PFA-S was developed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. PFA-S is an evidenced informed approach to help children, adolescents, and families in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event. It is designed to address immediate needs, ease distress, and promote adaptive coping for the school community after an emergency incident.

Schools, teachers, and school staff are often the “first and last” responders for children in an emergency. Children spend the majority of their day in schools and they have the potential to receive substantial support. Under PFA-S, a variety of school staff can be empowered to provide this support. High impact events like school shootings, natural disasters, and global pandemics occur with low frequency but schools experience small scale emergencies every day. Suicides, accidents, community violence, staff or student deaths, and injuries are emergency events nearly all schools encounter. When appropriately trained in emergency protocols, and implementing techniques to reduce distress and establish calm, schools can respond more effectively to these events.

PFA-S is a brief, solution-focused, and strengths based approach with strong evidence of positive effects that last. It includes components of the best available evidence identifying factors that improve student and staff functioning.

About This Program:

This 10-hour professional growth program is designed to be completed over 5 weeks. Participants will complete a total of four, weekly asynchronous modules that involve reading, knowledge checks, and interactive discussion. A 45 minute optional focus group virtual meeting will be available at the conclusion of the course to discuss application of the course material in the school environment and provide feedback on the professional development content and format.

The modules include:

• Module 1: Overview, Preparation
• Module 2: Contact and Engagement, Safety and Comfort, Stabilization
• Module 3: Information Gathering: Current Needs and Concerns, Practical Assistance, Connecting with Social Supports
• Module 4: Information on Coping, Linkage with Collaborative Services

The development of this professional growth program was supported by the Federal School-Based Mental Health Professionals grant WI Department of Public Instruction (DPI) received. UWM School Psychology program received a sub-award from DPI.

Modality: Four self-paced asynchronous, interactive modules and 1 optional focus group virtual synchronous meeting.

Eligible Participants: 

School psychologists, school social workers, and school counselors practicing in K-12 schools in Wisconsin.

Cost:

Cost: FREE (Participants who complete all components of the program will earn a PFA-S badge)

Continuing Education Requirements:

Completion of this program might be eligible for continuing education credits.

Enrollment:

Please click Enroll Now to register for this course. The registration survey contains demographic information questions that we are required to submit as part of the grant funding requirements. This information is securely held and only aggregated data will be used in any form of reporting.

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Feedback from Participants:

“The manual was helpful and something I’ll refer back to in the future. I also appreciated the discussion prompts – they actually helped me realize that I’ve had experience with this but didn’t really have the language or rationale, so now I feel more confident in employing something like this.”

“The document provided many hands on, easy to implement strategies and procedures to follow which would be helpful in the stressful heat of the moment when I might forget some important aspects”

“I will feel more confident in working with individuals in a crisis situation.”

“I appreciate that this PD program was completely online, which made it easily accessible for myself and other practitioners across the state. I thought the discussion boards were helpful in applying different concepts from PFA-S and getting input and feedback from one another.”

“The weekly requirements were manageable.”

“The manual is very helpful. Having the questions that I responded to and could see the comments of my colleagues was very beneficial. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss this via Zoom.”