Date of Paper

5-2018

Type of Paper

Clinical research paper

Degree Name

Master of Social Work (M.S.W.)

Department

Social Work

First Advisor

Rajean Moone

Department/School

Social Work

Abstract

In 2015, there were 14,680 children in out of home care, which was a 9% increase from 2014 (Minnesota Department of Human Services, 2016). All of the youth in the foster care system have experienced an Adverse Childhood Experience (Garcia et al., 2017), which makes them vulnerable to mental health illnesses and many different medical conditions. If a youth presents with behavioral issues and/or mental health illnesses, the common forms of interventions that they receive are medications and psychotherapy. Trauma-informed care (TIC) has been proven to be a beneficial approach when working with the youth in the foster care system. There is a gap in the literature on how my education the professionals in this system receive about TIC. Therefore, this study seeks to explore the education that social workers in the foster care system have received on TIC and how they implement it in their work with clients. This study used a qualitative research method to explore the research question: To what extent are social workers in the foster care system taught trauma-informed care and how do they implement it in their work with clients? Data was collected using semi-structured interviews and the data was coded and analyzed, which resulted in multiple themes and subthemes being discovered. The findings of this study support the need to implement TIC into social work curriculums and mandatory trainings for all professionals in the foster care system.

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