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Many American parents don't count on getting a same-day appointment with their child's doctor and turn to other health care options when their kids are suddenly sick, a new survey finds. More than 2,000 parents of youngsters up to age 18 were surveyed in the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. The parents were asked about trying to make a health provider appointment or to get health advice if their child woke up with a sore throat and fever. Forty-two percent of...

Our success has been unquestionable. There has been a steep decline in youth incarceration in America and there has even been some progress moving juvenile justice systems away from being punitive and deficit-based and toward positive youth development. Much credit is due to youth justice reform advocates. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s annual count of juvenile facility populations, there has been a 40 percent reduction in youth incarceration in the U.S. in the past 10 years.

BCR Coalition Building and Communications Webinar Tuesday at 1pm (Eastern). Register at go.gwu.edu/BCRwebinar The Building Community Resilience (BCR) initiative aims to promote community resilience through cross-sector partnerships and integrated networks that will address, prevent and reduce the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Adverse Community Environments (ACEs) on children’s health and well-being (The “Pair of ACEs”). The BCR Pair of ACEs tree image grew out of our...

The structure of the program was strict; necessary for kids with no boundaries; and when I entered the workshop space, there was a feeling of tension in the room similar to prisons and rehab centers where boundary issues are often violated. I could see all the kids were wary of me being brought in ‘for their own good” and they were guarded to say the least.

Another great share I saw posted over at The Trauma Project today. It's easy to forget that before we become informed and educated about ACEs as trauma, many of us have had no idea that we called childhood was traumatic. It's another reason clinical language can sometimes be distancing. We might know our lives were a little rough, chaotic or whatever, but it's often a shock to learn that life, including life filled with ACEs, has been traumatic or that we might be struggling with traumatic...

Wisconsin First Lady Tonette Walker (Center), Naomi Goldstein (R), and Elizabeth Hudson (L) ________________________________________________ Note from Gail Kennedy, ACEs Connection Network and CA Department of Health Care Services. Please read this report about the leadership from Wisconsin to promote Trauma-informed policy and practice and a presentation to HHS last month. One significant highlight from the presentation, in my opinion, is the need for more " partnering—state to state, city...

President Trump portrays himself as an expert at marketing designer ties and gourmet steaks, but now, as chief executive of federal social policy, his new childcare plan might be a tougher sell. The promise he has made of universal childcare, accompanied by a marketing campaign led by his glamorous career-woman daughter Ivanka, sounded family-friendly enough on the campaign trail. But to childcare advocates, the vague talking points he laid out in his first speech to Congress last month...

As I write this article I am disgusted, feel responsible and I am ashamed to be a part of an industry that continues to flourish in spite of continued failure. I reflect on 20 years of being around the drug and alcohol rehabilitation industry and I am appalled how little we do to change an industry that 1) Lives on repeat business; 2) Denies a 95% failure rate; and 3) Takes credit for the 5% success rate but blames the addict for the 95% failure rate. [For more of this story, written by...

Have you ever wondered why you can handle stress so much better than one of your friends? Or maybe you are in awe of a friend who seems to roll so easily with punches that would knock you out. There is an explanation. Stressors (challenging events) aren’t experienced the same way by everyone. Stress is caused by a convergence of two factors: The nature and degree of the stressor and the temperament and skills of the individual. [For more of this story, written by Marie Hartwell-Walker, go to...

Charity effectiveness evaluator GiveWell has won a lot of fans for its data-driven recommendations about where people should donate to have their money used most effectively. The organization usually recommends nonprofit groups that offer fairly inexpensive and direct remedies to solve global problems on a major scale. That’s because the group adheres to a philanthropic philosophy called "effective altruism," which means it encourages donors to make investments that do the most quantifiable...

Jacqueline Graniel spent her whole childhood in Southern California assuming other families also lived paycheck to paycheck. Now, as she studies for both a medical degree and a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, she has found that some of her classmates avoid the stress of renting and dealing with landlords by simply buying houses, sometimes with help from their parents. That’s not an option for Graniel; she sends a portion of her stipend home to support her family. [For more of this...

Tonette Walker, First Lady of Wisconsin (R), is an unexpected leader in the movement to transform healthcare and our communities to become trauma informed, and she has been paving the path for others to join in. Ms. Walker describes how she came to take on this issue with such passion – noting that at the orientation retreat for gubernatorial spouses, everyone was asked to take on an issue they care deeply about. For First Lady Walker that would be trauma informed care and she began her work...