EQ2: Staff Support for Android

11 things about EQ2: Staff Support

1. The app also contains 4 animated videos for staff to watch with youth that are designed to teach youth key concepts and skills from Lionheart's evidence-based youth program, Power Source.

2. The EQ2 app provides real time support and coaching to staff working with trauma-impacted youth in residential care, juvenile justice, or other out-of-home placements.

3. The app also allows staff to select weekly work-related goals from a list of research-based behaviors shown to support the social and emotional well-being of trauma-impacted youth.

4. Based on the valence of the user's response, the app sends curated responses with the goal of helping staff become calmer and more regulated prior to engaging with youth.

5. The daily check-in feature also reinforces the understanding that emotions are contagious and how staff emotionally "show up" impacts their fellow staff, the youth they serve, and the larger emotional climate of the agency.

6. Working in these settings can be extremely challenging, and secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and turnover are common, particularly for staff with their own trauma histories or who do not receive adequate training and supervision.

7. Embedded in the Practice Section are a wide-range of guided visualizations, mindfulness meditations, and relaxation exercises – some specifically designed to address the unique aspects of working with trauma-impacted youth and others focused on more global aspects of stress-reduction and self-care.

8. These includes content on how to become an effective emotion coach; understanding the impact of trauma on the youth brain and typical trauma responses; building reparative relationships and exploring our own default patterns of caregiving; preventing crisis; and repairing relationships with youth and co-workers.

9. The app also offers a vehicle to "onboard" new staff both in terms of skills acquisition and the qualities associated with the role of direct care workers.

10. The animated videos depicting coaching skills, concepts, or strategies can be played during group or individual supervision or given as "homework" to reinforce skills outside of supervision.

11. The animated instructional videos also reinforce key staff self-regulations skills.