PSU Magazine Fall 1994

housing market, family conflict. But whereas one problem can usually be handled, multiple problems create a kind of whirlpool that can pull a family into a rapidly descending spiral from which escape may seem impossible. Multnomah County i no exception to the national trend. In 1992, the county estimates there were nearly 3,000 homeless children within its borders. The most recent local esti– mates of homeless families come from a one-night shelter count conducted in November 1993. At that time there were 93 families in church shelters, vouchered motels, or agency-rented transitional housing. Sixty-three households were turned away for lack of room, and ten were living outdoors. The total number of children involved 14 PSU Magazine was 606. It's important to note that these figures represent only those families who have entered the shelter system, which is usually the last resort. Many thousands more are living doubled up with relatives or friends. Multnomah County has developed a relatively strong support system for homeless families, including several kinds of shelter and a mental health outreach programs. It contracts with seven private agencies to provide these community services. One of the strongest components of the system is the Early Intervention Program (EIP) run by Mental Health Services West. A creation of PSU Graduate School of Social Work graduates, EIP provides professional mental health services for small children and their caregivers who have been traumatized by poverty, homelessness, and abuse. The EIP is housed in Sunflower Family Center, a stately old home in northwest Portland itself rescued from the wrecking ball of progress in the late 1980s. In the bay-windowed living room, lace curtains wash delicate shadows over a hopscotch grid taped to the floor. Upstairs in a play therapy room, a gray plastic suit of armor waits for its next small knight. The EIP staff practice what program co-founder and associate director Kristin Angell MSW '76 calls "the best of old-fashioned social work, a very tenacious and committed concern about day-to-day problems." EIP offers parent and child therapy groups, a therapeutic pre-school, individual child counseling, family therapy, and parent support groups. The program also continues its original mission of outreach to homeless families in the county's shelter system and takes referrals from other public agencies such as the state Children's Services Division. The program began in the mid- l 980s. When social workers from Mental Health Services West visited Old Tawn's single-occupancy hotels, they found a rising number of families crammed into inadequate rooms. The workers handed out such practical items as diapers, bus tickets, and meal coupons redeemable at Sisters of the Road Cafe. They did on-the-spot '' Other children internalize, becoming too quiet. They won't make eye contact, smile, or show their feelings. '' mental health intervention. When they saw a need to add clinical services to their outreach activities, they expand– ed the program into its present form. The project now serves about 100 children at any given time. Most have been traumatized by physical or sexual abuse and have witnessed domestic violence, shootings, drug use, and other horrific events. Children react to these traumas in two general ways: Some are externalizers, who act out their stress with such behaviors as biting, hoarding food, and taking inappropriate risks like climbing too high and running without looking. Other children internalize, becom– ing too quiet. They won't make eye contact, smile, or show their feelings. Sometimes they refuse to eat. According to EIP supervisor Maggie Anderson MSW '90, working with such children requires "a careful assessment of how the child is making sense of the world. It's being a detective, not looking at the child as only their history, but being very thoughtful and observant." Homelessness shreds children's strong need for regularity and predicta– bility, so the EIP staff works to provide stability in every interaction. Children are always greeted individually and asses ed frequently during play periods. The therapeutic preschool also gives parents some much-needed time off from their children. Most parents, homeless or not, are doing the best they can, but tho e in extreme poverty often lack the sense of empowerment, the education, and the social skills that less distressed people take for granted. There is a high incidence of drug and alcohol abuse, often accompanied by domestic violence. Many parents were themselves abused as children.