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“Forgotten.” In the months after Hurricane Harvey slammed the Texas Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm, that was the word I heard repeatedly from renters, homeowners and disaster case managers in small towns and rural communities. The help that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state leaders promised hadn’t arrived. They feared their communities would be left behind, overshadowed by larger cities like Houston. In some cases, their homes looked as if Harvey had just hit — not the year...

Don't worry that chores are too stressful for kids with ACEs, says trauma researcher Bob Sege, MD. “You don’t want to coddle them,” Sege said, “because the message they will get is that they are damaged goods. They need to know that the adversity they suffered is only one part of them; it’s not all of them.”

I walk through the hardware store innocently enough gathering stuff for the latest round of fix-it projects on my new home. In the background I’m grappling with life direction yet again, this latest round of doubt in my own usefulness spurred by an external catalyst that came very suddenly out of left field. Quickly I find myself tightening my chest, thoughts racing there in the middle of the familiar store full of helpful people. I pause to watch this internal show and I realize I am consumed b

In 2016, the Oregon School-Based Health Alliance (OSBHA) worked to pass a bill to pilot trauma-informed schools, and funds were allocated to support two pilot schools, Tigard High School (THS) in Tigard, OR, and Central High School (CHS) in Independence, OR. This is the third year of the pilot. OSBHA has been providing technical assistance to the two schools, and works closely with the Trauma-Informed Schools Coordinators hired to transform the schools. Alfonso Ramirez is the coordinator at...

A living wage is an antidepressant. It is a sleep aid. A diet. A stress reliever. It is a contraceptive, preventing teenage pregnancy. It prevents premature death. It shields children from neglect. IN 2014, Julio Payes was working 80 hours a week at two full-time jobs. A permanent resident from Guatemala who came to the United States on a work visa, Payes labored in Emeryville, Calif., a city of roughly 12,000 residents and almost 22,000 jobs, sandwiched between Oakland and Berkeley. He...

Research shows African-Americans are less likely to access treatment for mental illness. Cultural norms and the stigma associated with having a mental illness are partly to blame, according to Shardé Smith , assistant professor of human development and family studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Smith studies the role that race-related stress and trauma has on entire families, and what strategies people use to cope. She spoke recently with Side Effects Public Media...

This article intrigued me, is this purely PTSD or did it included identifying CPTSD or developmental trauma?... MRC-funded research from King’s College London suggests one in 13 young people in the UK have had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) before reaching age 18. The first UK-based study of its kind, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, found 31% of young people had a traumatic experience during childhood, and those who were exposed to trauma were twice as likely as their peers to...

Finally it seems we are starting to map key events in lives experiences. The death of a parent can have a profound impact on children which may be felt throughout their life. However, there are currently no official estimates of the number of children who are affected by bereavement. Nick Stripe explains how ONS is starting to fill the evidence gap. In new statistics published today we have estimated the proportion of children born between the years 1971-2000 who experienced the death of...

Self-Regulation Begins with Dogs, Tense Knots and Calm Socks Originally posted to ORAEYC, February 19, 2019 | Janai Mestrovich, M.S. We were all barking like dogs that were upset on all fours in the preK classroom. Then I used the Breathing Sphere to guide 20 preK children to take slow, deep belly button breaths to release the mad dog tension. As we all slowly exhaled and released the tight knots of tension, we were able to become calm dogs. The sounds of tense mad dogs had filled the room...

By A. Hosack, P. Berman, & K. Hecht My life is so much better because the Carsons took me in. What if they could get someone to take in Larry? He really needed help, his parents were even scarier than hers. Claire got so excited watching the video her mind was racing. Larry’s parents had beaten his back raw with daily beatings. He had missed a lot of school because he couldn’t put on a shirt. When he turned 14, the beatings finally stopped when he grabbed the whip from his dad and fought...

That’s how my sister remembered the stairs incident, and that’s how I would, too, from now on. Cream cheese. Because it’s no longer about the presumption of a fall, the deeds that preceded it, the intent behind it. It’s instead the certainty of brotherly love. It’s the certainty, you see, of the cream cheese.

Becoming a Pilot Site is a great way to get the support you need! Identify and implement an ACEs screening protocol that’s right for your practice and patient population Help your peers in the broader NPPC network by sharing data, best practices and insights from your pilot experience If you are ready to apply, please click the link below to access the application. NPPC Pilot Site Cohort 2 Application For more information, you can find the recording of our informational webinar and the...