FSS Onboarding Lesson 5: Home Visitor Wrap Around Training
Core competency training for home visitors -- motivational interviewing, trauma-informed practice, and goal setting.
Motivational Interviewing (MI)
Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative, person-centered approach to conversations that helps people explore and resolve their own ambivalence about change. The core assumption of MI is that people are more likely to make lasting changes when they feel heard, respected, and supported -- not judged or pressured.
Key MI Techniques
- Open questions -- Questions that invite fuller responses and exploration, rather than yes/no answers.
- Affirmations -- Genuine statements that recognize a family's strengths, efforts, or values.
- Reflective listening -- Reflecting back what you hear the person saying, including the emotion beneath the words.
- Summarizing -- Periodically pulling together the key themes of a conversation to help the family see their own thinking more clearly.
Trauma-Informed Practice
Understanding ACEs
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events that occur before the age of 18. Many of the families you serve will have experienced significant trauma. Understanding ACEs helps you recognize that many challenging behaviors or parenting patterns have roots in painful histories, not lack of care or effort.
Trauma-Informed Principles
- Safety -- Ensuring that your interactions feel physically and emotionally safe
- Trustworthiness -- Being consistent, transparent, and following through on commitments
- Choice -- Offering families options and honoring their right to make decisions
- Collaboration -- Working with families rather than doing things to them or for them
- Empowerment -- Recognizing and building on family strengths
Goal Setting with Families
Most home visiting models use a Family Partnership Agreement to document goals developed in genuine partnership with the family. Goals are most useful when they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART). Goals should be revisited regularly and celebrated when progress is made.
Learning Check
After completing this lesson, you should be able to:
- Describe the four core MI techniques and explain how each supports a family-centered approach
- Define ACEs and explain the five trauma-informed principles
- Explain the purpose of the Family Partnership Agreement and describe the characteristics of a SMART goal