SUPPORTING YOUTH AND FAMILIES

The COVID-19 outbreak has changed how we live. All around New Jersey, the youth and families you serve find themselves struggling. For some, caregivers have lost their jobs and youth are missing out on the social protective factors of attending school. For others, there are persistent worries about health and an uncertain future. You can support youth and families by sharing some of these ideas that increase connections and counter unpredictability.
  • Help families keep their days structured with predictable routines and scheduled activities such as eating together, playing games, or sharing culturally-meaningful experiences.
  • Help families and youth find time to exercise together. Especially effective in countering stress are movement activities such as dancing, yoga and other rhythmic activities.
  • Caution youth and families to avoid too much negative media that needlessly frightens and worries children and caregivers alike.
  • Help families stay connected and create opportunities to help others in need.

If you want to read more about helping families during times of crisis, visit this pre-recorded presentations by trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry
HELPING TEENS WITH THEIR EMOTIONS
Adolescence is a period of maturation and individuation. With that comes young people's desires in forming close personal friendships. The COVID-19 crisis, with its forced social distancing, has thwarted this important developmental process. As a consequence, youth might display a range of problematic behaviors that on face-value might seem negative, oppositional, and defiant. These displays, however, are probably just the tip of the "iceberg." Lurking below the problem behaviors might be intense feelings that reflect a sort of disruption of a youth's need for social development. These feelings tend to be akin to disconnection and powerlessness. You can help the youth and caregivers you work with by explaining the how young people's feelings are like the iceberg. Furthermore you can help families by using problem-solving techniques that look beneath the top of the iceberg and see the other feelings at the base. Another technique is to use psychiatrist, Dan Siegel’s “The Name it to Tame it” approach. In this method, a youth that is struggling with overwhelming feelings is helped to verbalize in words the names of those feelings. When that happens, youth are better able to feel centered and secure.
REGULATION CORNER
According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of regulation means to adjust, control or bring order. Regulation is a biological process which is so natural that we hardly notice it’s happening. But sometimes the process breaks down when we are dealing with intense emotions. We become dysregulated, make poor decisions and act in negative ways. One way to help your youth and families is to help them self-regulate through movement, such as dancing, yoga, or other rhythmic activities. Current research suggests that movement helps to build new brain pathways directly related to regulation.    
PPS 2.0 Resources
The PPS 2.0 coaching team is here to support your organization’s vital work providing trauma informed, healing centered supports for New Jersey’s youth and families. We are eager to share the great things that are happening among our system partners in these challenging times. Some highlights include:
 
Bergen County Resource Net HERE . If you want to see how another partner has reached out to its families visit the website of the Family Support Organization of Morris and Sussex Counties HERE .
Would you like to share something innovative your team is doing to support youth & families? Want more information? Email Dawn Kowalczyk or Stacy Reh .
 
Parting Words of Wisdom
“When we share our vulnerabilities and recognize in the harsh realities of this moment, it’s ‘OK’ to ‘Not be OK,’ we begin to reclaim our power and start to heal.” Lorraine D’Sylva-Lee
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