Shownotes
Olivia Kaplan is a life success coach at Carey Services in Indiana. In this episode of Wellness Matters for Direct Support, she talks about how they implemented trauma-informed care in her organization, what it took to train staff, and how trauma-informed care is used to support both DSPs and the people they're supporting.
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Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota
Transcripts
Chet Tschetter
Hello and welcome to the podcast. Wellness matters for direct support. This is a podcast developed by the University of Minnesota Arts Institute on Community Integration. It's focused on the importance of health, wellness and self-care for direct workers. My name is Chet Tschetter. I work at ICI as a national workforce consultant, and as well as I'm one of the Coeditors for Frontline Initiatives, which is a magazine we publish along with the National Alliance for Direct Support.
Chet Tschetter
I'm here with my colleague and co-host Mark Olson.
Mark Olson
Hi, I'm Mark Olson. This is Gen Z and I am a trainer curriculum writer. I have been a direct support professional for many, many years in the past in recreation, residential supports, vocational and advocacy support, and currently for a family member. Today we are going to talk about trauma informed care, and I'd like to introduce our guest, Olivia Kaplan.
Mark Olson
Olivia has her MSW specializing in mental health and addiction. She works for Kerry Services in Indiana as a life success coach. Kerry Services received a grant from AWS Foundation to develop the Life Success Coach program, using a trauma informed care model with the goal of reducing turnover and increasing the independence of individuals receiving support from Kerry Services. Olivia was hired in October of two thousand twenty as a late life success coach.
Mark Olson
Now, Olivia, our first question is how did you become interested in trauma informed supports?
Olivia Kaplan
Hi. Yeah. So my background, is in therapy. I did case management and, home based case management and home based therapy with, DCS and probation clients for quite some time before I even, entered the disability services world. And so a lot of the work I've done in my professional life, has been in the realm of dealing with trauma, people, experiencing, life long, history of trauma or sometimes just, moments of trauma in their life.
Olivia Kaplan
And so that was a big piece of it. And I think my own, my own history, with childhood trauma, experiencing, just a lot of things growing up, and resilience, and those protective factors that kind of balance out some of, the things that, you know, maybe you experience as traumatic events in life. You know, when we when we think about aces, adverse childhood experiences, my own aces score as an eight out of ten.
Olivia Kaplan
And so, thinking, you know, as an adult where I should be, right, for having experienced a lot, of a lot of trauma, growing up, I think that really kind of helped me figure out, like, okay, this is something that's necessary for people, having different trauma informed supports in their life, having people who are positive supports, and people who can really promote resilience and promote healing and having systems that are set up in a way that, that really, that really do support and promote healing for people.
Mark Olson
Now, one of the things you spoke of in that particular part was that there can be like small traumas that people have. What are some of the things that you've run into that are kind of those little small traumas that people may not know that that was really a traumatic experience?
Olivia Kaplan
I think when we when we think about, like, the difference between some things that are kind of these like quote unquote big traumas and like little traumas, maybe they're things like moving to a new community, right? And being really lonely and not having support or not having friends. Not not having anybody in your life that you can talk to.
Olivia Kaplan
And then that kind of snowballs into maybe different, different things down the line or, being bullied. Right. And that is something that maybe can turn into maybe suffering from depression or anxiety or different things that that come with some of those things. And those are things that we see a lot, to just in the disability services world, people who, have a disability that maybe have moved from home to home or, don't have natural supports in their life.
Olivia Kaplan
And so they are really lonely. Or experienced bullying and things like that.
Mark Olson
Well, I know from my experience in providing support, there were so many folks that I would guess probably experience that people that receive supports, because of the staff turnover that they deal with. Yeah. And so, I mean, that might be one of those little ones for, for some folks. Others, it might be a. So,
Olivia Kaplan
Yeah, absolutely.
Mark Olson
You have question. I.
Chet Tschetter
Yeah, that's what we were going to go kind of next is Olivia. Could you tell us what. I've heard it phrased a couple different ways. Trauma informed care or trauma informed supports. Tell us what that is and how does it affect, people with intellectual disabilities? And I think, you know, the example that you just brought up now, Mark, is such a such a good one because we know that it happens so often.
Olivia Kaplan
Yeah. Yeah. So the way that we kind of define trauma informed care, like if were to boil it down to its most simplest of terms, I guess would be really a shift in the way we see people, kind of shifting from this mindset of what's wrong with you to what happened to you, right? So when somebody is, you know, acting a certain way or behaving a certain way or doing something that maybe, is irritating to us or that we don't agree with or we just can't understand.
Olivia Kaplan
Instead of slipping into this mindset of like, man, what is wrong with you? I can't believe you would do something like that or whatever, right? This place of frustration or irritation, we kind of flip that around and think, okay, what might have happened back here? That's causing this response now, right? Chances are maybe something did happen.
Olivia Kaplan
To that person, that is creating a response in this moment, whether we know about it or we don't. And so really, trauma, yeah. Trauma informed care is really just, a systematic way, in the way that that we see people.
Chet Tschetter
Yeah. And I think just really to step back and and think about that, you know, what, what has this person gone through in their life and what may be affecting the way that they're they're responding to me now. It might seem like they're really like, overreacting to something, but we don't know what's underneath all of that.
Olivia Kaplan
Right? And I think that kind of goes back to even having a more comprehensive understanding of even what trauma is. Right? Like, like everybody has experience with trauma is different and it impacts people differently. Whether you have a disability, whether you don't, whether you've, you know, lived 70 years of life, whether you know your family of origin, your experience in different places, our our perception, and the way we intake information and understand the world impacts the way that we perceive, trauma and how we how we understand it, how we deal with it.
Olivia Kaplan
And so, my understanding of trauma informed care even is impacted by what I even believe that trauma is, and so when we're talking about trauma, understanding that it's, it really is just a significant life event that maybe happened to me or even somebody that I care about. And it's impacted the way that I think, feel, behave, interact with the world around me.
Olivia Kaplan
And so having that understanding then shifts the way that maybe I can understand and interact with another person.
Chet Tschetter
Right. Boy, that makes a lot of sense. Mark. Yep.
Mark Olson
So so why is it important to adopt a trauma informed approach when supporting people with intellectual disability?
Olivia Kaplan
Yeah. I think well, that's I think a multi-faceted question. Right. I think it's, you know, it's it seems.
Olivia Kaplan
Simple and it seems simple.
Olivia Kaplan
On the outset, but, I think honestly, I think trauma, a trauma informed approach is important just for people in general. Right. I think it's important for people who are, important for people who are who don't have disabilities. I think it's important for people who are in schools. I think it's important for people who do have disabilities.
Olivia Kaplan
Because there's a lot of things that we just don't know about people. I mean, for people who have disabilities, like a lot of times there's we do know a lot of stuff that's happened in their life because we get, you know, when they come to our agency, we get, pxp. Right. They're person centered. There's support plans, right?
Olivia Kaplan
We get their behavior plans, we get we get all this paperwork and all of these plans that come with people, that sometimes outline a lot of really personal details about their life and help us to to care for them and to treat them in a way that is really informed by what's gone on in their life. But there's always going to be things that we don't know about people.
Olivia Kaplan
And so adopting, a trauma informed care model or a trauma informed way of caring for people, just accounts for that margin, right? It just accounts for the things that maybe we don't know. If I only was sensitive to people, when I knew that they've been through something difficult, like, I wouldn't be sensitive to the majority of the people in the world because majority of the people are not going to tell me when they've been through something hard, right?
Olivia Kaplan
When they've experienced trauma. Because I don't know. I don't know about you, but I don't want to go around and have to tell every single person that I encounter all of the terrible things that happened in my life in order to be treated with dignity and respect. Yeah.
Chet Tschetter
Thank goodness you don't have to wear that on our name badges or something, right?
Olivia Kaplan
Right.
Olivia Kaplan
And so and so, especially for people who have disabilities, sometimes cognitively, they don't have the ability to share some of those things, maybe verbally, their verbal ability, maybe they communicate differently. And so there's a barrier in that communication to us when they're talking with us or when they're communicating with us about things that they've been through.
Olivia Kaplan
And, and again, you know, sometimes they just don't want to tell us, they just don't want to tell us. And they've been through some stuff, and and that's okay. But but having this mentality and having this, this system of care where we're trauma informed helps us to care for people in a way that that understands, okay, majority of people in the world, it's like 70% of people in the United States have experienced at least one traumatic event in their life, higher for people with a disability.
Olivia Kaplan
Right? We can we can be sensitive then to to everybody and understand that that probably I should treat people a little bit, a little bit better. I can treat people knowing, okay, I'll be a little more sensitive to what they've been through.
Mark Olson
You know what I mean? I, I bring this back to listening to you share this. It ties so closely to some of the person centered thinking philosophies that I train folks. Yeah. And how when we do person centered thinking, we are talking about coming from where the individual is at and they're driving the bus. This is, you know, we need to learn about each individual.
Mark Olson
Now, when I, when I got into the field back in the 19 news, this was not really something that was talked about. And I'm sitting here thinking, and I'm going, oh my gosh, could I do some things in the past in providing support? Probably weren't the best things, but it was what we did at that time.
Mark Olson
Sure. I ran into some individuals that, you know, had been in institutions, talk about some trauma that they had experienced and talk about some of the behaviors, as it were, or the ways people were communicating that they needed to do something through that, that communication that, that, that, that acronym instead. You know, if I had trauma informed care in place back then, I would have done things so much differently.
Olivia Kaplan
Sure.
Mark Olson
So so I appreciate hearing that from you because it it makes me feel that, that we are at least moving in the right direction.
Olivia Kaplan
Right? I think about stuff like that and I think like, okay, so so I didn't know back then. Right? I can't like I'm not you're not faulted for what you don't know. Right. Like, well, I can't know that I can't do what I don't know. But when you know better I, you can do better. Right now that I know the information, maybe I could do something with it.
Olivia Kaplan
And I think that's that's really the most important piece.
Chet Tschetter
Yeah. For sure. Olivia, could you tell us how the organization you work with, came to provide trauma informed support?
Olivia Kaplan
Yeah. So, you had kind of mentioned this, but it is it well started as this grant funded initiative. So AWS Foundation, really, is a big supporter of trauma informed care and trauma informed supports. And so they, they really partnered with us and provided, kind of the first really this first leg of the grant.
Olivia Kaplan
And we're actually in our phase two process now, to really kind of pilot, this program because it hasn't we hadn't figured, a different place. I hadn't seen a different place where this had been really done in, in this way. Yet and so, you know, our, our agency kind of knew that that something was going on.
Olivia Kaplan
And had kind of seen different things within the agency. They were like, okay, this is not right, or this isn't going well or this, you know, we're struggling here and we're struggling here, and we're seeing a lot of like, this kind of common thread of people struggling in this way. And so they weren't exactly sure, like, you know, what to do about it.
Olivia Kaplan
So they did some, some research and some kind of digging and, and this was kind of the, the, the model they came up with. Right, was this, this idea that supporting people via trauma informed supports, would be really beneficial. In a lot of ways. And, and we know that, you know, that's the case when we look at the way that they're doing trauma informed care in schools.
Olivia Kaplan
A lot of elementary schools and across the country have implemented trauma informed supports and trauma informed care models, and that's proven to be really beneficial. So why would we not do that here? Right. And so the, the grant, initially kind of outlined in the beginning like working with individuals. Right. Like we're really going to we're going to start with individuals who are going to we're going to do that.
Olivia Kaplan
And, and when I started like ideally that's a great idea because individuals do need that support and do need, kind of that, that one on one or even like kind of a broader spectrum of support that's trauma informed. But but very quickly, I realized that that approach was unsustainable. Right. Only working.
Olivia Kaplan
With.
Olivia Kaplan
The individuals that we serve. Wasn't going to do it for DSPs, weren't using a trauma informed method. Right. Because I'm only one person for our 220 employees and one person for the you know, 500 plus people that we serve. Right. And so how do we create this? Like a complete culture change in our organization, where trauma informed care and providing trauma informed supports and being a culture where we are trauma informed is important?
Olivia Kaplan
And so recognizing, okay, we need to work with our DSPs to train them on how to be trauma informed and how to address, you know, the things that are going on in their lives and provide support and resources, and training to them on what it means to be a trauma informed environment and provide that to individuals, supporting our middle management and training them on culture and creating that culture for the DSPs that are on their teams and kind of and, and figuring out like, where do we start with that?
Olivia Kaplan
So I decided to start with middle management because we had the most struggle there. They kind of were the crux right there. Always middle management are always the people who kind of get caught in the crunch, where they get those top down directives and they get like the kind of the junk from the bottom up. They get all they receive all the complaints, and they're, they get all the directives.
Olivia Kaplan
And so kind of empowering our middle management and supporting them in a way where they felt like they could implement this kind of a program and they could do that with their teams, and they could empower their DSPs to do that. And they could support the individuals that were on their caseload and things like that. So, that's kind of the the really, really short version.
Olivia Kaplan
Of how.
Olivia Kaplan
We, how our organization came to, came to providing kind of trauma informed supports. But, but yeah, we you know, we developed a framework, an implementation framework model, that, kind of goes through this like this wheel and, process. I have an advisory committee for the program and the development and things like that. So that helps kind of with some oversight and direction.
Chet Tschetter
I just love, that really looking at what what are the DSPs, the direct support workers and professionals, what do they bring with them? And we we all bring something, you know, with us, as you said. And sometimes that that group of people that, are kind of overlooked. And we, we have to think about one another as coworkers of what, you know, what we've gone through, what our life has been like and what some of those things might be.
Chet Tschetter
So I really, I really love that the organization really looked at not just the people served.
Olivia Kaplan
Yeah.
Mark Olson
All right. Now comes the fun part. This question is one that gives you the opportunity. Like you know you're from the Midwest because we talked a little bit about that earlier. As are we. We don't tutor hard enough. We just don't being midwesterner. So here's a chance for you to talk about some of the successes that you have had with this approach at your organization and, and personally.
Olivia Kaplan
Yeah. Yeah. So I think, in terms of different like successes, man, I think that we've seen a lot more, a lot more just like relational success among different people within the organization. When I look at relation ships specifically, like for me, that was like a big deal to me was being relational with people and being approachable.
Olivia Kaplan
I see a lot of people taking advantage of resources and things that I offer, being connected to community resources, being connected to, different support services and things like that that we're able to offer through this program specifically. And that's a huge success to me, things that you know might otherwise cause people stress and anxiety with their job, whether it's, you know, I can't get to work because of transportation, figuring out childcare, those kinds of things.
Olivia Kaplan
All of that. I think another, success that we've had is in terms of this position specifically, I do a lot of advocating for different policy changes. And, you know, accessibility, within our policies at the agency, within our agency at that level, so that our DSPs, maybe have better, I don't know, this this some of our DSPs struggle to follow policies because either the policies aren't accessible to them or they're there to, high level.
Olivia Kaplan
Right. We write all of our policies in this, like, legalese. And so, like myself as, like a, like a master's level clinician. I look at this like, you know, 12 page document that has all these humongous words in it. And I'm like, do I really need or do I want to read that? Like, can I like paste that in ChatGPT and say, summarize this for me?
Olivia Kaplan
Right. Like, how are some of our DSPs expected to follow things that they are not one maybe not able to read? Two can't access. So I think that's been a big success too, is figuring out different ways to simplify and make things accessible for our DSPs so that they know what they're doing.
Mark Olson
Yeah. Why? Why did the executives are that? Why are they the only ones that get their executive summary right?
Olivia Kaplan
I want an executive summary. Literally everything, every level.
Mark Olson
And that should be written. It should be like the language level that people who are English language learners, people who, who, who may not have that legal background can understand.
Olivia Kaplan
Yeah.
Olivia Kaplan
So I had, I had read something once that nothing should be communicated above a sixth grade reading level. And I think I was at a conference when they were talking about, communication. And I thought, man, we really need to work on that because there's a lot of things that I'm like, I know that that's above a sixth grade reading level.
Mark Olson
Where we.
Olivia Kaplan
Even.
Mark Olson
You know, we when we when we write the curriculum work that I do, we write to a sixth to ninth grade level. Yeah. We try you know, we try and keep it around six it you know, sometimes just because the terminology basically we do. Right six to ninth grade level. And the one thing that comes into into play is sometimes there's terminology that needs defining.
Mark Olson
And so we'll define that in a better language to try and help people understand. So you're talking the same thing. Yeah the same basic concept. That in itself can be a trauma for some people not being able to understand well.
Olivia Kaplan
And when we think about when we think about this is kind of a tangent from your initial question. I think. But when we think about turnover and, and like why people are quitting, like are some of the things that we're asking them to do right at the outset just really too difficult? I remember when I went through our initial training week and I took our, our med core classes, I met administration and the second med core class, Med Corby, was all it's all, you know, psychotropic medications, understanding med interactions, these kinds of things.
Olivia Kaplan
ed from grad school in May of:Olivia Kaplan
So I wasn't that far removed from my graduate, my graduate education. And I was sitting in Med Corps and a med Corby. And I just remember thinking, oh my gosh, I took an entire semester class in my graduate school on what they're teaching in one afternoon in Med Corby. I took a whole semester class on this in grad school.
Olivia Kaplan
Like what? You know, and, and and we have like, we have people who are 18 years old who maybe have a GED, high school diploma. Right. They maybe are not not college educated, don't have a master's degree. Right. Coming in to do really, really like hard work, rewarding work, but hard work, caring for people and I'm like, dang, this.
Olivia Kaplan
Is a hard.
Mark Olson
One. And that person is really, you know, it's like, do they even want to finish the course that they want to stay and work there? If if they can't understand the material they're being asked to, to, to learn.
Olivia Kaplan
So and I will say like our, our nursing staff, our health officer state, like our nurse who teaches med core, does a phenomenal job at like really making it understandable. And she'll sit and study with them and and give like she does a great job of of really breaking down the information. But I mean there's some stuff that like is just difficult names of medications.
Olivia Kaplan
There's no easy if you're not teaching that.
Mark Olson
And I hope, you know, I still get.
Olivia Kaplan
I'm always that I can't even pronounce the names of the medications that I take.
Mark Olson
So I'm with you. I'm with you.
Olivia Kaplan
I'm like, oh my gosh.
Olivia Kaplan
And so it's just, yeah, it's just challenging. And I and I think, yeah, I don't.
Olivia Kaplan
Know, man.
Olivia Kaplan
There's so many things that.
Olivia Kaplan
If.
Olivia Kaplan
It feels defeating from the outset, how do we then on the back end, you know, with this program and kind of helping, how do we help to set people up for success? How do we help them kind of have this sense of belonging here so that they're like, okay. I mean, even though that was hard, I know that people here care about me.
Olivia Kaplan
I know that I'm valued here. I know that I have something to contribute. I know that I'm doing good work. I know that you know, all of these things.
Chet Tschetter
Yeah. It's a safe place.
Olivia Kaplan
Exactly.
Chet Tschetter
They care about you. Exactly.
Mark Olson
And that helps us celebrate the successes, too. And I think that's another thing that we forget to do quite often. Celebrate that success. Right. Somebody finishes that med core course that you're talking about, celebrate that with them somehow, you know, and, you know, it's like simple things like that are going to really help with the with I think the concept of, of maybe making people feel welcome and, and valued and appreciated, as you said.
Mark Olson
So.
Olivia Kaplan
And I think that kind of goes back to like, like thinking and talking about when, when I said at the very beginning, this, idea of just being relational, I can't celebrate with you if I don't know you. Right. If I don't know that you've been struggling, whether it's with, you know, a class in training or even just in your personal life or with something that you're dealing with, with somebody that you're supporting or, you know, whatever it is, if I don't know that, if I don't know you, I can't celebrate a win with you.
Olivia Kaplan
Right. I can't help you navigate something that's hard if I don't even know that that's going on. And so I think you know, so much of this, this job and so much of this program is about proximity. I can't create an environment for people. And one of the that we developed this well, we didn't develop the five principles, but that that's a core piece of the program.
Olivia Kaplan
Right. And so within this program, safety choice, collaboration, trust and empowerment. And so I can't effectively do those things right. I can't create an environment that has those things if I'm not getting to know people, I'm.
Mark Olson
Sure it was again, more slowly, the five principles.
Olivia Kaplan
Yeah, yeah, safety, choice, collaboration, trustworthiness and empowerment.
Mark Olson
And so those those are great course to live by when you're working with any human being. Yeah. So I really appreciate that you shared those again because I think that that does help people kind of tie it to even some of the other, other, resources they might have and show how these things all work together. So, chat.
Chet Tschetter
Yeah. I was wondering what have been some other important lessons learned, as you've been providing us?
Olivia Kaplan
Yeah, I think, gosh, we've learned so much.
Olivia Kaplan
So we're in we're.
Olivia Kaplan
We're entering into the fourth year, the second phase of this process. And, and I think.
Olivia Kaplan
I think the.
Olivia Kaplan
Biggest thing is it's really all about the culture. You really can't piecemeal, this you can't say, well, I'm only going to be a trauma informed care in this department. Like I'm only going to be trauma informed in this department. I'm only going to implement this program with with these people or with this person or with this staff or, you know, like, you just can't.
Olivia Kaplan
It's it has to be, a whole agency, systematic movement. And, and I think, another thing that like that was hard for me personally, and maybe it's just my personality because I'm very much like, I'm very, I don't know, bullheaded, maybe, strong willed.
Olivia Kaplan
A little Western and western.
Olivia Kaplan
I used to. I was called bossy a lot as a kid, and now I, I like to say that bossy children are strong leaders.
Olivia Kaplan
Well, we do the. And making strengths based.
Mark Olson
That's what we do that a person. What what's that mild negative. And what's the positive in there.
Olivia Kaplan
That's good. Exactly.
Olivia Kaplan
But but, like when I see something as like, man, this is a great idea. This is positive change. We're going to do this. Like, not shockingly, not everybody sees it as a great change.
Olivia Kaplan
What? Imagine what? Imagine that when you ask people to do something different, they don't want to. And so.
Olivia Kaplan
Yeah, people aren't, people aren't always going to want to make a change. You know, oftentimes they're fine if the change applies to, you know, those other people over there. Right. As long as, like, like that department can do it, but, like, I don't have to change my processes. I don't have to change my behavior.
Olivia Kaplan
I don't have to change my language. It seems like it's really just them. And so really kind of uncovering a lot of silos, that we're experiencing and like, kind of departments that need to work together, kind of operate independently until they really need to work together and there's some friction. And so, you know, when you ask people to change, there's a lot of pushback.
Olivia Kaplan
And they're like, well, I think it's a great idea for them. I'm like, no, no, no, it's a great idea for you too. And so.
Olivia Kaplan
It was a great thing.
Mark Olson
Coming back and.
Olivia Kaplan
Yeah, exactly, exactly. And so, I think.
Olivia Kaplan
I think it takes, it takes a really strong leader to weed out the people who maybe aren't willing to make the change. Right. You're always going to have people in your organization who just don't want to do it. And you have to decide, like, you got to determine what's more important. Do we want to move forward with this initiative?
Olivia Kaplan
Because if we don't, you just end up sliding backward because things continue to move, right? There's no such thing as stagnation. Things are going to continue to move. And so if you're not moving forward, you're moving backward. And and so like some people are not going to be on board. And maybe it takes them a little longer to catch up.
Olivia Kaplan
And eventually they get there and they're kind of the caboose. Right. But you gotta have somebody who's really strong and willing to have hard conversations. I think that's so critical, willing to say to people, hey, like, this is what this is what we're doing, right? Just I think a lot of times there's a misconception, between with, with, like, being bold and having hard conversations and people like, well, that's not trauma informed.
Olivia Kaplan
Well, no, it can be, sometimes, sometimes having the hard conversation is the kindest thing you can do for somebody, right? Like sometimes being honest and telling somebody, hey, this is an area that we're really struggling in. I need you to correct it. I need you to course correct because this is where we're going to, and I need you to figure out how you're going to get there.
Olivia Kaplan
Right. Sometimes it's the most kind thing you can do rather than just leaving them in the dark. And then all of a sudden, you know, you guys are miles ahead and they're like, wait a second. Nobody told me, right? Nobody told me that what I was doing was not aligned with where we were going. And so I think a lot of those things have been, have been big lessons for us in and figuring out how to get people, from one place to another.
Olivia Kaplan
And, you know, it's still always a work in progress. Right. I'm.
Olivia Kaplan
Curious, people.
Mark Olson
Some of the people that are the hardest ones to get on board, do they eventually become sometimes your biggest advocates?
Olivia Kaplan
Sometimes. Yeah.
Mark Olson
Yeah, I've, I've run into that before as well. The other thing that I've also run into is that sometimes turnover is positive. If you've got that person that just can't get on board with where you're going, it may be time for them to find their next thing and for you to find the next person that's going to be on board.
Mark Olson
And that can then help turnover in the end. So.
Olivia Kaplan
Right. Exactly. That's you're exactly right. And and then and having those conversations. Right. Like like me I, I'm usually the one who has to like bring that. So my position's unique in that I am my, my own department. My program is a standalone and nobody reports to me occasionally. I have I have practicum students, social work practicum students that will come in, but I have no direct reports and I report directly to the CEO.
Olivia Kaplan
So I also kind of operate as like this in-house consultant, where I see different things that are going on in different departments. And I'm able to kind of say, hey, this is not working great, or this is kind of the pulse of the organization or this people are unhappy with that. Right? And I can say we need to do something here.
Olivia Kaplan
Right. Like this is not aligned with where we're going. And it's not really my position to have a conversation with this person. But you as the CEO, you as the head of the agency, can address that. And that can be impactful, right?
Mark Olson
Absolutely. And that leads us to the next question. How does a trauma informed organization support direct support professionals?
Olivia Kaplan
So, yeah, there's a lot of different things that a lot of different initiatives that I think we've really tried to put in place for people, so that they feel supported. First we I created a trauma informed care training, that we, that I teach, during our new higher class. So every single one of our new hires, direct support professionals and, any staff that comes in.
Olivia Kaplan
So admin staff, early, head Start, anybody that comes into our agency receives that, trauma informed care training. So they learn about trauma, they learn about trauma informed care. They learn about those five principles that I mentioned and how do I apply those, in our day to day, what is trauma look like when it shows up? Right.
Olivia Kaplan
What does a trauma response look like when it shows up in somebody that we're going to be supporting? And how do I navigate some of those things? Right. Some tangible pieces. And, and that's one way that we can really support our DSPs is by empowering them with some of that knowledge. Right. I can't expect them to be trauma informed and to support people by being trauma informed if they don't even have the knowledge.
Olivia Kaplan
So that's, that's one part, and then also by me being accessible to people, I make it a point to go visit, our DSPs to talk with our DSPs to build relationships with, the, the people that we employ, so that they know that they can come to me if they need resources, support, access and connections to community partners, whether that's for housing for, food assistance, for transportation assistance.
Olivia Kaplan
They need help finding child care, whatever that might be. Counseling services in the in the community. All different kinds of support, and ongoing support, can kind of be channeled through this program. I kind of I talked a little bit about this, but but doing some of that, advocating for some of those policy changes and different things that maybe don't, don't really make sense for our DSPs.
Olivia Kaplan
Or, you know, if I'm, I'm working at a, at a residential home and not at day services, maybe those policies need to look a little bit different because I'm providing different services. Right. I think another thing that I kind of mentioned, just kind of bringing consistent issues to the forefront a lot of times, you know, there's such a disconnect from like sea level, executive management a lot of times.
Olivia Kaplan
And our DSPs, they don't always feel like they can go to our admin people and say, hey, this is problematic for me. Maybe they'll go to their manager, but there's five levels, in between a DSP and our CEO. And so kind of, you know, if they have that relationship with me, I can help bridge that gap.
Olivia Kaplan
I think also just, you know, working on engagement strategies, appreciation efforts, helping people feel like they are appreciated and they are valued and that, you know, if they don't feel valued by anybody else, they can feel valued by me. Right. And I think that that's a really that's a really, really big piece for me, with our, with our DSPs.
Olivia Kaplan
And being trauma informed is like, don't feel valued by me. And they can and I hope that they feel listened to by me.
Mark Olson
And so one of the things that I heard there is that, that you become and you use, you connect people to resources that can help them in their broader life as well, which I think is really also a part of it, because those traumas that a DSP might have might be about I lost my day care. How can I find some childcare?
Mark Olson
Yeah, those kinds of things. And so being a resource there, my car just quit working and I need it for work to take people to the grocery store or whatever, you know, how can I get it fixed? And finding those things that can help with, those things is, I think, a really good, good addition that the organization can do.
Olivia Kaplan
So yeah.
Olivia Kaplan
So much that's happening. Yeah. Thank you so much that's happening. And someone's personal life impacts our work life. Right. And if I'm living paycheck to paycheck, I can't afford for my car to break down. I can't afford to miss a day of work to, you know, because my kid is sick, right? I can't there's so many things that impact that that then that retention piece, that turnover piece, that, you know, well, I might as well just throw in the towel because I keep missing.
Olivia Kaplan
Work or.
Olivia Kaplan
Whatever that might be. So how do we come up with some different solutions for people. So that that we can we can maybe we can be a little creative, right? There are resources out there. There are connections in the community that can help people solve some of those, some of those more immediate issues and long term issues, that impact not only their personal life that are kind of challenging to deal with, but also impact their work life and then in turn impact the individuals we support.
Chet Tschetter
Olivia. Mark, just, ask you about some of the things that your organization was doing to support the direct support professionals. Can you tell us what sorts of trauma and things are you seeing in your staff members?
Olivia Kaplan
Yeah, so I mean, we we see literally every kind of social problem you can think of, right. You know, I talked a little bit about some of those more tangible needs food insecurity, housing issues, childcare, transportation. But, you know, we also have single moms, that are impacted by domestic violence. I've had DSPs in my office the weekend after they've experienced the sexual assault, trying to figure out, what do I do, with this, where do I go from here?
Olivia Kaplan
How do I show up to work? Right. How do I get, get into counseling? Do I talk to a victim's advocate? Right. Talking through some of those things with them? With DSPs who are veterans, who are working through some, some complex things. Right. DSPs who are grieving some excruciating losses, and still showing up to care for people, people experiencing generational trauma, battling chronic mental illness, all sorts of things that kind of impact day to day life on a deeper level.
Olivia Kaplan
That, that then kind of translate to needing more long term support. And so connecting people to local counseling services, in our community or, local domestic violence shelters, things like that, so that they can get the assistance, that they need.
Chet Tschetter
Yeah. People are going through a lot of different things and to be able to come to someone and talk through those must be extremely valuable. And again, as I said earlier, just that place, that safe place where you know that you can talk about those things and get the support that you need is is really invaluable. I would also think that, you know, you know, we know that some of the people that we support, sometimes again, show their communication through challenging behaviors and that that might be triggering for some staff members.
Chet Tschetter
And how do you support staff members who are kind of juggling that and trying to figure out, you know, where's the best place for me to work?
Olivia Kaplan
Right. Yeah. So that's one of the things that I address actually, in that, the trauma informed care training that we do right at the beginning, when they first show up, to our agency and they're going through that new hire training, I have created that new hire training on trauma informed care to be very discussion oriented.
Olivia Kaplan
For that reason, right. To be to be about like, okay, so how do you handle things like that? Right. Because, you know, let's say I'm struggling with this thing that's going on in my personal life, right? I maybe I'm, I'm getting into fights with my partner every single night. And it's really, really hard at home. And so I come to work the next day and I'm stressed out and I'm tired and and I don't feel good.
Olivia Kaplan
And I'm, I'm super reactive because that's how my brain is, has been trained to function now. Right? Right. Because I'm in this really, contentious relationship and when someone maybe yells at me at work, right. And an individual I'm supporting yells at me at work, man, what do I do? How do I respond to that if I'm used to yelling back, right.
Olivia Kaplan
I'm used to just leaving.
Olivia Kaplan
Just walking away? Well, I can't do that. If that person needs 24/7 supervision, that's not an option for me. Right? And so. Right. Figuring out how do I juggle those things, how do I address some of my own things, or how do I maybe kind of make this, this like mental separation of, okay, this person is not the person that I'm having these feelings towards, right?
Olivia Kaplan
Or how do I how do I manage my own emotions. And so when we go through training, I talk a lot about managing personal stress, finding ways to manage, manage my own stress, make finding healthy coping skills, figuring out, you know, what works for me. You know, maybe it's journaling. Maybe it's FaceTiming my best friend. Maybe it's walking my dog.
Olivia Kaplan
Maybe it's exercising. Whatever those things are, whatever those things are that work for you, doing them right. Because it doesn't help if I know what works for me and then I don't.
Olivia Kaplan
Do it right.
Olivia Kaplan
Guilty.
Olivia Kaplan
Sometimes.
Mark Olson
But as we all know.
Olivia Kaplan
Right.
Olivia Kaplan
But figuring out the things that work for you because, you know, in moments of stress, if we can figure out those things and we can and we can get good at using our skills, when we have moments of daily stress in our lives, when we have moments of big stress or trauma, then I know, oh, this is the thing that helps me when things aren't going well.
Olivia Kaplan
This is the thing that calms me down. This is the thing that regulates me because I've been practicing it. All right? So when somebody at work is, you know, behaving in a way that's not favorable, right? Or is yelling at me or is is triggering to me, I, I've been practicing in moments of low stress or moments of daily stress, those skills that are regulating for me, and I can use that in that moment.
Olivia Kaplan
I can do my deep breathing or whatever, you know.
Chet Tschetter
And it might be that thing that you think you do before you come on shift, you know, before you get out of your car. It's like, I'm going to take three minutes and I'm going to listen to a song that's going to. Right, help me relax or or get me fired up for whatever I'm going to be doing next.
Chet Tschetter
Get me in that right mental state to kind of switch gears. Transition.
Mark Olson
Yeah. In baseball, we call that your walk up music. So when you walk up to the plate to do it, well, same kind of concept. But you do the thing that'll get you motivating in a good spot.
Olivia Kaplan
So your hype song.
Olivia Kaplan
Yeah. You go.
Mark Olson
For me to write song.
Olivia Kaplan
And.
Mark Olson
Mine would be, by the way, Yakety Sax. So if you, you know, look that up sometime, you make you laugh.
Olivia Kaplan
Okay? Cause I, I always.
Mark Olson
Think of life is fun. So. All right.
Olivia Kaplan
So are you going to change that song? Well, that song be the intro music for this podcast.
Olivia Kaplan
Just this one.
Mark Olson
I don't think we have permission for that. We have to use.
Olivia Kaplan
You got to be, like, under 15 seconds clapping in order to it. Something like that. Copyright like we don't hear right.
Mark Olson
After.
Olivia Kaplan
That. No. That be great.
Mark Olson
So it would be, you know, areas. All right. Anyway. So Olivia, Olivia, captain, we would love to. Thank you for joining us today and sharing about trauma informed care and trauma informed support. It's it's it's been a gas, actually. So, everyone out there thanks for joining us. I hope you enjoyed this as much as we did. Tune in for future episodes about taking care of our physical and mental health needs as direct support professionals.
Mark Olson
All our episodes are available at Spotify and Apple for free. So check out the podcast there. Or you can go to ici.umn.edu and look us up. Just put in the search wellness Matters and it will pull up our actual page at the university. And you can click through subscribe and you'll be ready to go.
Mark Olson
We also invite you to listen to other podcasts for direct support workers, also developed at the Institute on Community Integration. Take a closer look at Frontline initiative where there are some more podcasts for you. Wellness matters for direct support is for the health, wellness, and self-care of direct support professionals. Because your wellness does matter. Thank you and we'll see you on on our next podcast.
