We at the Tulane School of Social Work are so grateful for the funding of the Porter Cason Institute for the Family (PCI). Each year the funds have allowed us to reach hundreds of practitioners and students with current best practice methods in Mental Health, Addiction, and the Family. We have also spread the word of the importance of the family in any solution to our youth violence problems in New Orleans through all forms of media.
Mental Health, Addiction, and the Family Focus
The Mental Health, Addiction, and the Family Focus (MHAF), established in the Porter Cason Institute in 2014, has graduated hundreds of students.
The Mental Health, Addiction, and the Family Focus centers around the evidence that healing is the most robust in a relational context. This focus is unique to Tulane University School of Social Work. Our program is a rigorous combination of coursework, focus related field placements, and our signature Journal Club/Community meetings component. The Journal Club/Community meetings component is designed to give the student opportunities to network and discuss focus related topics.
The focus is affiliated and funded by the Porter Cason Institute. PCI is the result of a large private contribution from a Tulane MSW alumnus for the purpose of training. Funds from PCI allow us to augment training with lectures from local and national experts as well as provide advanced training of professionals in our community.
The culture of this focus is developing creativity and courage in a student’s time at Tulane and throughout their career. Social work is both an art and a science. We teach the science and provide a place for students to understand and develop their own unique art within ethical and evidence-based interventions. We view it as one of our primary objectives to give students the courage to be comfortable in uncomfortable moments and to give space for truth and healing that may emerge as they develop this comfort.
Training and Exposure to Evidence Based Clinical Family Practice
We have incorporated our work in evidenced based EFT couples therapy into the advanced methods class that all graduating MSW students take.
We built a regional EFT community that uses best practices to health and strengthen families. We know that strong family structures provide the greatest support for children.
The Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy Project
The Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy Project has been very successful in training and community building. The Porter Cason Institute. Brought this method of therapy to the Deep South. We continue to build capacity for couples to receive therapy from trained therapists in EFT. We are providing training scholarships to agencies that see multi stressed families. In the 12-day sequence, each participant is required to show a tape of their family work, and live sessions are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. We initiated and supported a statewide steering committee to build momentum for the EFT community.
We initiate and support active study groups in three locations in the state.
Roots of Music
Roots of Music (ROM) consultation and support for traumatized kids, social emotional learning and adolescent training in financial literacy and investment. Current focus is on a Family financial stability program designed for adolescents and families to move beyond managing paycheck to paycheck and become competent in investments that begin to create intergenerational wealth. We explore investment markets, investment fundamentals. The students develop, vote, invest and manage investments for the ROM.
Consulting and training at Covenant House
We developed a Trauma informed staffing structure for reduction of secondary trauma effects on clients and staff. We also facilitated a client informed structure for addiction and well care services for adolescents.
Self-care and interpersonal biology trainings
We implemented self-care and interpersonal biology trainings for social workers who work in the homeless community.
Networking and Media Coverage
We have done many TV and radio interviews, and symposiums, including a restorative justice symposium at Dillard University. Our focus in these symposiums and media interviews has been to put emphasis on family at the center of ongoing community discussions. Topics include adolescents and social media, bullying, child abuse, violence, stress in family life, and family importance during re-entry after prison.
