Vol. 17, No. 2
May 2012

A Memo Worth Reading

In April the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) issued an information memorandum entitled “Promoting Social and Emotional Well-Being for Children and Youth Receiving Child Welfare Services” (ACYF-CB-IM-12-04). In this document, ACF urges child welfare systems nationwide to do more to attend to children’s behavioral, emotional, and social functioning—those skills, capacities, and characteristics that enable young people to understand and navigate their world in healthy, positive ways.

In explaining why this is such an important area of emphasis, this information memorandum presents ACF’s official framework for child well-being and describes in a very clear way trauma’s effects on children in six key areas:

• Neurological impact
• Traumatic impact
• Behavioral impact
• Relational competence
• Mental health, and
• Psychotropic medication.

A Must Read
Reading this memo will give you a clearer sense of what the federal government is thinking about trauma-informed practice, the use of evidence-based practices, and much more. You can find it online at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/laws_policies/policy/im/2012/im1204.pdf.