HOUSE MEMORIAL 61

57th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2025

INTRODUCED BY

E. Diane Torres-Velásquez and Elizabeth "Liz" Thomson

and Dayan Hochman-Vigil and G. Andrés Romero

 

 

 

 

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES DEPARTMENT TO STUDY AND IMPLEMENT STRATEGIES FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL STORYTELLING AS A TRAUMA-INFORMED STRATEGY FOR CHILDREN.

 

     WHEREAS, narrative therapy is a well-established therapeutic approach that has been used across generations, particularly within traditional and minority populations; and

     WHEREAS, autobiographical storytelling and relating stories of personal experiences are rooted in the same core principles as narrative therapy, and these modalities are effective across diverse communities and cultures, as they recognize the individual as the expert on that individual's own life; and

     WHEREAS, people's lives are shaped by the stories they tell themselves and others; and

     WHEREAS, storytelling approaches foster an environment conducive to healing; and

     WHEREAS, each year there are between two thousand and two thousand six hundred children in the foster care system in New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, children who enter the foster care system are at increased risk for language delays and difficulties with speech development due to adverse circumstances they may experience prior to adoption, and these language and speech developmental delays greatly impact the children's communication skills; and

     WHEREAS, support provided by dedicated speech-language pathologists may help foster parents and caregivers to implement interventions that play a role in the prevention of language delays or disorders in young foster children; and

     WHEREAS, the skills involved with coherently relating stories of personal experiences have been found to positively affect emotional healing;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the house of representatives hereby acknowledge the significance of autobiographical storytelling as a trauma-informed strategy and further request the children, youth and families department to study and implement the following:

          A. collaborate with speech-language pathologists and licensed behavioral and mental health care providers familiar with trauma and trauma-informed practices and experienced in autobiographical storytelling to provide language development training and workshops for families and caseworkers;

          B. assist children in the care of the department to develop autobiographical stories and share those stories in order to support the children's emotional health and language development;

          C. design events that focus on concrete activities with the child's present caregiver rather than traumatic events from the child's past; and

          D. provide families with a strategy plan to follow if traumatic memories arise at home; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of children, youth and families.

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