Parents, wearing an ear bud, interact with their children in one room while a therapist is in another, behind a one-way mirror. The therapist coaches the parent on how to interact with the child in real time; parents learn what to do when their children exhibit behaviors such as acting out, aggression, defiance and hyperactivity. 

The therapy can be learned in two to three days of intensive group training, coupled with individualized consultation and practice at home.  All children ages 3-6 in licensed, non-relative foster care or treatment foster care are eligible as long as they have behavioral challenges and do not have a disability that would prohibit them from participating.

Caregivers who enroll are compensated for their time and effort. For instance, caregivers who complete two days of training will receive $100. Caregivers also will be compensated for travel costs, in-home practice and for completing surveys and other assessments during the project.  Meals and child care will be provided at all trainings.  For caregivers who already have completed their foundation foster parent training, the workshops will count toward annual training hours.

For more information, contact:
Stacey Grant-Savela
UW-Milwaukee
414-229-2311
sdgrant@uwm.edu

The award competition is sponsored by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, http://amcpros.com, an international organization made up of  several thousand marketing, communication, advertising, public relations, media production, web and free-lance professionals. As part of its mission, the association supports the efforts of marketing and communication professionals who contribute their talents to public service and charitable organizations.

Award entries come from professionals from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, PR firms, design shops, production companies and web-based innovators and freelancers from around the world.

 “We are thrilled for Jane, and this award is certainly well-deserved,” said Denise Pilz, chief program officer for Foster Care Services. “All our materials look so modern and attractive, thanks to Jane’s talent and hard work, and we are proud to display them everywhere.”

This is the third Hermes Award Jane has won. Prior awards were for recruitment design work she did for Cardinal Stritch University and a photo book she created as a personal project.

SAL is partnering with Brady, whose employees have formed a SAL team. All funds the team raises will benefit SAL’s Independent Living Services, which assists former foster youth. The Brady Corporation Foundation will match funds raised up to $2,000.

The bake sales will be held May 10 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in the atrium of Summit Place, 6737 W. Washington St., West Allis, and on May 11 in the cafeteria at SAL, 8901 W. Capitol Drive. Baked goods will be provided by Breadsmith.

If you cannot attend the bake sales but would like to contribute to this effort, please contact Michelle Schuerman, Advancement director, at 414-465-1386 or mschuerman@st-al.org.

More than 20 boys from residential will take part in Lifted, a multi-arts presentation by Express Yourself Milwaukee that will involve young people from eight area organizations. Our boys will be doing drumming as part of the show, which will be put on at Alverno College’s Pitman Theatre, 3405 S. 39^th St.

There will be a dress rehearsal at 11:30 a.m. and a 6 p.m. evening performance, both of which are open to the public. The shows are free, but there is a $10 suggested donation for general admission and $25-$50 for reserved seating levels. For more information, or to reserve tickets, call (414) 272-3498 or e-mail info@expressyourselfmilwaukee.org.

Seventeen children in our care will participate in the 3^rd Annual Wraparound Milwaukee Youth Council Talent Show and Silent Art Auction, which will be held at 9201 W. Watertown Plank Rd., Wauwatosa. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the talent show starts at 6:30 p.m. This show is free and open to the public. To RSVP, contact Kimberlea Warren at 414-465-5701 or kwarren@st-al.org.

“I’m providing the boys with the tools they can use while they are here and when they leave, so they can function better and stay on track,” he said. “We look for the tools that can enhance self-regulation. And hopefully along the way it’s fun!”

Ron works with all 37 boys in the agency’s residential program and soon will begin working in the homes of treatment foster families. When he is not doing evaluations and assessments of children’s needs, consulting with staff and therapists on treatment plans and goals, much of his time is focused on the rhythmic and repetitive (R and R) activities that calm the lower brain and create behavior regulation.

On a recent afternoon, that involved rhythmically tossing bean bags around with a group, running in large circles and doing push-ups and yoga poses. The goal was to get the boys’ “engines” running at just the right level, not too high or too low. They gauged their feelings before and after the exercises.

“It’s not bad if they say they are high or low; feelings are just feelings,” Ron said. “We want them to be able to identify their own feelings and energy levels and to find out what activities get them to just right.”

Ron’s work focuses on giving the kids understanding and control of their own behavior.

“When they begin to have that, they can see that their emotions don’t have to be the driving force,” he said. “They can see that, ‘I can influence the situation and I can influence myself.’”

Each boy who enters the residential program gets an OT assessment from Ron, the first full-time occupational therapist the agency has had in recent years. He then develops R and R activities that can be carried out by unit staff.  Along the way, he provides feedback to treatment teams and to families at the time of discharge on what works best for each boy.

Ron particularly likes St. Aemilian-Lakeside’s team approach and working within the framework of trauma informed care and the neurosequential model of therapeutics that are practiced here.

“I like the vision this place has, and I really like how the framework provides a way to target therapy for each individual kid,” he said. “And I really like developing relationships and trust.”

From its development, occupational therapy has been geared toward doing what is necessary to gain meaning from life, and that fits perfectly into St. Aemilian-Lakeside’s sixth of the Seven Essential Ingredients to understanding and implementing trauma informed care: finding a child’s reason for being, Ron said. Ingredients four and five, the role the lower brain plays in recovery from traumatic experiences and the importance of relationships, are part of Ron’s everyday routine.

“He’s a great addition to the team,” said Chris Kangas, a child and family therapist at St. Aemilian-Lakeside who collaborates with Ron. “He is becoming the personification of the whole TIC and NMT approach. He can role-model, actually facilitate and coach those lower- brain activities to help improve our programming.”

Ron started at St. Aemilian-Lakeside in January. Before that, he worked for three years at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex doing OT on adult and children in-patient units. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy, but he has worked in some kind of a behavioral health setting for 12 years.

Reflecting on the term occupational therapy, Ron said a child’s “occupation” is being a student, a participant in sports or other activities, or being a son or a daughter.

“I try to find the building blocks to support those ‘occupations,’ so they can have improved relationships and function better. And they need to know when they leave here there are ways they can be OK – and hopefully happier.”

One of Ron’s greatest joys is seeing progress in a child with whom he is working.

“When I see success in a child, it brings a wide smile to my face and it makes me want to yell out, ‘Awesome! ‘That is so cool!’ “

Ron’s hiring dovetails with a national movement sponsored by the American Occupational Therapy Association to recognize OTs as mental health providers, not merely rehabilitation practitioners.

“OT should be valued as a mental health modality,” said Ann Leinfelder Grove, vice president for Strategy and Innovation. “We have seen wonderful success with the sensory work provided through OT, and seeing that April is OT month, let’s all give acknowledgment to Ron for his dedication to finding hope and healing for the children we serve.”

• Of the 2,118 children who were in out-of-home care in Milwaukee County in February, 1,226 were in sibling groups, representing 58% of that total number.
• Keeping children together during out-of-home care minimizes what is already a traumatic experience and helps the children tremendously.
• At St. Aemilian-Lakeside, we strongly believe that keeping sibling sets together is critical when children are placed in out-of-home care. And we desperately need more foster parents who are willing to take in sibling sets.

If you are interested in becoming a foster parent, please contact us toll free at 855-GROW-HOPE or growhope@st-al.org.

A fourth grader in an elementary school in Washington County, Scott has been working with Adrianne Walschinski, a child and family therapist with St. Aemilian-Lakeside’s School Based Services. The program provides therapeutic services in 40 schools in Ozaukee, Washington and Milwaukee Counties, helping kids like Scott who have emotional and behavioral difficulties. Therapists work in the schools with staff and meet with families in their homes to help children heal and to avoid more restrictive, and costly, mental health settings. Referrals come through the schools.

Although Adrianne has been working with Scott for more than a year, she recently did an assessment with what is called the neurosequential model of therapeutics, or NMT. This inventive therapeutic approach, which is based in neuroscience, assesses current functioning and produces a brain map that identifies a child’s strengths and deficiencies and recommends interventions to change behavior. Within a week everyone involved in Scott’s life saw a dramatic change.

“He is making remarkable progress, and I’m pretty excited about it; his teacher said he is doing really, really well,” Adrianne said. “His parents are also very excited and happy to see so much progress in such a short amount of a time.”

Adrianne started by doing a sensory checklist with Scott to identify activities he might like that are known to calm and soothe the lower-brain activity that spurs acting out and to regulate behavior. The rhythmic and repetitive activities included rocking in a rocker, running, going for a walk, and bouncing a ball.

Scott begins his day in a special education classroom before school starts to check in with his teacher and do a regulating activity before he goes to a regular classroom. Once there, if he feels uncomfortable or on the verge of an emotional meltdown, Scott will hold up a note card indicating he wants to return to the special ed room. That classroom has fewer children and offers a better setting for the activities he needs to calm himself.

Adrianne works with Scott’s special education teacher and school principal, teaching them about NMT and how they can help the boy promote self-regulation and strengthen the relationships that also are critical to success. Adrianne comes to the school once a week to support them in implementing successful strategies.

The goal is to have Scott engage in necessary activities multiple times a day so that he can stay regulated. The school has committed to doing a regulating activity with Scott every 30 minutes.

“Part of our role as therapists in a school setting is to create a perspective shift for the teachers, so they are not just reacting to behaviors but rather being proactive,” Adrianne said. “These kids are not being defiant, they are not choosing to misbehave; our job is to be detectives and figure out why.

“When teachers have an open mind to this new approach to therapy and are willing to work with us, we can make good progress ….  Schools look to us to do the things they are not able to do, and we can be the bridge between school and home.”

Scott likes all the activities and recognizes when he is having good days. Adrianne hopes that Scott will be able to transition back to a regular class and progress through school with his peers.

“He can’t be an 18-year-old and have the meltdowns he’s been having,” Adrianne said. “He’s very sociable, he’s funny and he is very smart. He just really struggles. He’s definitely a work in progress, but it’s nice to see the great progress he is now making. Now I feel there is hope.”

To learn more about the School Based Services program, click here: http://www.st-al.org/services/school-based-services/

Sessions will be held 4-5:15 p.m., at West Bend Silverbrook Middle School, 120 N. Silverbrook Dr., West Bend. The cost is $270. Registration deadline is Friday, April 13.

 Sessions will be presented by Erin Perez, MA, of the School Based Services program of St. Aemilian-Lakeside. The group will target one skill per week and use curriculum-based therapeutic coaching. Participants will learn through in-context social scenarios.

To enroll a child or for more information, contact Erin at 262-305-3365 or eperez@st-al.org

 When she joined the Employee Recognition Committee (ERC), she knew they wanted to do a mural on the wall of Family Room 1. Having been a volunteer for years, Dawn asked her 18-year-old daughter, Chloe, a freshman at the Milwaukee School of Art and Design (MIAD) if she thought any fellow students would volunteer to help. Four students stepped up to the plate.

 “They really took on the idea and added a lot of detail (to the ERC’s initial design),” Dawn said. “They researched underwater scenes … and I think they had more fun than anything. Plus, who gets to paint on a wall!”

Then Dawn went to several businesses with whom she has had dealings through a home remodeling business she and her husband own and asked for help. That resulted in donations of all the paint plus $100. Dawn’s business donated brushes, drop cloths and other necessary items.

 What was expected to be one day of work ended up spanning 40 hours, with the MIAD students working nights and a weekend to complete the mural.

 “It’s traumatizing for a child to be removed from a home, then to have to come and visit in a sterile environment can be depressing,” Dawn said about the children and families who use the room as part of agency services. “Now people are saying the room is beautiful, awesome. Plus, the kids (volunteers) said they had such a good time they would do it again.”

The award honors and thanks child welfare professionals for “making a positive impact on the lives of children, parents and families… and the future of the state through their dedication to helping those who are most vulnerable and in need of help.”

Lisa was chosen because of her “extraordinary commitment to the children and families you serve,” according to DCF. “We understand that your dedicated service to the social work profession has impacted the lives of many in your community.”

Lisa will attend an award ceremony on March 26 in Madison with Tim Grove, chief program officer at IFS, who nominated her for the award. She will receive the award from DCF Secretary Eloise Anderson.

“Lisa has been in the social work field a number of years, yet she remains fresh in her outlook and is always willing to take on new challenges,” said Mike Boeder, vice president at IFS. “She is quick to take on leadership responsibilities and is a true advocate for youth and families. We were thrilled that she won this award, and we are very proud of her.”

Lisa has been with the Intensive In-Home Services Program (formerly known as Safety Services) since its inception within the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare (BMCW), in 1998. She began her career as a case manager, moved up to a supervisor, and shortly thereafter becoming a program manager. She has been a leader in Intensive In-Home Services during her tenure within the BMCW and a member of the management team since the creation of IFS in 2009.

“Lisa is highly organized and efficient, genuine, caring and always maintains a sense of humor,” Tim said. “She is a wonderful social worker, leader and overall person who is highly deserving of this award.”

The award nomination noted Lisa’s years of dedicated leadership and her tireless stewardship last Christmas of a toy drive that resulted in at least one holiday gift being provided to all the children served by IFS, a total of 1,350 gifts.

“This was an incredible achievement in the midst of great change, as a new contract with the BMCW and new state regulations started Jan. 1,” Mike said. “It was also an outstanding reminder of Lisa’s intense drive, generosity and sense of commitment.”