Being a Resilient School Based Clinician

1. Being a Resilient School Based Clinician UFT Clinician’s Appreciation Day January 24, 2008 Andrew Livanis, PhD, BCBA Long Island University - Brooklyn Coordinator, School Psychology Program

2. Goals of This Presentation • The job of the clinician in the schools is incredibly stressful and can be quite overwhelming. • This presentation is designed to help school based clinicians: • Begin to develop an awareness of resiliency. • Assist in managing stressful situations at work. • Identify and prevent the symptoms of burnout. • Promote personal and professional growth.

3. However… • I do not have all the answers. • I do not want to tell you what to do with your careers. • Really, I don’t want you all to think that I am part of this family….

5. General Outline • Resilience in Children • Resilience in School-Based Professionals • Burnout – the ugly opposite of Resilience

6. Resilience: the ability to deal with life’s challenges in a positive and productive manner…adapting to adversity.

7. What is resilience? • Represents the ability to deal with life’s challenges in a positive and productive manner. • Adapting to Adversity • Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or even significant sources of stress -

8. What is resilience? • It means "bouncing back" from difficult experiences such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors. • People commonly demonstrate resilience.

9. What is resilience? • Underlies successful learning and healthy development. • Critical to understanding a person’s reaction to trauma or adversity. • Plays a central role in a person’s recovery after exposed to trauma or adversity.

10. Why is Resilience Important for Children?

11. Resiliency is essential to success in school and life. • Adults can help children become more resilient. • Fostering resilience in children improves school outcomes and reduces risk behaviors.

12. Resilient Mindset

13. Sources of Risk Identified for Children Mental health problems Maltreatment Deprivation Health issues Neglect Poverty Violence

14. Common elements in the research Positive adult role models Socialconnections Personalcharacteristics Committed & caringcommunity

15. Research suggests… • Academic efficacy • Academic self-determination • Behavioral self-control • Effective school staff-student relationships • Effective peer relationship • Effective home-school relationships Resilient Classrooms…B Doll

16. Children need: • To feel competent • To belong and feel connected • To feel autonomous and have a sense of self-determination

17. Applying resilience to our professional careers

18. School clinicians’ risk factors excessive workload or number of cases lack of opportunities for advancement insufficient professional supervision school district policies & practices high student-clinician ratios being a solo practitioner unidimensional practice lack of appreciation early career status

19. Career development stages Senior Professionals (15+ years) Experienced Professionals (10 – 15 yrs) Novice Professionals (5 – 10 yrs) Advanced Student (0 – 5 yrs)

20. Advanced Students

21. The advanced student: • Self-focused • Rule-governed • Little attention to context of situations • See situations as bits of information • Evaluates information against own experiences • Frequently has anxiety, frustration, confusion • But, hopeful and highly motivated

22. Novice Professionals

23. The novice professional: • Mastering technical aspects, procedures, rules • Increased consideration of context • Needs help setting priorities, relevance of information starts to emerge • Increased confidence • Dependency-autonomy in conflict

24. Experienced Professionals

25. The experienced professional • Automaticity in skills • Balances skills w/empathy and understanding • Has developed schemata/ sees relationships • Makes decisions easily • Engages in planning, goal setting, considers long-term effects • Very involved and engaged in situations

26. Senior Professionals

27. The senior professional • Has paradigms, multiple schemes • Integrates across domains of practice • Feels at ease with complex, rapidly changing situations • Makes decisions using qualitative distinctions • Very skillful, involved, engaged,

28. Protective Factors • Professional competence • Professional self-determination • Professional relatedness • Professional connectedness

29. Professional competence Knowledge and skills + Effective management strategies

30. Professional Self-Determination

31. Professional Relatedness

32. Professional connectedness

33. Burnout – the Ugly Opposite of Resilience

34. Burnout • Serious problem in the helping professions • School context just adds to the stress of it all.

35. Those clinicians who experience burnout are likely to: • Leave the field altogether • Stay in the field, but operate at a reduced level of productivity.

36. What is burnout? • An interaction between individual characteristics as well as environmental variables which cause the following subjective states: • Emotional Exhaustion • Depersonalization • Decreased Personal Accomplishment

37. Multi-factorial nature of burnout • Emotional Exhaustion – • Overwhelming feelings of emotional strain • Subjective feelings linking the job to feelings of overwhelmingness. • Depletion of emotional reserve • Tendency to reduce involvement with clients and co-workers

38. Multi-factorial nature of burnout • Depersonalization – • Tendency to view and relate to children and their families in an impersonal, detached fashion. • Cynical attitudes towards children and families • Tendency to “blame the victim” for their issues.

39. Multi-factorial nature of burnout • Decreased personal accomplishment • Subjective feeling of incompetence • Thoughts related to not making a difference • Conscious judgment that efforts are not achieving the desired outcomes.

40. How does burnout develop? Depersonalization Emotional Exhaustion Decreased Personal Accomplishment Maslach & Goldberg, 1998

41. What types of things may lead to burnout? • Personal Factors • Environmental Factors Huebner, Giligan, Cobb, 2004

42. Personal Factors • Youth • The younger you are, the more likely it is you will experience burnout • Magic number is “10” years • Corresponds with the novice – experienced professionals

43. Personal factors • Youth • Has difficulty sorting the relevant from the irrelevant; unable to respond to context of situations; • Sees situations as many bits of information; evaluates information against own experiences; • Emotions--anxiety, frustration, hopefulness, confusion, excitedness, • Highly motivated; anxiety can interfere with empathy • Unable to look ahead • May lack experience or skills to deal with conflict • May lack effective time management strategies

44. Personal Factors • Behavioral tendencies • Low verbosity (introversion) • Low subjective self-esteem • Few non-psychology, non-education interests • Difficulties dealing with ambiguous stimuli

45. Environmental Factors • Conflict with administrators, teachers or parents • High intensity meetings (increased number of MDE, due process hearings, child abuse) or high intensity cases (severe behavior or DD problems, child abuse) • Increasing legal requirements • Juggling responsibilities between two schools

46. Environmental Factors • Inadequate assistance or beaurocratic walls • Lack of contact with colleagues • Insufficient recognition for the good work or prevention of problems. • Lack of opportunities for professional enrichment.

47. Personal & Environmental Factors lead to: • Role conflict • Role ambiguity • Role overload

48. How does a Resilient School Based Clinician Cope And Prevent Burnout? • Professional Competence • Professional Self-Determination • Professional Relationships • Professional Connectedness

49. Join professional organizations • Allows one to remain current • Allows for supervisory relationships to develop • Allows for collaborative relationships to develop • Allows for the sharing of difficult issues, and peer mentorship

50. Role Clarification • Role clarification • Identify what it is that you do and what you do not do. • Identify what your responsibilities are and are not. • Do this all in advance, before problems arise.