Hi All,

I would personally like to invite you to a session that I’m co-presenting on called Trauma Informed Care:  A Provider/County Collaboration on Thursday, 10:20AM.  This is only the third time that we have presented this material.  The first time was with my management staff at Ohio Valley Residential Services, Inc. and the second was with over 400 SSA’s across the state.

The presentation involves a brief overview of the Trauma Informed approach by Kimi Remenyi, Behavior Support Supervisor with the Hamilton County Board of DD.  Kimi is one of the leading experts in Trauma Informed Care (TI) in the state, specifically how to implement TI in our field.

As many of you know, part of the TI approach is to develop an historical timeline with a client, so to better understand when various trauma’s occurred, which in turn could give insight into the behavioral approach that could be developed now and into the future.  Developing timelines are very helpful, but can also be very emotional and one risks re-traumatizing someone if they aren’t careful.  We contend that the professional must explore their own timeline prior to attempting to help another explore theirs.   Although very risky professionally, I will share my unique timeline in this session, targeting specific events throughout my life that have had a major impact on me, including growing up in a home with a brother and father with severe disabilities.   If as a leader in our field, I can share publicly my experiences and insight, then hopefully you can explore your own timeline and gain insights into yourself.  We can’t help others, until we know what triggers emotion and behaviors in ourselves.

If you are attending the conference, I would love if you could come to our session.  I hope and pray it will be impactful and helpful to you and your professional path.

Jamie Steele
OPRA Board Chair

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James W. Steele, MSW
Executive Director
Ohio Valley Residential Services
2261 Victory Parkway
Cincinnati, Ohio 45206
Office:  513-281-6800 x102
Cell:  513-200-3695