Blog

Affordable housing is already a hot button political issue. Housing advocates have long pointed out the lack of affordable options in big cities with booming tech sectors, like San Francisco , but where does that leave the rest of the country ? We wanted to find out, so we created a new map that illustrates how much an average worker would need to earn to afford a typical two-bedroom apartment in each state. We found the data for our map through the National Low Income Housing Coalition...

On an ACEs Connection webinar on Monday, Dr. Andrew Seaman, an assistant professor at Oregon Health & Science University, showed how he navigates his students through the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). And, in an unusual twist for a webinar, Seaman and O’Nesha Cochran, a peer mentor with the Mental Health Association of Oregon, role-played doctor-patient interactions to show how to develop the skills to communicate with patients with high ACE scores. About 90 people...

To me, “May is Mental Health Month” has always seemed like an excuse to hold an annual four-week-long commercial for Pharma and bio-psychiatry. Under the guise of raising “awareness” and reducing “stigma,” the PR reps out there make it safe for us average Joe’s to admit how bad we feel or how stressed out we are. Then they tell us what our problem is (“mental illness”) and conveniently offer us the solutions they are selling (pharmaceuticals and professional treatment). It’s like the soda...

Janai Mestrovich (BS/MS, Family & Child Development), teacher and developer of 'Superkid Power' (Ashland, OR) passed this along to me regarding how she uses finger activated mood card to measure temperature and kid stress levels: 40 Pre-K children learned how to measure their stress level this morning by measuring hand temp. with mood cards. Blue, happy-peaceful-very calm; Green, calm; Red, tight muscles/upset; Black Tense/grit teeth. We chanted and drummed appropriately - tense drumming...

If you are working with teens to plan bright futures, we would like to offer you a Sample Lesson Plan from our Healthy Foundations for Future Families curriculum. For the past 10 years, our organization Educate Tomorrow’s Parents (ETP), has been working upstream to prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences by educating teens before they form families. Our science-based curriculum meets essential standards for secondary school health education. There are several components, including a student...

Beyond Consequences is excited to announce that our Call for Proposals for the 2018 Fall Trauma-Informed School Conference has been extended. If you have a great story to share about your experience in working with students who’ve had adverse childhood experiences, we would love to hear from you! Here are some examples of sessions that fit in at our nationally recognized conference: Administrative/School-Wide Track • Mindfulness Instead of Suspension • Special Education Law & Advocacy •...

Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to trauma-informed care, empathy and responsiveness to patients and care team members are among the core tenets of effective strategies. In downtown Philadelphia, patients at 11th Street Family Health Services are using creative arts therapies to process past experiences. At the Women’s HIV Program in San Francisco , all staff undergo training to spot signs of stress in patients, create a clinical environment that feels welcoming and safe, and...

By Tracie Dahl, LCPC, Middle School Therapist with Intermountain School-based Services (Helena, MT) 13 Reasons Why is about to drop its second season in just a matter of days. Since Season 2 is no longer adapting Jay Asher's 2007 YA novel and telling a completely new story, as service providers who work with young adults, we would like to know what we can expect from the upcoming string of episodes. We were more reactive than proactive when Season 1 came out and it’s easier to be more...

The City of Cleveland’s program will be the nation’s first system of trauma-informed recreation centers! View the Presentation Below: PRESENTATION

By: Idea Stream Cleveland City Council approved Mayor Frank Jackson’s plan to train recreation center staff to recognize trauma in young people. Council on Monday night unanimously passed a $1 million, one-year contract with FrontLine Service, a mental healthcare nonprofit. FrontLine will train rec center employees on how trauma affects child development. The plan also includes hiring social workers to connect children and their families with services. Rosemary Creeden, the associate...

(Cissy's note: I asked/begged Melanie Synder to share this post with the wider ACEs Community as it had only been shared on the newly formed Lancaster County, PA ACEs & Resilience Connection Community . Often, those involved in ACEs initiatives are flat out and hard-pressed to find any time to share blog posts or photos. When possible, please do. Posts need not be long, in-depth, or capture all the work the community has done or is in the middle of.... Share a snippet, a celebration, a...

The United States devotes a lot more of its economic resources to health care than any other nation, and yet its health care outcomes aren’t better for it. That hasn’t always been the case. America was in the realm of other countries in per-capita health spending through about 1980. Then it diverged. It’s the same story with health spending as a fraction of gross domestic product. Likewise, life expectancy. In 1980, the U.S. was right in the middle of the pack of peer nations in life...