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We hope you and your loved ones are safe and that you have found some peace and happiness this year despite all the turmoil and sadness. We are making plans for ResilienceCon 2021, which will be April 11-13. Given this time of uncertainty, we are making flexible plans. It is our hope that we will be able to hold a hybrid conference, with some people attending in person in Nashville at the Scarritt Bennett Center, our usual venue, and some people attending virtually. We are also making plans...

By Nick Huntington , Mikyung Baek 12.17.2019 Child Opportunity Index maps for the 100 largest metropolitan areas are avail­able below. You can explore the geography of child opportunity within a metro and where children of different racial/ethnic groups live in relation to opportunity. Use the pull down menu below the map to select a metro area. The small areas in the map represent all neighbor­hoods (census tracts) in that metro. Each neighborhood is shaded a color ranging from very light...

While repressing core parts of ourselves that are deemed unacceptable by those caring for us may in fact be necessary for our survival while we are dependent children, this can contribute to a variety of mental and emotional difficulties, both in childhood and as an adult, that may eventually need to be examined and addressed with a mental health professional...

September 2020 The health impacts of policing and incarceration are well documented. On average, 1,000 people are killed by police in the US each year, with Black and Indigenous people being 2 to 3 times more likely to be killed by police than White people. Even in the absence of physical violence, stops by police — or the constant threat of stops by police — are associated with adverse mental health outcomes , including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, especially for...

Do you remember the moment that ACEs Science clicked for you? Was it at a training? In a conversation with a peer or friend? Did you read an article? Each one of us has had the Aha! moment: we became aware, started shifting towards understanding and away from judgment. This approach to our fellow humans, the one that not only improves longevity but also the quality of life, is an unraveling of traumatized responses at the individual, relational, and systemic levels. That can be overwhelming...

By Morgan McKay, Spectrum News, September 13, 2020 CDC studies looking at the mental of health of first responders showed that at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, around 50 percent of health care workers struggled with depression. Yet, data after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center showed that at times it can take months or even years for the full effects of a tragedy to take its toll on the mental health of first responders. John Cooney, a retired Troy Police...

By Shawne K. Wickham, New Hampshire Union Leader, September 12, 2020 Gabi Gilliland was halfway through her second pregnancy when COVID-19 hit New Hampshire. Her 2-year-old daughter’s day care closed, and Gabi, youth minister at a Catholic parish in Litchfield, found herself working at home along with her husband. Ambrose Gilliland came into this world on Aug. 1, a healthy, nearly 10-pound baby boy. Having an infant during a pandemic has been “a huge challenge,” Gilliland said. Her parents...

Most of us have heard of post-traumatic stress disorder. Once called shell-shock, the disorder develops after being exposed to a highly traumatic situation such as war or a car wreck. However, there is another type of trauma-induced problem called complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

I've been seeing so many posts of Facebook and Twitter about this series on trauma, development, and neuroplasticity being led by Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD that I have to share about it here on ACEs Connection as well. Please find details excerpted below from the EEGLearn website. For more details about this series (which costs $260.), please go here.

Please join our community conversation about Portraits of Professional Caregivers on Wednesday, December 16th at 5 p.m. PST (8 p.m. EST). Here is the pre-registration link to sign up. Special guests will be the co-producers of the Portraits of Professional Caregivers documentary, Vic Compher & Rodney Whittenberg. This conversation, held on Zoom, will be hosted by @Erin Connolly and @Whitney Marris of The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy & Practice (CTIPP) with support from @Cissy...

In this FREE webinar for mental health professionals, Dr. Scott Sells will share lessons to unstick traumatized families and couples. Ready to gain the confidence to engage the entire family and work with even the most challenging cases?

For resources and activities to help kids feel safe and comforted, visit: https://cdn.sesamestreet.org/sites/default/files/media_folders/Images/SupportAfterEmergency_Printable_Fire_FamilyGuide.pdf?_ga=2.91031322.1860374799.1600088181-1279904627.1598558329