One of the questions asked of me yesterday in the interview concerning my work with Children at Heart Ministries and Texas Baptist Children's Home was: "How has your life changed because of your work with the ministry?"
One of the stories that came to mind was a happenstance meeting at the Texas State Capitol. I had gone to the Capitol for a public hearing on proposed legislation. As it turned out, the legislative session didn't adjourn until around 11:00 p.m. and the public hearing was canceled.
My spending time at the State Capitol was anything other than a waste of time. I ran into Judge Carol Clark from Tyler. She previously worked for children's protective services many years earlier, and knew firsthand the gaps and unmet needs in the child welfare system. As a judge dealing with child welfare issues, she stayed in touch with her calling to be an advocate for children from hard places.
Judge Clark introduced me to Dr. Karyn Purvis from the Child Development Center at Texas Christian University. The three of us camped out in the office of one of the legislators until the session adjourned. I asked Dr. Purvis about her work, and she talked about the delays in brain development that children experience when they are not held and cuddled and nurtured as infants. For example, an infant may cry to alert the parent that they are hungry or need a dry diaper.
What happens if no attention is paid to the infant's communication? Eventually, the child loses their voice. They intuitively learn that the parent cannot be trusted to attend to their needs. All of this impacts the development of synaptic connections in the brain. Of course, chronic maltreatment through neglect or abuse compounds the deficits a child experiences.
Dr. Purvis talked about her work with many families that had adopted a child from orphanages in Russia only to find that the wheels figuratively came off the wagon in short order after the adoptive placement was made or as the child became older. She also talked about some of her work with children in that group who were at a high risk of harming others or themselves.
Dr. Purvis was one of the most compassionate and personable individuals I've ever met. She had a playful personality and intuitively I found myself wanting to know more about her work. In fact, when I left the Capitol that night, it was with the resolve to learn more about Trust Based Relational Intervention, the model of care that Dr. Purvis and Dr. Cross had developed.
As I subsequently explored and learned more about Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), it changed my life and my understanding of how to best serve children. It was a very long process and there was much to be learned, but the model of care I was briefly introduced to that night at the State Capitol is today the model of care embraced by all the organizations with whom I served.
All My Best!
Don
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