To the children and teachers reeling in the aftermath of the 2021 Oxford school shooting, it probably seemed like there was no way out of the shock and grief. A school community had been violently victimized; beloved students and a teacher have left painful holes with their unbearable absences. Then, someone came to help.
James Henry, recognizable by his white beard and tinted glasses, was brought in to lead the trauma response to the shooting. He advised the school to dismantle the memorial put together by the students. He conducted a webinar for 500 parents, who signed up gravely to learn how to support their children through the pain, depression and anxiety of what they had been through.
Seven months earlier, Henry had been fined, reprimanded and fined by the state of Michigan for practicing unlicensed and negligent welfare work.
Oxford Community Schools did not respond to questions about whether they had checked Henry’s credentials. But what they found might not matter.
Michigan State also continued to contract Henry for two years after it took disciplinary action against him. The Department of Health and Human Services quietly terminated its contract with the Children’s Trauma Assessment Center, which Henry directed, this May.
And though Henry declined to be interviewed, several colleagues have come to his defense, arguing that his work and impact outweigh any ethical missteps.
I don’t mean to downplay the license, but ultimately it’s a box that needs to be ticked, said Kristin Putney, a licensed social worker who has known and worked with Henry for more than 20 years. No one has done more advocacy for the Michigan system of trauma-informed care and for assessing children and understanding their needs than Jim Henry. Nobody.
It was a rare exception
In its termination letter, DHHS wrote that its contract with the center, which provided trauma assessment services for children in 26 Michigan counties, was terminated due to practicing under-credential, non-compliance with unauthorized evaluation and recommendations for service and best interests.
Henry operated without a license for many years. But Putney points out that for a long time, a license was not required to do the work Henry was doing and that he had a doctorate in social work. He got his license in March 2020, before the state punished him.
DHHS did not elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the termination, but the state regulatory agency responsible for professional violations lists no further violations. The babies that would have been sent to Henry and his team will now be fanned out across several centres, predominantly Easterseals.
Lindsay Calcatera, Easterseals vice president of communications, said her organization was not told why Henry’s CTAC was removed as an option, but that they would have no problem rectifying it.
«We’ve certainly been able to continue to fill the need, as we always have,» he said.
But some lament the loss of what they considered the gold standard of trauma assessment for Michigan children.
Henry is one of the most knowledgeable trauma experts in the country and has dedicated his life and career to serving children and families, said Vivek Sankaran, a University of Michigan law professor who directs the Child Advocacy Law Clinic and Child Welfare Appellate Clinic. He is a real asset to our foster system and we are a system that struggles to get high quality service providers to do anything. And it was a rare exception.
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Henry rated the most troubled kids downtown
According to Henry’s biography on the CTAC website, which has since been removed, he spent 17 years as a child welfare and protective services officer and 15 years as a professor at Western Michigan University. The center he cofounded raised over $10 million in federal grants, and Henry has spoken nationally and internationally, published a book, and trained more than 50,000 professionals, health care providers, and community members in trauma and health informed practices. child maltreatment.
Henry worked to change how the system interacted with children in the child care system, says Ben Atchison, CTAC cofounder and retired occupational therapist. It was really about developing a holistic approach that looked at children through various lenses from different disciplines, he said.
He’s a transformative spirit, that’s how I would describe him, Putney said. Many times it would be like, this is Jim’s boy, because if there is a child who has suffered their entire life from being misunderstood, being abused, being traumatized by systems that are broken and distrusting of anyone, Jim can sit with his eye. look at and create a safety and a respect and a level of compassion that many of them have never, ever, ever experienced.
Sankaran says the ratings provided by the CTAC have been produced in great detail to an exceptionally high standard. There’s nothing like it, I’ve ever seen in my work in Michigan, he said she. It’s a real shame as this is not a department right now that provides high quality services to families. And so, it’s a big step backwards and I’ve yet to know how or what their plan is to replace this leak.
More than a paperwork problem
Those who denounce the state’s decision to terminate its contract with the Children’s Trauma Assessment Center don’t understand why one man’s administrative error would lead to the avoidance of the entire team and the center.
I can understand from the state’s perspective that licensing is an absolute must and not having it is apparently, some people would say, negligent, Atchison said. But knowing Jim, all his attention is focused on what the children need. I think it was just an act of omission that he probably didn’t think much of until someone challenged him and said, «You’ve got to have this.»
But not everyone would agree that Henry’s faults were simply that he was too busy with the kids to bother with paperwork.
Six psychologists who attended training he provided in 2016 in seven Colorado counties filed a complaint with their state’s professional regulatory agency about his practices, calling them substandard and outside his area of ​​expertise.
Several aspects of this training raised our concerns regarding ethical violations committed by the two trainers, they wrote in the letter of complaint. In addition to not being licensed in either Colorado or Michigan, they said, Henry violated norms of informed consent and patient confidentiality, drew conclusions about a child’s intellectual functioning based on a brief screening that contradicted previous tests, and more comprehensive and followed no standardization in its administration of numerous psychological tests.
They raised alarm bells about what they saw as incomplete psychosocial assessments and a subjective, guiding approach to interviewing and were deeply concerned that these brief encounters were being used to make unsubstantiated recommendations about where children should be placed.
Dr. Henry continues to train with this nontraditional method throughout Michigan and Colorado without any evidence that it’s effective, they wrote. Dr. Henry should not supervise licensed psychologists and licensed social workers on how to conduct psychological testing when he is unable to demonstrate proficiency in this area of ​​practice.
Henry received a cease and desist letter from the Colorado State Board of Registered Psychotherapists in 2017.
No license required, judges decide
Henry’s credentials were also questioned at the highest level in Michigan.
After providing expert testimony at a Child Protective Service hearing in 2018 that resulted in the termination of parental rights, the guardians who lost the case appealed on the grounds that Henry was unauthorized and he could not be considered an expert.
Michael Cafferty, the attorney who tried the case on behalf of the children’s guardians, said Henry led everyone to believe he was a doctor. Cafferty said he was shocked when he looked into Henry’s background and discovered he didn’t have a license to practice.
Expert testimony doesn’t necessarily require a license, he says, but he hadn’t seen it in more than 30 years of practice. This guy is basically making life-and-death decisions for kids, Cafferty said. The damages can be extremely real.
The Michigan Court of Appeals decided that, in fact, a license was not a prerequisite to be considered an expert. It was dismaying to see that he got away with it, Cafferty said. I’m glad he lost the contract. He should never have had it in the first place.
What is the future of CTAC?
The Children’s Trauma Assessment Center did not respond to a request for an interview. It is unclear what course the center-right will take if it attempts to renegotiate a state contract that does not include Henry.
Putney heard that DHHS agreed to work with the center if Henry did not provide the assessments himself, but then withdrew. She doesn’t know why. Furthermore, she is not a current employee and is unaware of those conversations.
Though Putney hasn’t worked at CTAC for the last three years, he recalls how Henry provided a staff center as Earth’s metal core moves inward as our planet rotates in the darkness of space.
Keep showing up wholeheartedly and teaching us all how to do it, she said. Teaching the rest of us how to let our hearts break and hold each other through the pain and still love the kids and love the job. …
It’s a sacred journey, Putney said. And it has been the guide for so many people for so many years.
Jennifer Brookland covers child welfare for the Detroit Free Press in association with Report for America. Contact her at [email protected].
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