- | Planning Tool
This resource is a combination of two items related to trauma informed supervision. The first section has strategies for “tuning” in as a supervisor and the following section has questions you can use to assess how trauma informed the supervision is. This is not an exhaustive list but it can be helpful in doing a personal assessment. (author summary)
- | Planning Tool
This resource includes ideas and questions to help supervisors implement Trauma Informed Care (TIC) in supervision.(author summary)
- | Fact/Tip Sheet
This resource highlights supervisor staff support strategies, including ways to show appreciation, promote self-care and prepare for supervision sessions.
- | Webinar
Explore how breathing and movement exercises can help you manage stress. Discover ways to use mindful movements to contribute to your self-care practices. Working to manage your own stress can make a big difference in your work with children, families, and colleagues. (author summary)
- | Guide
The Home Visiting Supervisor’s Online Handbook is designed to help Supervisors become familiar with the unique and comprehensive approach of the Head Start home-based program option. (author summary)
- | Guide
This handbook provides detailed guidance, tools and strategies, and references realated to reflective supervision for West Virginia Supervisors.
- | Brief
As a part of the Region X Innovation grant, this study seeks to identify the current strengths, gaps, and unmet needs in the home visitor workforce in Region X. In particular, it has been designed to help inform workforce recruitment, retention, and professional development needs to help ensure the well-being and effectiveness of home visitors in the region. (author summary)
- | Report
This report presents the first findings from the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (MIHOPE), the legislatively mandated national evaluation of MIECHV. (author summary)
- | Article
Background – The Florida Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program delivers evidence-based home visiting services to over 1400 families each year. Home visitors are integral in providing resources for families to promote healthy pregnancy, child development, family wellness, and self-sufficiency. Due to the nature of this work, home visitors experience work-related pressures and stressors that can impact staff well-being and retention. Objectives – The purpose of this study was to understand primary sources of work-related stress experienced by home visitors, subsequent effects on their engagement with program participants, and to learn of coping mechanisms used to manage stress. Methods – In 2015, Florida MIECHV program evaluators conducted ten focus groups with 49 home visitors during which they ranked and discussed their top sources of work-related stress. Qualitative analysis was conducted to identify emergent themes in work-related stressors and coping/supports. Results – Across all sites, the burden of paperwork and data entry were the highest ranked work-related stressors perceived as interfering with home visitors’ engagement with participants. The second-highest ranked stressors included caseload management, followed by a lack of resources for families, and dangerous environments. Home visitors reported gratification in their helping relationships families, and relied on coworkers or supervisors as primary sources of workplace support along with self-care (e.g. mini-vacations, recreation, and counseling). Conclusions for practice – Florida MIECHV home visitors across all ten focus groups shared similar work-related stressors that they felt diminished engagement with program participants and could impact participant and staff retention. In response, Florida MIECHV increased resources to support home visitor compensation and reduce caseloads, and obtained a competitive award from HRSA to implement a mindfulness-based stress reduction training statewide. (author abstract)
- | Article
The current, unprecedented scaling up of evidence-based home visiting makes it crucial to elucidate the factors and processes that promote successful program implementation. One key factor is the well-being of the workforce. Scant attention has been paid to the ways in which early childhood home visitors may be affected by their work with low-income, high-risk families, however. This mixed methods study examined Early Head Start(EHS) home visitors’ compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and job withdrawal, and their associations with home visitor, family, and work characteristics. Data included survey questionnaires (N = 77) and individual interviews (n = 7). A subset of home visitor survey data (n = 27) was linked with data from EHS families (N = 102) to examine the associations between home visitors’ well-being and EHS families’ psychosocial risks. Overall, EHS home visitors demonstrated moderate to high compassion satisfaction and more variable levels of secondary traumatic stress. The home visitors’ occupational stress and well-being were associated with home visitor, family, and work characteristics. For example, home visitors’ secondary traumatic stress was associated with EHS families’ psychosocial risks. Home visitors’ burnout was associated with job withdrawal. Both quantitative and qualitative data showed that home visitors were exposed to varying levels of EHS family risk and trauma, and that some home visitors were deeply affected by this exposure. (author abstract)