Blog

By Sarah Cafasso, Stanford University, July 24, 2019 An international team led by Stanford University and the University of Washington is working to bring the mental health benefits of nature to city-dwellers. To do so, the team has created a way of helping city planners, landscape architects, developers and others anticipate the mental health impacts of conserving nature and incorporating it into urban areas. For people in cities, that could mean things like more neighborhood parks, trees...

[Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site -- abuseresearch.info -- that focuses on the health effects of abuse, and includes research articles on ACEs. Every month, she's posting the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs. Thank you, Harise!! — Jane Stevens] Wang X, Maguire-Jack K. Family and Environmental Influences on Child Behavioral Health: The Role of Neighborhood Disorder and Adverse Childhood Experiences . J Dev...

One person asked me recently if ACEs Connection does anything besides distribute news about ACEs science and trauma-informed/resilience-building practices based on ACEs science. Another was surprised that it’s a social network with more than 35,000 members (and growing). And I’d guess that most of those members have no idea that we support more than 300 local ACEs initiatives (and growing). ACEs Connection reminds me of the elephant in the parable that originated in India about the blind men...

Here's a series called Seeing White - a set of 14 podcasts exploring the construction of race and white body supremacy in human consciousness.

It’s irrefutable: Widespread research shows that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are common. That’s why researchers in a recent study insist: “It behooves pediatric providers to take an active role in preventing and identifying childhood adversity in order to reduce the health consequences of toxic stress.” In other words, if you want your kids to have a good shot at a healthy life, make sure they — and you — are educated about and screened for ACEs and resilience. In a recent study —...

This is a compilation of interviews with scholars outlining the historical origin of the concept of race and its use as a tool for economic and power advantage. It is essential knowledge for those of us working on decolonizing our minds and conceptualizing white body supremacy.

By Josh Axelrod, Samantha Balaban, Scott Simon, National Public Radio, July 27, 2019 Dr. Julie Rickard thought her visit to Wisconsin over the Christmas holiday would bring a break from her day job working in suicide prevention in Wenatchee, Wash. The visit didn't go as planned. After a tense fight broke out between her mother and another family member, everyone dispersed. Rickard readied herself for the trip back to the Pacific Northwest. At the airport, she received a call from her mother,...

By John W. Bull, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, July 17, 2019 Texas was the last of two states—Wyoming being the other—that treated truancy as a crime. Students and their parents faced court fines, and if penalties went unpaid, teen truants could be cuffed by constables and sent to jail. None of this made any sense to me when 10 years ago, as San Antonio’s presiding municipal judge, I inadvertently began the process of changing the system across the state. I had heard from a friend who...

By Kimberly Burrowes, How Housing Matters, July 24, 2019 Last month, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) used a Detroit wall as a platform to highlight how discriminatory housing policies have divided our communities. The wall, six feet high and about half a mile long, was built in 1941 to segregate black homeowners from their white neighbors. It stands as a reminder of how inequitable access to housing was intentionally created through urban planning tools and policies. Now planners, community...

By Tom Jacobs, Pacific Standard, July 24, 2019 Can art change the world? Or can it at least inspire people to engage with an urgent issue they'd otherwise be inclined to ignore? A new study of activist art about climate change suggests that art can be an effective form of activism—if artists create compelling works that call attention to the problem and offer hope for a solution. Artworks that achieve this tricky balance "have the potential to retell the stories of climate change in a way...

By Maria Trent, et. al., American Academy of Pediatrics, July 29, 2019 Racism has a profound impact on children’s health. With the goal of helping all children reach their full potential, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is publishing new recommendations on ways to lessen the impact of racism on children and teens. In the policy statement, “ Racism and Its Impact on Child and Adolescent Health ,” the AAP calls on pediatricians to create welcoming, culturally competent medical...

By Sally Ho, Associated Press, July 26, 2019 SEATTLE (AP) — Rachel Whalen remembers feeling gutted in high school when a former friend would mock her online postings, threaten to unfollow or unfriend her on social media and post inside jokes about her to others online. The cyberbullying was so distressing that Whalen said she contemplated suicide. Once she got help, she decided to limit her time on social media. It helps to take a break from it for perspective, said Whalen, now a 19-year-old...