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Women who suffer four or more adverse childhood experiences before the age of 18 are more likely to face pregnancy and postpartum problems, which they may in turn pass on to their children in a “cascade of risk,” according to a new study in The Journal of Pediatrics. The study, led by the University of Calgary’s Sheri Madigan — Canada Research Chair in the Determinants of Child Development, a member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute and an assistant professor in...

Back in April, the white, middle-class Alabama city of Gardendale, a suburb of Birmingham, received preliminary approval to saw itself off from its poorer, largely black county school district. It was a move that, as my colleague Mimi Kirk reported , telegraphed clear messages of racial inadequacy that “assail the dignity of black schoolchildren,” according to Madeline Haikal, the district court judge who presided over Gardendale’s secession bid. The judge found that the school districts...

ACES CONNECTION NETWORK OVERVIEW ACEs = Adverse Childhood Experiences 2 SITES ACEsTooHigh.com A solutions-oriented news site for the general public that covers stories on ACEs, trauma, and resilience. ACEsConnection.com An action-based...

Editor's note: The Sonoma County Department of Health Services Public Health Department response to the Grand Jury report was filed in September 2017. It is attached to this post. The 2016-2017 Sonoma County (CA) Civil Grand Jury issued a remarkable report today. Tucked among the "Sales Tax Report" and "Elementary School Truancy" was — " Maternal Child and Adolescent Health: Caring for the Most Vulnerable ". The 10-page report casts an unblinking eye on the consequences of adverse childhood...

Growing up poor might put you at risk for heart failure in adulthood, a new study suggests. Heart failure, a progressive condition, means the heart isn't pumping as well as it should. This causes fatigue and shortness of breath, and can make everyday activities difficult to carry out. Finnish researchers looked at household income for hundreds of children in 1980. The findings showed that kids from poor families were more likely than richer children to have an enlarged, poorly functioning...

The federal government’s attempts to bring consistency and standards to public education across the country have often clashed with the reality facing educators trying to meet those standards. The challenge is even greater for those working with teens locked behind bars or struggling to deal with years of physical and emotional trauma. A conference sponsored by the Coalition for Juvenile Justice in Washington in mid-June provided a forum for a lively — at times testy — debate over juvenile...

A white board with a giant illustration of the human brain sat in the middle of the room, a constant reminder, participants said, that any real attempts to treat juvenile offenders begins not with detention or tough love, but with science. Many of the teens who find themselves in the juvenile system or alternative school programs have grown up with trauma that directly impacts their cognitive functions, said Pender Makin, assistant superintendent of schools in Brunswick, Maine. Physical...

A crowd hovered over the man lying on the grass as his skin turned purple. Chera Kowalski crouched next to his limp body, a small syringe in her gloved hand. Squeeze. The antidote filled the man's nostril. The purple faded. Then it came back. Kowalski's heart raced. "We only gave him one, and he needs another!" she called to a security guard in McPherson Square Park, a tranquil patch of green in one of this city's roughest neighborhoods. "He's dying," said a bystander, piling on as tension...

One in five American adults suffer from a mental health condition, according to a 2017 report from Mental Health America . While there has been progress in the ongoing discussion around mental health, as evidenced during May's Mental Health Awareness Month, the resources required to care for these disorders continue to dwindle and remain siloed. Dr. Ronald A. Paulus, president and CEO of Mission Health in Asheville, N.C., even recently wrote in Hospitals & Health Networks that...

“Grief, when it comes, is nothing like we expect it to be,” Joan Didion observed in her classic meditation on loss . Abraham Lincoln, in his moving letter of consolation to a grief-stricken young woman , wrote of how time transmutes grief into “a sad sweet feeling in your heart.” But what, exactly, is the mechanism of that transmutation and how do we master it before it masters us when grief descends in one of its unforeseeable guises? [For more of this story, written by Maria Popova, go to ...

Preventing the diseases we fear most as we age is rarely a sure or simple matter. But for those determined to slow mental decline and drive down the likelihood of developing dementia , researchers have reached a rare consensus around a trio of straightforward strategies: Engage your brain (but choose wisely), control high blood pressure (and start doing so early), and exercise regularly (just do it, already). [For more of this story, written by Melissa Healy, go to ...

States across the U.S. are taking more seriously the importance of early childhood education and ramping up their offerings, but compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. has a long way to go. While enrollment rates for children under age three hover just below 30 percent – the middle of the pack compared to other countries – the U.S. falls significantly behind when it comes to enrollment rates of 3- and 4-year-olds, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation...