Enrollment Limited To: 20
Contact Hrs: 1.5
CEUs: 1.5

Individuals with developmental disabilities often present to treatment with additional diagnostic statuses. There is well-established research evidence that individuals with developmental disabilities are up to 3 times more likely to experience a traumatic event in their life compared to typically developing peers (Hibbard & Desch, 2007; Reiter et al., 2007). Yet, many mental health professionals who work in specialty clinics dedicated to the treatment of either trauma or developmental disabilities often receive little to no training on working with clients with comorbid presentations – namely, clients who present with both a history of trauma and one or more developmental disabilities. In order to enable clinicians to better serve this unique client population, this course will: provide information on how trauma may present differently in the developmental disability population compared to neurotypicals, encourage participants to think critically about how traumatic experiences might be experienced through the lens of a person with developmental disabilities, and identify ways in which current evidence-based interventions for trauma could be adapted for this population of clients.

Sources: Hibbard, R. A., & Desch, L. W. (2007). Maltreatment of children with disabilities. Pediatrics, 119(5), 1018–1025. Reiter, S., Bryen, D. N., & Shachar, I. (2007). Adolescents with intellectual disabilities as victims of abuse. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 11(4), 371–387.

Method: Lecture, discussion, case presentation

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will gain a basic understanding of how trauma symptoms present in clients with developmental disabilities.
• Participants will gain a better understanding of how trauma may be experienced differently through the lens of a person with developmental disability compared to a neurotypical peer.
• Participants will identify at least one way in which evidence-based trauma intervention can be adapted for the developmental disability population.

Cost: $75 for non-WJCS staff

Instructor: Minh Cao, Ph.D.

Location: Live via Zoom

Westchester Jewish Community Services is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0101, and by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW0067 and by The New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0313

Please note: To receive CE credits, one must attend the entirety of the class. Partial credit will not be awarded to those who attend only a portion of the class. Therefore, late arrival or an early departure of greater than 10 minutes constitutes not attending a class in its entirety. To document attendance, participants must sign in and out of the class and complete an evaluation at the end of each class.

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