Events

Topic Description: Children exposed to parental substance misuse suffer from high rates of abuse, neglect, traumatic loss and posttraumatic sequelae.  Moreover, an estimated 40-80% of families involved with child protection services due to child abuse or neglect involve substance abuse in the home.   With the high rates of substance use disorders including opioid use disorders, and rising rates of death from drug overdose, services to meet the needs of the children and youth whose parents are addicted to alcohol, opioids and other drugs are sorely lacking.  This talk will provide an overview of the effects of parental substance misuse on children and youth, with special focus on the association between parental substance misuse and child trauma.  Models for treating traumatized children that have high relevance and utility for children and youth coming from substance misusing families will be discussed.

Presenter Bio: Kay Jankowski, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, and Associate Director of the Dartmouth Trauma Interventions Research Center, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. She received her Doctorate in Psychology from the University of Vermont and completed her internship and post-doctoral work at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.  Jankowski has published numerous articles and presented widely in the area of child and adolescent trauma, including developing and testing new treatment interventions, disseminating evidence-based practices into “real world settings”, and transforming child serving systems to bring a more trauma-informed approach to care and services for children, youth and their families.  Most recently she is the Principal Investigator for the New Hampshire Partners for Change Project, a federally funded (ACF, DHHS) demonstration project to improve the social and emotional well-being of children and youth in child welfare and juvenile justice systems.  She is also the Co-Principal Investigator for the federally funded New Hampshire Adoption Preparation and Preservation Project, with a goal of promoting successful adoption by creating a trauma-informed, evidence-based and adoption competent child welfare system. Jankowski also is a certified trainer for Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT).  She provides training and consultation to clinicians across New England in the model, as well as training in trauma-informed care to a range of organizations including mental health agencies, substance abuse treatment centers, organizations that serve homeless populations, and schools, and has expertise in leading learning collaborative models of practice change.  In addition, she is an experienced clinical psychologist, and maintains a practice, treating traumatized children, adolescents and adults at Dartmouth-Hitchcock.