine the impact of program activities and to provide guidance in strengthening program effectiveness. We are very grateful that one of the responsible Network team members provided us insight into this field, especially the different outcome and output measures. Furthermore, she explained us the structure of the Network as well as the funding mechanisms. We profit a lot from her explications and really appreciate that she answered all our questions patiently and in great detail.

By attending the Network Development Council Meeting and the Meeting of the Local Programs’ Coordinators we got to know more about the organization and activities of the FSNCC as well as the current issues that impact the Network as well as the local programs. Each of the FSNNC members welcomed us warmly and shared their personal experiences with us.

In addition to that, we got to know the FSNNC’s projects Strengthening Military Families, which especially addresses the needs of military families. You will find more information about this very interesting project in one of our next posts.

Furthermore, we are really looking forward to visiting the Family Support Network of Eastern NC (Greenville) in December.

We are very thankful to have the great opportunity to learn more about the FSNNC, which provides a unique and valuable service for families with children who have special needs.  

Our recommendation: Visit the new website of the Family Support Network of North Carolina  

-> http://fsp.unc.edu/

Wright School Durham

In the middle of November we got the opportunity to take a guided tour at Wright School Durham. Wright School is  an excellent example showing how effective Re-Education programs can be. It provides cost-effective residential mental health treatment to North Carolina's children who are from six to twelve years of age. All children living there have  serious emotional and behavioral disorders. Wright School  Durham doesn´t only focus on the child, it also supports each child's family  in meeting their child's special needs in their home.

On our guided tour we visited the class, living, and sleeping rooms of the three different groups living there. Each group consists of about eight students living and learning together in a family-like atmosphere. All groups have a special group name like “The Olympians”, “The Royals” or “The Eagles”. Those names do not only emphasize the potential each  team member has,  they also create a strong sense of  togetherness.

Some students gave us a very personal and impressive insight in their lives at Wright School. They told us about their initial difficulties of being away from their families or not getting in with their peers. Despite all those initial difficulties all students agreed that they enjoy their time at Wright School a lot  and that they don´t want to leave that school.

Of course it was also very interesting getting to know the philosophy of Re-Education at Wright School based on its founder Nicholas Hobbs. There are 12 Key Principles of Re-Education. As we consider these principles very helpful we want to share them with you:

l. Life is to be lived now, not in the past, and lived in the future only as a present challenge

2. Trust between child and adult is essential...

3. Competence makes a difference, and children and adolescents should be helped to be good at something, and especially at schoolwork.

4. Time is an ally, working on the side of growth in a period of development when life has a tremendous forward thrust.

5. Self-control can be taught and children and adolescents helped to manage their behavior without the development of psychodynamic insight.

6. Intelligence can be taught. Intelligence is a dynamic, evolving, and malleable capacity for making good choices in living.

7. Feelings should be nurtured, shared spontaneously, controlled when necessary, expressed when too long repressed, and explored with trusted others ....

8. The group is very important to young people, and it can become a major source of instruction in growing up.

9. Ceremony and ritual give order, stability, and confidence to troubled children and adolescents, whose lives are often in considerable disarray.

10. The body is the armature of the self, the physical self around which the psychological self is constructed.

11. Communities are important for children and youth, but the uses and benefits of community must be experienced to be learned.

12. A child should know some joy in each day and look forward to some joyous event for the morrow.

Nicolas Hobbs still functions as a role model for  all teachers and counselors working at Wright School  and they try to live his principles in the daily interaction with the students.

In our opinion Wright School takes  a great approach in working with children with special needs.

Cultural Highlights

The aim of the GEDS program is not only to advance academically but also to get to know the culture of the host country. In this context, we went to the “art walk” (as previously described in our blog) several times to enjoy local art including architecture, paintings and pottery.

However, I (Andrea) wanted to become part of the American culture myself and got the great opportunity to join the UNC Symphony orchestra with a cello provided by the UNC music department. The orchestra consists of more than 100 members (strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion). Even the cello section has 18 (!) members, a number that impressively illustrates the orchestra´s size. Many students are music majors and play extraordinarily well and the whole orchestra is in a great shape! We rehearse twice a week and it is just wonderful to be part of this huge body of musicians. Our conductor is fantastic and very experienced – he works with us as professionally as with big philharmonic orchestras. I enjoy every rehearsal and profit a lot, both as a musician and as a person. During the last months I had the chance to experience myself that music really is an “international language” without borders and easily connects students from all over the world.

 Our first concert in October was my personal cultural highlight so far. We played Ravel´s Mother Goose Suite (sweet and quiet character) and Shotakovich´s 2^nd Symphony (with lots of power and brass), two pieces that stand in big contrast to each other. Our concert site was the famous Memorial Hall at the UNC campus, an ancient building with great atmosphere and acoustic. It was a great honor for me to play there. The other GEDS students and our instructors came to listen to the concert and also enjoyed this musical highlight with “the first GEDS artist” J. The concert was a great success and we even got standing ovations! By the time we practice hard for our second concert with Barber´s piano concerto (soloist will be a former UNC student) and Brahms´ Symphony no 2. The concert is going to take place on December 10^th, which is my last evening at the UNC before I fly back to Germany. Four months go by so quickly!

Apart from the orchestra, the UNC music department has a great variety of ensembles and concerts to offer. As one example, we watched the UNC Opera ensemble perform scenes from different Verdi operas like Mac Beth, Un Giorno Di Regno, Il Corsaro and the famous independence choir “Va pensiero” of Nabucco, which is a typical earworm all over the world. We were really impressed by the high quality of all the singers, their beautiful dresses and also their thespian abilities. It was a lovely evening with great melodies which we enjoyed very much!

A typical American cultural experience we never wanted to miss was a basketball game of the UNC Tar Heels. Our basketball team is really successful and even won the championship! So it was and absolute necessity go there J The game took place in the famous Smith Center, popularly referred to as the  “Dean Dome”. It was named after former UNC coach Dean E. Smith. The Dean Dome is really HUGE (more than 20 000 visitors fit in there) and the atmosphere was incredible. The basketball marching band, cheerleaders and the famous UNC mascot were there at the match, together with thousands of fans in the UNC color Carolina blue. We also experienced that in Chapel Hill basketball is a real family sport: many families went there with their little children who finally fell asleep and were carefully carried home by their loving Daddies. Everyone (from young to old) cheered and supported the UNC team in its home stadium. It was great!!! And our Team won J

One cultural experience follows the other – Chapel Hill has so much to offer! Next week there will be another personal highlight for us. Our first Thanksgiving! Our instructor was so kind to invite us to her house and is going to celebrate traditionally with Turkey and lots and lots of food. We are sure it will be a typical American celebration that we will never forget.

Last not least, we are going to visit the “Nutcracker” by the Carolina Ballet before we have to fly home to Germany. It will be one of our last opportunities to absorb as much Carolina Culture as we can and we are absolutely sure that we will take home various cultural experiences

Courses Part 3: Development

A class we also commonly decided to attend is Developmental Psycho-pathology which is designed to review a wide range of disorders of childhood and adolescence. It also covers possible etiologies from a number of theoretical perspectives and by the end of this course, students should be able to describe and differentiate the major disorders of childhood and adolescence, have knowledge of major etiologic theories pertinent to those disorders, and be able to apply that knowledge to clinical samples. We are all very glad to have the possibility to attend this class as a wide array of different deviations from the normal developmental course of children is discussed and as the tools of American childhood and early intervention are constituted for every single disorder (e.g. Autism, ADHD, Conduct Disorder, Childhood Depression and Childhood Schizophrenia). Therefore we get an overview of many different childhood problems and possible interventions.

Another course we attend at the UNC Department of Psychology is The Study of Adolescent Issues and Development. It provides an analysis of psychological factors related to transitional development from childhood to adolescence and adulthood including the emergence of the teenage years, puberty, reproduction, identity and self-concept issues and youth adulthood. In the context of this course we acquire knowledge within theoretical perspectives that address adolescence including biological theories, organismic theories, learning theories, sociological theories, historical and anthropological approaches. Moreover, every session a group of students presents a current newspaper article on the topic. As both students and instructor often share their personal experiences from childhood and adolescence, this course enables us to delve into the American society and the everyday life of youths in the US.

Besides that we attend a course that is intended to make us familiar with the perspective of DSM-IV-TR and, even more important to us, with the forthcoming DSM-V, classical notions of psychopathology, and alternative perspectives (e.g., historical, economic, professional) on unusual behavior. We read important papers for the major psychological disorders in order to develop our own critical perspective on the field of abnormal psychology. The aim of the class is to familiarize us with certain important disorders in enough depth so that we are able to make an informed analysis and critique. This course helps us a lot to compare the German discipline related point of view with the American perspective and by this is enriching our ways of thinking and recessing our diagnostic abilities. We hope that this class will help us to correctly identify and distinguish different mental disabilities that might occur in children, adolescents and adults.

Of great value to us is also an extracurricular proseminar arranged by the Center for Developmental Science.  The consortium series is titled Exploring the relation between parent psychopathology and the development of children’s emotion regulation. The focus of this series is to explore whether and how parental psychopathology is associated with children’s emotion regulation. The course started with an overview of the development of emotion regulation in early and middle childhood. A range of forms of parent psychopathology (e.g., alcoholism, depression, borderline personality disorder) and their impact on children’s emotion regulation are discussed.  In examining the questions of causes and correlates, the course`s goal is to consider mechanisms of vulnerability and protection that move across a range of levels of analysis, particularly including genetics and biology, family and individual characteristics, and even larger societal contexts, such as neighborhoods and poverty. The very up to date research results presented there are of inestimable value to us, as they set the basis for developing new specific intervention strategies and practices.

To sum it all up we are very happy and grateful for this experience and we really feel that we learn lot things that are of irreplaceable value to us.

Courses Part 2: Social Work

We really appreciate the opportunity to attend several graduate courses provided by the School of Social Work. The UNC School of Social Work is consistently ranked as one of the best in the nation and offers a variety of outstanding seminars concerning child and adolescent development as well as the work with families.

The course Child Mental Health: Theory & Practice presents knowledge and theories from various disciplines to understand mental health and well-being in children and their families with an emphasis on gaining practice skills. In the course of the seminar we review and discuss key diagnostic, treatment, and prevention issues associated with the mental health care needs of children and their families, also based on the personal experience of the participating graduate students. It is demonstrated how diversity issues such as race/ethnicity, culture, poverty, education, sexual orientation, and geography affect children and their families, and their relevance for assessment, treatment, and case supervision and management. Furthermore we examine the American child mental health service network (including child welfare) as well as the legal framework in which children and their parents/caregivers seek treatment in the US. We highly value the active learning environment in the course and the variety of teaching methods applied by the instructor. Personally we benefit a lot from the practical experience shared by the course participants. 

A great addition to the Child Mental Health course described above is the seminar Adolescent Mental Health: Theory and Practice. It covers mental health problems both in childhood and adolescence and also addresses the biological and pharmaceutical point of view. At the beginning of the seminar we read and discussed two fascinating books with contrasting approaches on the treatment of child abuse, neglect and trauma. We were especially touched by Perry’s (2006) “The boy who was raised as a dog” as the author writes about his own patients and his personal experience in a deeply impressive way. At the moment we acquire knowledge about the main mental health disorders from childhood to adolescence. Every session we also discuss current events concerning childhood and adolescence from the media. We are also looking forward to the second part of the course where we are going to cover social issues of modern adolescence in America. The high personal engagement of our instructor and the creative approaches he uses to give his students a proper understand of the topic are truly inspiring.

Another very interesting course we attend at the School of Social Work is Antisocial, Aggressive Behavior in Childhood and Early Adolescence: Theory and Practice. This course explores theories and methods related to practice with children whose behavior is disruptive, oppositional, aggressive, or otherwise antisocial. Emphasis is placed on using protective and risk factors to design ecologically, culturally and developmentally appropriate interventions. The course is designed to strengthen the understanding of the social (individual, peer, family, school, and community), economic (local, regional, and national marketplaces), and political (including the politics of hate and fear related to disability, gender, race. sexual orientation, and other issues of difference) forces that define and shape conduct problems in childhood and that, if viewed from an ecological-developmental perspective, inform practice with children and families. Very impressive for us is getting to know different intervention programs that exist in North Carolina and especially in Orange County.

In the course Families: Theory & Practice we get to know the development and role of explanatory and practice theory in family-centered social work practice and also concepts, selected theory, and research concerning family functioning and interaction. We learn a lot about family systems in the context of race, ethnicity, gender, age, socioeconomic status, culture and history and apply models of family functioning and interaction to frame social interventions with couples and families. Furthermore we gain awareness of the field of family life education and review specific programs focused on promoting strong families and effective parenting. In addition, major clinical and community intervention strategies for working with couples and families experiencing relationship problems or facing adversity and positive challenges are reviewed. Moreover we examine family-centered social work practice in a variety of direct practice settings, including health, mental health, schools, the U.S. military, and settings particularly focused on child welfare. The course participants practice to recognize ethical dilemmas and employ decision-making skills for ethical practice with families. We are acquiring these skills by first reading and discussing the underlying theories and then applying them in practical settings by role-playing different situations. As this is a small course, the learning experience is even more intensive and enriching. We really appreciate the personal and professional exchange with the American fellow students and the instructor. Her practical wealth of experience is a great benefit for us. 

Courses Part 1: The American Classroom

During several weeks of studying at UNC we broadened our knowledge and got to know different perspectives and styles of working or solving problems with children and families. All of us chose different classes according to our individual interests, which also overlap in some fields. Generally we noticed that the American classroom is in some ways similar to the German one but in other ways completely different. We appreciate that there is less distance between instructors and students in America, so that instructors seem to be very approachable and supportive to each of their students. In addition we noticed that students ask a lot of questions and openly share their personal opinion and experiences with the whole class. We like this more interactive and active teaching style which involves students a lot and encourages them to participate in class which enriches learning and incorporates more different opinions and points of view.

For getting to know and understand the American culture and classroom better, all of us chose to attend the class, which has been recommended to us by Monica and Susanna (the two Portuguese GEDS students, who visited the UNC in spring 2010). The course Communicating in the American University Classroom aims at preparing international Teaching Assistants for being an instructor at UNC. The focus of the course lies on enhancing cross-cultural communication and understanding, English pronunciation, basic teaching skills (mimic, tone of voice, body-language; cultural differences in those) and topics necessary for effective interaction in the American classroom.  In the course of fulfilling the assignments of this class all of us were able to learn more about our personal teaching abilities and present deficits that we still display and need to work on. Each of us gave a short microteaching presentation in which she defined and explained a discipline-related term to an American undergraduate class. The aim was not only to provide an understanding but also to actively evolve the students and help them comprehend and apply the term. The students gave each of us a feedback and made suggestions for how to improve our teaching. Furthermore, the sessions were videotaped so that we could watch ourselves teaching and could notice mistakes we made. We all considered this experience as being extremely important to us and expect to improve our active and interactive teaching skills a lot by attending this class. 

Celebrating 125 years of the School of Education

In the end of September the School of Education celebrated its 125th anniversary (1885 -2010).

Lots of alumni gathered to discuss the future of teaching. The School held the anniversary with a daylong celebration, offering different panel discussions around the theme “Stories That Changed the Face of Public Education”. Besides that, the Alumni Achievement Awards were presented and school reform leader Phil Schlechty gave a  keynote address in the Carolina Inn Hotel. Of special interest to us was the panel discussion of “Leading the Way for Children with Special Needs”. The panel members discussed the most influential issues/ moments in the field of special education in the past 125 years and what  the School of Education needs to do in the years ahead to support leadership for exceptional children. Several speakers stated that in the future, teaching styles will have to change to accommodate the wide variety of students and their learning styles and they stressed the need of creativity in teaching.

Happy anniversary!

Dorothea Dix Hospital

Last week we had the great possibility to accompany one of our instructors to the Dorothea Dix Hospital where he gave an interesting lecture about the ICF-CY (The International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health for Children and Youth).

The Dorothea Dix Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located on Dix Hill in Raleigh. It opened in 1856 and was named later in honor of Dorothea Dix who had called for reform in the care of mentally ill patients.

The Dorothea Dix Hospital serves as the regional psychiatric hospital for the 8-county South Central Region of the Department of Health and Human Services. It collaborates with community-based mental health programs and provides evaluation, treatment and rehabilitative services for the mentally ill.

A team of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and other trained professionals work together to provide individual care both for outpatients and for inpatients. Altogether the hospital serves about 200 patients.

After the lecture we had the possibility to talk to some of the psychologists and psychiatrists about different therapeutic strategies, the process of assessment and its limitations and about actual financial problems the hospital is faced with. We are invited to join a case review and we really hope to be able to do so soon.

University starts!

Dear all,

After the first two introductory weeks, we were very excited when university started on August 24^th. It was fascinating to observe how Chapel Hill filled with more and more students from all over the country and even the world (four German girls included :-). 

The whole town and all its citizens extended a warm welcome to “their” students and celebrated their return. Everywhere they put up huge welcome banners in the UNC colors white and light blue and even all the busses had illuminated displays saying “Celebrating UNC’s Week of Welcome”. We were very impressed!

In our first week at the university we got the great opportunity to participate in the “Jumpstart! Preparation for Practice” program at the school of social work. This program provided an introduction to all new social work master students and included diverse activities and workshops.

In the context of “Jumpstart” some of us attended the “A Day in the Life of a Social Worker” Cracker Barrel Sessions. A cracker barrel session is a 25-minute session, where profess-ional social workers out of the macro perspective (organization & manage-ment) and micro per-spective (work “in the field” with clients) informed us about a typical day in their personal work life. Every session was repeated several times, so that all students (divided into small groups) were able to visit all five sessions. Every session had a special focus: child mental health, adult mental health, families & children, health care and aging. Especially interesting was the session on medical social work covering the work with premature babies & their families and patients needing transplantation. Every single professional was very motivated and encouraged us to connect with her/him and ask questions. It was great to see how multifaceted the life of a social worker can be. 

Get on the bus! This was the slogan of the “Agency Bus Tour”, which provided an opportunity to get to know the social and health services delivery systems serving the “triangle” (Raleigh, Durham & Chapel Hill). During our interesting trip we visited three different agencies:

• Urban Ministries of Durham is a community center providing food, clothing, shelter, and supportive services for people in need. Professionals working in the center told about their enriching everyday work and challenges they have to face.
• The Orange County Senior Center offers a variety of programs including classes, wellness programs, trips and lunches. We were welcomed by a performance of the senior cheerleading group – very impressive!
• The Healing Place of Wake County is a non-profit recovery and rehabilitation facility for homeless people with alcohol and drug dependency, located in Raleigh. Participants of the program showed us their facility and gave us an insight into their personal life story. This was a very enriching experience we will keep in mind!

On the bus we also had some informative presentations regarding the history and culture of the Chapel Hill/Carrboro and Durham communities.

All in all the “Jumpstart” program offered us the great chance to learn more about the manifold practical work of social workers and the social/health services delivery system in the US. Moreover, we really enjoyed the time with the friendly social work students, who integrated us at once.