The Transitional Aged Youth Special Interest Group (TAY SIG) has had a great third year in ISSTD. I continue to chair the SIG, and we were joined by Shelley Hua as our Moderator and Kate Hoover as our Secretary.
I created and presented a training called Working with Dissociation in Emerging Adults/Transitional Aged Youth at our Virtual Conference. The training went over the specific developmental needs for young adults and how that intersects with experiences of trauma. We also examined why so many of these clients drop out of treatment, and how to address that. Kevin Conners gave our SIG a shout out during his presentation and linked the process of helping young adults emerge into the responsibilities and Identities of adulthood to the issues that many individuals with severe trauma face while forming a stable identity for themselves in the world.
An adjacent task our SIG is involved with is the new Transitional Aged Youth Treatment Guidelines section. Many SIG members are involved in working on defining important and significant aspects for this developmental range when treating severe dissociative disorders.
As the pandemic drags on, the emotional impacts on the Young Adult populations remain high. The CDC has continued to report very high rates of suicidal ideation (in the range of 25%) among this population. The intensity of both global and personal issues require that clinicians remain aware of the intersectionality of issues that fuel crisis states for our young adults as we continue to support their needs.
If you are interested in joining the TAY SIG please visit this page for instructions.