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When the question of screening patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) was first raised a couple of years ago, Santa Barbara pediatrician Andria Ruth had mixed feelings about it.

When professor John Fitzgerald asked students in his advanced economics class this semester —Economic Evaluation of Public Programs — whether any would like to volunteer, for no academic credit, to help a local healthcare clinic analyze some of its patient data, three students promptly signed up. Oasis Free Clinics was seeking help to compare information it had about some of its patients’ childhood histories — in particular, the traumas they may have experienced in youth — with information...

Sarah Rittenhouse has taught English at Challenger Middle School in Glendale, Arizona, for seven years. She loves her students, she loves her community, and, at the end of the day, she loves her job. But she’s tired. The building in which she works is crumbling . Teacher turnover is high. Class sizes are huge. Counselors are spread too thin to adequately address the trauma experienced by many of her students, who come from refugee populations and low-income neighborhoods. Rittenhouse is also...

"There are various industries that are run by inmates, and we intend to sit down and refuse to work—have an economic protest, if you would—to bring about change," says one of the nearly 100,000 inmates in the Florida prison system. His words, conveyed through anonymized audio recording, refer to "Operation PUSH," the latest in a series of recent prison strikes challenging the corrections system in the United States. According to the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee , a prison labor...

Wake County, North Carolina, is home to more than one million people in Raleigh and 11 other municipalities. Advocates for Health in Action (AHA ) is a network of partners in Wake County working together to improve health and well-being through policy, systems and environmental change, and they are coordinating the ACEs Resilience Initiative in Wake County. Carey Sipp , Southeast Regional Community Facilitator for the ACEs Connection, spoke with AHA Executive Director Sara Merz last week to...

It's been almost 24 hours since the Symposium ended and I don't think we have touched ground yet. When we started thinking about what we wanted to do for this Symposium and we joked that it would be great to have Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, we thought it was nothing more than a joke. It still amazes me that we made it happen, and had James Redford and a screening of Resilience, as well as a great afternoon panel with representatives from local police, schools, pediatrics, and managed care on...

Friends, Check out this new tool to use with youth of all ages! LGBTQ+ Youth: A Guided Workbook to support Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity is the most comprehensive, practical and user-friendly workbook written specifically for clinicians and educators to engage and support lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and questioning youth. *Deal with the challenges of coming out *Understand sexual identity, gender norms and fluidity *Safety plan and address negative attitudes at school and in...

The 1st annual Conference for Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools drew over 500 education professionals to Washington DC. We're planning next year's conference now. Here are some insights from attendees on the conference. The call for workshop presentations for CTSS 2019 is currently OPEN. Learn more here . Sign up to get notification about registration...which is opening by August 1, 2018. Join us in DC in February 2019 for the comprehensive, international conference to create trauma-informed...

There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. There’s an even better chance you’ve never heard of the RWJF Sports Award , which we bestow each year on organizations that contribute to health by strengthening and serving communities through sport. But as readers of USA TODAY, you’re no doubt familiar with the controversies and divisions surrounding sports teams that use Native American symbols — whether as mascots, in chants or in memorabilia — for their own...

People who report more traumatic experiences in childhood — from domestic, verbal and sexual abuse to having an incarcerated or deceased parent — are more likely to later develop their own problems with chronic disease, social dysfunction, drug dependency and even early death. A recent report released by the West Virginia ACES Coalition found that 55.8 percent of West Virginia adults reported experiencing at least one “adverse childhood experience” (or ACE), and 13.8 percent reported...

Highlights Study of childhood and adult adversity among low-income women in the U.S. Over 80% of subjects reported experiencing childhood adversity and adult adversity. Childhood adversity increased the risk of adult adversity. Childhood and adult adversity were associated with depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Adult adversity mediated the link between childhood adversity and poor mental health. [For more on this study by Joshua P.Merskya, Colleen E. Janczewskia, Jenna C. Nitkowskib, go to...