NASWCA Region A Report

Amy Appleton

The Petaluma Unit of Region A held a successful and informative CEU event on Thursday, April 26. We were fortunate to have Loralee Carter, LCSW, a trauma care specialist, who presented on her 15 months in Afghanistan where she worked for the US Government and provided Critical Incident Stress Debriefing for the military. Loralee designed and put protocols in place and will be sharing techniques for providing support that is effective anywhere in the world. She was instrumental in assisting many victims of the October fires. For more information about Loralee visit her website at http://traumaintensive.com

Loralee Carter

We also heard from Petaluma Unit Co-Chair Margie Helm, LCSW, who reported on progress related to disaster relief in Sonoma County since the traumatic and devastating fires of October 2017, including an update on the Mental Health Collaborative that Region A is a part of.  Margie participated in the recent Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR) training and has participated in the development meetings of the Collaborative. For more information about the Collaborative contact Health Care Foundation Northern Sonoma County at https://healthcarefoundation.net/who-we-are/

Kathleen Adams

Additionally, we heard from Amy Appleton who runs the SHARE Sonoma County program.  SHARE — Shared Housing and Resource Exchange — offers a home sharing program to provide affordable housing to local residents while helping seniors age in place. Amy reported that during the fires, she was able to provide SHAREd housing for many victims of the fires. For more information visit: http://sharesonomacounty.org

Margie Helm