Monterey County Children's Council

Champions for Children Award

Since the pandemic, reflective practice has become more deeply integrated into the work of care and service coordination. Evaluation studies have demonstrated that reflective practice builds staff skills, reduces staff burnout and turnover, builds a sense of the importance of the work and promotes more positive program outcomes. This practice is especially important in positions that: rely on high relationship and attunement skills; require working in a cross-sector; multidisciplinary partners; interact in cross-cultural and multi-lingual environments with clients who have complex situations; and may have frequent exposure to primary or secondary trauma.

Embedding mental health support for human service providers and administrators is an innovative best practice, and Monterey County is an early adopter. By integrating reflective practice, service providers and administrators can grow their capacity to work more intentionally to address the complexities of systems change that support more equitable outcomes for the young people in our community.