Online Course on Responding to ACEs Across the Lifespan

Restorative Integral Support for Post-Trauma Wellness: Responding to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Across the Lifespan 

Accumulated adversity and trauma in childhood is strongly associated with mental health, substance abuse, serious health problems, and homelessness. These interconnected concerns call for a comprehensive approach to helping people. The Restorative Integral Support (RIS) model guides the selection of interventions and services that can be combined within a flexible framework. Ideally, the whole community would be engaged in ACE Response. 

This free asynchronous online course was developed by Heather Larkin, Ph.D., and her team at the University of Albany. While designed for social service providers and program directors, this course can be useful for other family support providers. Continuing Education Units are optional and available for a fee at the conclusion of the course.

This training addresses intervention selection, leadership, policies, and organizational culture with an emphasis on provider self-care. The modules offer additional resources such as videos, webinars and articles. Complete the quizzes to advance to subsequent modules and accumulate credits towards optional continuing education hours.

PARTICIPANTS WILL: 

• Learn how research informs social work programs and practice that respond to the adversity and trauma characteristics / backgrounds of those served 
• Describe how “Restorative Integral Support” (RIS) applies research to assist families in achieving wellness after trauma and the potential for resilience and recovery 
• Identify and apply key elements of RIS to assessment and post-trauma wellness practice and program planning 
• Learn about emerging practices for supporting post-trauma wellness: the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Integrative Restoration (iRest), Somatic Experiencing (SE), and Mindfulness Meditation (MM)
• Learn how to identify and increase opportunities for interagency collaboration, including provision of mutual support among agency leaders with coordinated advocacy efforts and strengthening knowledge of program and community services
• Identify and describe how your own self-care, relationship-building and role modeling skills contribute to a culture of recovery and wellness in your agency or community as well as specific ways that prevention of vicarious traumatization supports your ability to live up to the National Association of Social Workers’ ethical principles 

Module 1: ACE Overview explores the ACE Study, different ACE categories, prevalence of ACEs and their impact on society, and efforts to reduce and prevent them. 

Module 2: ACEs, Toxic Stress, and Consequences further explores ACEs, the neurobiology of early life toxic stress, and some of the long-term consequences of high ACE Scores.

Module 3: ACEs and Service Implications explains how and why service delivery systems are being transformed to address ACEs and the characteristics of an ACE-informed program.

Module 4: Resilience and Recovery covers resilience, protective factors, post-traumatic growth, and ways to support resilience and recovery.

Module 5: Self-care and Vicarious Trauma teaches you to stop, breathe, reflect, and apply information from previous modules to yourself while emphasizing how self-care is key to living well and effectively and ethically helping others.

Module 6: RIS Overview builds on previous modules, highlighting how implementation of RIS includes a culture of recovery helping to break ACE trajectory.

Module 7: RISing Program Leaders reveals what supports a RISing leader and how RIS guides program development.

Module 8: Evidence-Supported Interventions (ESI) overviews and offers examples of ESIs and examines how RIS guides their use.

Module 9: Emerging Practices offers examples of emerging practices through a RIS lens. 

Module 10: Community Examples of Holistic ACE Response illustrates community movements that promote holistic ACE Response, stressing how you can contribute to, and/or start, community efforts to reduce and prevent ACEs. 

Module 11: ACEs and Homelessness discloses the relationship between ACEs and homelessness and reviews ACE-informed homelessness programs that use the RIS model. 

Module 12: ACEs and Healthcare justifies how and why healthcare providers would respond to ACEs and clarifies some of the challenges faced by healthcare providers engaging in ACE Response efforts.

Module 13: Course Review and Applications demonstrates identifying RIS elements in real world program examples

Online Registration Instructions 

1. Create an account at www.ualbanymoodle.net/login/index.php 
2. Click the confirmation link that will be sent to you in order to automatically log into the University at Albany Moodle site 
3. Scroll down to “Course Categories”
4. Click the “School of Social Welfare” folder
5. Click the course title
6. On the subsequent page, look for the section titled “Administration” and click “Enroll me in the course”
7. Scroll down to select the blue “Enroll me” button. 

The course may be stopped and returned to at any time. 

QUESTIONS? Please email sswceu@albany.edu 

CEU APPLICANTS: If you’re applying for CEUs at the end of the course, you’ll receive 12 Self-Study CE hours when you have successfully completed all course module content and quizzes, and have paid the associated fee ($180 for NYS social workers -or- $90 for UAlbany SSW field instructors). Please email sswceu@albany.edu after you’ve completed payment to request a certificate by email. The University at Albany, School of Social Welfare is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers.