"Trauma-Informed Care in Pediatrics"

Presented by Sunita Iyer, ND. LM

With all of the discussion of ACES and the impact of trauma in adult primary care and chronic health issues, it is clear that many of the concerns that we are seeing later in life arise in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. This is precisely why any provider who is specializing in or offering pediatric or family medicine, whether they consider themselves Naturopathic Pediatricians, must develop a skill set pertaining to recognizing and addressing trauma in our patient population and become conversant in Trauma Informed Care.

As Naturopathic Physicians we are very well poised to offer this care very well to our families and pediatric patients as we are often invested in their lives, the myriad of social and other dimensions of their health, and how their mental-emotional well-being affects their health now and later. And concurrently, we are well poised to absorb and be affected by the their traumatic experiences. As we become more conversant in Trauma Informed Care, it is clear that the impact of should be well families and well providers.

Learning Objectives:

1) Identify traumatic events in our pediatric patients' lives and the impact upon them and their families

2) Construct ways in which a provider can address these events and apply the principles of Trauma Informed Care

3) Calibrate our response to traumatic events in our patients' and families' lives according to our own recognized resources and limitations

Biography:

I have been in clinical practice as a midwife and naturopathic physician, and a graduate level educator for over 10 years at Bastyr University and the University of Washington. Teaching is my passion in the clinical, classroom, online, and patient care arenas. My background and primary professional interests have been women's and pediatric health, specializing in pediatric and perinatal mental health. I am also the Founder & Clinical Director of an integrative family medicine clinic, Eastside Natural Medicine, that serves as a teaching clinic and a site for an accredited primary care residency program.