Updated 2/1/19
This course explores in detail the population served by community based programs such as BHRS and FBMHS – children and youth with Severe Emotional Disturbance (SED) and their families. The course begins with first hand accounts from adolescents with mental illness and their caregivers. Links to youtube videos, a podcast and readings highlight their experiences related to living with emotional problems and trying to get services. Although there is incredible diversity among these children and families, there are also some common patterns. These patterns are described in the second unit of this course through a 25 minute webinar. The question is addressed, “what family interactions maintain or exacerbate SED.” The implications these patterns have for treatment are highlighted. The third unit in this course highlights common multi-generational patterns that leave multi-stressed families crisis-oriented.
This is a Beginning Level course. It introduces therapists to the topic of serious emotional disturbance. The target audience is all behavioral health professionals working with children and adolescents.
Learning Objectives
- Describe common characteristics children with SED
- Describe common characteristics of multi-stressed families.
- Describe the impact of chronic family stress adversity on the development of basic social-emotional skills in children.
- Identify family interactions and multi-generational patterns that maintain and exacerbate SED.
Course Outline
- Unit 1: A Close-Up First-Hand Perspective of SED (80 minutes)
- Podcast: How adversity undermines the development of tenacity, resilience, and impulse control.
- Videos: The experience of parents in accessing mental health services for their children with SED.
- Reading: Adolescents with SED share their experiences and perspective
- Unit 2: A Clinical Perspective on Children with SED & Their Families (45 minutes)
- Webinar: The shared characteristics of children & adolescents with SED
- Webinar: A Developmentally-informed strength-based perspective on SED
- Webinar: What Multi-Stressed, Fragile Families have in common
- Webinar: What Maintains SED
- Unit 3: Multi-Generational Patterns in Crisis-Oriented Families (45 minutes)
- Reading: Generational patterns in families of children at risk for SED
About the Presenters
Click here for information on C. Wayne Jones, PhD.
This course uses an online distance-learning self-paced format. It includes recorded audio, recorded video-based webinars, and selected readings. There are post-tests to ensure comprehension of the material. Participants can communicate with the instructors via the online moodle interface. Real-time communication with the instructor in our online, self-paced distance learning courses is not possible. However, participants can send an email to the instructor via the online moodle interface within the course and expect to receive a response within 48 hours. All course content, including post-tests, should take approximately 3.0 hours to complete.
Frequently Asked Questions
Visit our Self-Paced, Online Continuing Education Policies & FAQs for additional information regarding the CFBT online learning center, accommodations for disabilities, reporting problems with the course, instructions for viewing webinars, etc.