"I think it’s important for us to look at children and youth when they’re impacted by a parent who has an operational stress injury because we know that trauma can be bidirectional in that when one person in a family is impacted by post traumatic stress, that anxiety becomes quite contagious within a family system"
DR. HELENA HAWRYLUK
Helena Hawryluk is a Registered Social Worker and Co-Founder of Families First: Support for Occupational Stress Inc. and Director of Warrior Kids program with Wounded Warriors Canada. She has practiced as a social worker for over 15 years with families of the Canadian Armed Forces. She specializes in developing resilience of young people within first-responder and military families impacted by operational stress injuries. Helena completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Concordia University and a Bachelor of Social Work from University of Calgary. She continued with the Faculty of Social Work for her Masters degree, then followed by her PhD with the Faculty of Social Work. She was also awarded the Wounded Warriors Canada Doctoral Scholarship. Helena is an instructor at the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary and Grant MacEwan University, School of Social Work.
JERRIS POPIK
Jerris is the co-developer of the Warrior Kids Programs and co-founder of Families First: Support for Occupational Stress Injuries Inc. She works to advocate for valued specialized support services for families and children of Canada’s military, veteran and Public Safety Personnel. With over nine years of experience working directly with children and youth from the Canadian Armed Forces, Jerris values the opportunities to work alongside families that are affected by Operational Stress Injuries. Her passion for working with children and supporting them with understanding this often-challenging concept of invisible injuries, led her to focus her current completion of a Masters of Clinical Social Work through the University of Calgary, on furthering her understanding on current evidence-based research on the impact of trauma on military, veterans, first responders, and all public safety personnel and their loved one.
Helena Hawryluk is a Registered Social Worker and Co-Founder of Families First: Support for Occupational Stress Inc. and Director of Warrior Kids program with Wounded Warriors Canada. She has practiced as a social worker for over 15 years with families of the Canadian Armed Forces. She specializes in developing resilience of young people within first-responder and military families impacted by operational stress injuries. Helena completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Concordia University and a Bachelor of Social Work from University of Calgary. She continued with the Faculty of Social Work for her Masters degree, then followed by her PhD with the Faculty of Social Work. She was also awarded the Wounded Warriors Canada Doctoral Scholarship. Helena is an instructor at the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary and Grant MacEwan University, School of Social Work.
JERRIS POPIK
Jerris is the co-developer of the Warrior Kids Programs and co-founder of Families First: Support for Occupational Stress Injuries Inc. She works to advocate for valued specialized support services for families and children of Canada’s military, veteran and Public Safety Personnel. With over nine years of experience working directly with children and youth from the Canadian Armed Forces, Jerris values the opportunities to work alongside families that are affected by Operational Stress Injuries. Her passion for working with children and supporting them with understanding this often-challenging concept of invisible injuries, led her to focus her current completion of a Masters of Clinical Social Work through the University of Calgary, on furthering her understanding on current evidence-based research on the impact of trauma on military, veterans, first responders, and all public safety personnel and their loved one.
About the author
Helena Hawryluk is a Registered Social Worker and Co-Founder of Families First: Support for Occupational Stress Inc. and Director of Warrior Kids program with Wounded Warriors Canada. Jerris Popik is the co-developer of the Warrior Kids Programs and co-founder of Families First: Support for Occupational Stress. Injuries Inc.