Date: Tuesday, January 31st, 2023, 12:45-1:30pm EST

Speaker: Amy R. Sommer, LICSW, Clinical Director, Center for Early Relationship Support, JF&CS of Greater Boston

This workshop describes the process of developing Project NESST (Newborns Exposed to Substances: Support and Therapy) from needs assessment to program services. We highlight select findings and trace how lessons learned have informed our understanding of engagement, staffing, reflective supervision, and training. This workshop will offer participants an opportunity to learn from the narratives of mothers in recovery—both our interview subjects and program participants—regarding their perinatal experiences and needs. As a result, participants will be empowered to make program design shifts regarding engagement, staffing, the role of basic needs, reflective supervision and training of health care and child welfare providers. Workshop participants will be encouraged to consider ways that understanding the dilemmas and complex realities faced by mothers in recovery may facilitate shifts in their practice.

About Amy:

Ms. Amy Sommer is a clinical director at the Center for Early Relationship Support (CERS), a center of excellence for direct services, training, supervision, and consultation that focus on the earliest infant-parent relationships. She holds a post-graduate certificate in infant mental health and teaches at the Infant Parent Training Institute. She has practiced, provided consultation, and supervised in home-based, healthcare, and residential treatment settings. She has provided training to practitioners locally, nationally, and internationally on attachment-based interventions; treatment for substance-using parents and their infants; interventions for perinatal depression; and program evaluation.