Door County TIC – Lunch & Learn

Learn about this powerful, peaceful means of addressing conflict. Then, consider how restorative justice principles can be applied to our work and in our community.

Presenter: Jennifer Moeller, Door County Family Court Commissioner and Register in Probate

Lunch & Learn Video: Introduction to Restorative Justice presented by Jennifer Moeller

Ways in which Door County is using a Restorative Justice approach:

• Operation Fresh Start: A program of the Door County jail, started under the leadership of Sheriff Tammy Sternard. Jail staff work with the courts and community partners to help connect inmates with available resources and successfully reintegrate into the community upon their release. The goal is to break patterns of addiction and decrease recidivism.
• Victim Impact Panel for OWI offenders: Offenders listen to speakers who have been the victim or drunk driving as well as other offenders to hear firsthand the impact drunk driving has on people’s lives.
• Drug Treatment Court: A treatment-based alternative to jail, prison, and the standard probation model. The justice system works cooperatively with treatment and other community services to provide each participant with all the possible tools needed to get into recovery, stay in recovery, and lead a productive, crime-free life.
• Pathways Adult Diversion program: An adult voluntary diversion program that provides support to individuals seeking assistance in stopping their drug use. Pathways referrals are received by law enforcement and provided with case management and treatment as an alternative to receiving charges. All charges are held so that if an individual is unsuccessful in their programing the District Attorney’s office will follow through with charges on that individual. Self-referrals may also be made when an individual has had contact with law enforcement, but the contact does not result in law enforcement issuing charges. Individuals eligible for this program must be low to medium risk of recidivism.
• Bridgeways Youth Diversion Program: A voluntary youth diversion program that allows youth the opportunity to participate in short-term case management and educational programs as an alternative to receiving citations. Referrals to Bridgeways for Youth come from law enforcement under predetermined offenses. If a youth does not complete their program then the original charge(s) are submitted to Youth Justice. Youth are assigned evidenced-based education coursework based on their violation(s). Depending on each youth’s needs, the youth is connected to community resources such as mental health or substance use therapy.
• Youth Connection Center: A program of Door County DHHS, the YCC opened in 2019 as an alternative to secure detention and other consequences for youth involved in the Youth Justice system. Youth attend a safe, supervised center and participate in daily programming focused on building relationships, building healthy coping skills, and establishing connections to their community. Many youth participate in community service and/or pay restitution to compensate the victim(s) of their offense.

Resource Links:
What is Restorative Justice? (website)
Victim / Offender Dialogue (website)
Restorative Justice: a Framework for Juvenile Justice (website)
Repairing the Harm: Restorative Justice (YouTube video shown during the Lunch & Learn presentation)

This provocative conversation is timely given all that is happening in our world today.  Two world-renowned trauma experts, Hübl and Maté, explore the interdependent connection between individual, ancestral, and collective trauma.  They delve into a number of symptoms of collective trauma that are “frozen” into our social structures.  Just as an individual’s trauma response can be best understood as an effective defense mechanism and adaptation to trauma exposure, so too can societal trauma responses.  You will gain insight into the polarization and “othering” we see all around us.  You will learn what it will take to move our hurting world toward coherence and restoration, and actions you can take to be part of the healing.

Cassy Schraft, MSEd, LPC
Behavioral Health Therapist
Door County Department of Health & Human Services

Lydia Haker, LPC
contracted cooccurring therapist
Door County Department of Health & Human Services

As our knowledge of trauma continues to expand and our work to be more trauma-informed continues, so, too, does our conceptualizations of treatment. Evidenced-based trauma treatments have undergone scrutiny to be distinguished as effective, therefore they have the potential to support clients in processing and healing from the traumas they have experienced. 

In our upcoming Lunch and Learn we will look at some of the therapeutic interventions available for treating trauma to help our community providers gain an appreciation for the treatments available and a better understanding of what the therapy process entails during trauma treatment.  Our focus will largely be on evidence-based treatment models, but we will also look at the anecdotal evidence of other popular and up and coming interventions.

• Therapeutic Interventions for Treating Trauma recording (video)
• Trauma Modalities presentation by Lydia (.pdf)
• CT-CBT and CPT Trauma Focused Therapy presentation by Cassy (.pdf)

The interconnected epidemics of anxiety, chronic illness and substance abuse are, according to Dr Gabor Maté, normal. But not in the way you might think.

One in five Americans are diagnosed with mental illness in any given year [1]. Suicide is the second most common cause of death in the US for youth aged 15-24 [2], and kills over 800,000 people a year globally [3] and 48,300 in the USA [4]. Drug overdose kills 81,000 in the USA annually [5]. The autoimmunity epidemic affects 24 million people in the USA [6]. What is going on?

Trauma is the invisible force that shapes our lives. It shapes the way we live, the way we love and the way we make sense of the world. It is the root of our deepest wounds. Dr. Maté gives us a new vision: a trauma-informed society in which parents, teachers, physicians, policy-makers and legal personnel are not concerned with fixing behaviors, making diagnoses, suppressing symptoms and judging, but seek instead to understand the sources from which troubling behaviors and diseases spring in the wounded human soul.

• The film. We do not have full access to share this documentary but you can learn more about the film and find ways to watch it here: The Wisdom of Trauma
• Film follow-up (Chat and take a ways)

All kids struggle from time to time. How they communicate that they are struggling has a tremendous impact on how adults respond to them. For those that communicate their struggles by “acting out”, the punitive response they get from adults may cause far more harm than good. This documentary explores what children’s behaviors are really telling us, along with which approaches work and which do not to help children cope and be successful in school and life. While some of the film describes a specific evidence-based approach developed by Dr. Ross Greene called Collaborative & Proactive Solutions, we think you will see some parallels to other approaches already used in our schools and community. We are not promoting this specific intervention. Rather, we will explore various ways that caregivers can identify the problems that are causing children to act out and solve those problems collaboratively and proactively.

• The Kids We Lose (full-length film)
• Film follow-up (Chat and take a ways)

In this science talk, David Williams of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health looks at the social and behavioral factors–including socioeconomic status, race, discrimination, and place–that play a role in triggering toxic stress for children and adults. He also discusses what effective solutions for reducing toxic stress and improving health must look like. Williams is the Florence and Laura Norma Professor of Public Health and a Professor of African and African American Studies and Sociology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a Center-affiliated faculty member.

• Social and Behavioral Determinants of Toxic Stress Presentation (video)
• Discussion Questions
• Speaking Up Against Injustice: IQEE
• Be An Upstander Instead of a Bystander

Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1944, Gabor Maté is a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust. His maternal grandparents were killed in Auschwitz when he was five months old. His aunt disappeared during the war, and his father endured forced labor at the hands of the Nazis. He emigrated to Canada with his family in 1956. He was a student radical during the Vietnam War era in the late 1960s and graduated with a B.A. from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. After working as a high school English and literature teacher for several years, he returned to the University of British Columbia to obtain his M.D. in general family practice in 1977. He has worked in private practice and in harm reduction clinics in Vancouver. As a physician, many of his patients suffered from a combination of mental illness, drug addiction, and HIV. He worked in harm reduction clinics in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. He is widely recognized as a specialist in terminal illnesses, chemical dependents, and HIV positive patients. Dr. Maté is the author of many books, including In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts. He is a renowned for his work on the topic of addiction and its connection to trauma. At this Lunch and Learn, we will view a TEDX talk by Dr. Mate’ on “The Power of Addiction and the Addiction to Power,” followed by group discussion. 

• The Power of Addiction and the Addiction to Power (video)
• Discussion Questions (.pdf)

Essential Oil enthusiasts, Melanie Bauer and Kathy Schultz presented Part One of a two-part series about Essential Oils. They shared information and experiences for incorporating essential oils into a self-care and wellness practice as well as how they have included essential oils into their professional practice. “Essential Oils 101” provides a brief overview: What are essential oils? Learn the history and origins of essential oils. Does quality matter? The proper use and safety of oils to support a healthy lifestyle. Explore the connection between aroma, the brain and emotions.

• Essential Oils and Wellness presentation (video)
• Essential Oils and the Olfactory System (.pdf)
• How Aromatherapy Works (video)
• Essential Oils Presentation Flower (.pdf)
• EOs and the Brain – Dr. Jockers (.pdf)

We will be taking a look at Post-Traumatic Growth and understanding why individuals respond to trauma and adversity the way that they do. We will try to answer the question of what it is that makes some people more resilient in the face of adversity while others seem to succumb to stress, and address what we can do to foster resiliency in ourselves and the consumers we work with.
Presenter: Cassy Schraft MSed, LPC
Behavioral Health Therapist – Door County Dept of Health and Human Services

• Presentation Video 
• Presentation Handout 
• PowerPoint Slides