Blog

The public life of Rodney King begins on March 3, 1991, when the African-American man was clubbed and kicked relentlessly by a gang of LAPD officers during a traffic stop. It ends on June 17, 2012, when he was found dead in his swimming pool at age 47. The autopsy showed that an “ alcohol and drug-induced delirium ” led to his drowning. Before that point, he had been revolving in and out of rehab for substance abuse, a problem he attributed to trauma from the beating he took from cops. His...

Our local community foundation has awarded me a year-long fellowship to delve into the topics of trauma, trauma-informed communities and resilience. Part of the fellowship includes a 3-week trip I'm currently on to visit agencies and communities that have done some in-depth work to implement trauma-informed care, to learn all I can from them to take back to our own community in Lancaster County, PA. I am blogging about each of the places I visit and thought the ACES Connection community...

Over the last dozen years or so, many pediatricians, astounded by the ramifications of the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on the children they care for, began integrating this science into their practices. The most common approach has been to ask parents about ACEs using a questionnaire, and to use this information to counsel parents and identify resources for the family. Different practices have been using different questionnaires: Some ask parents for their ACE scores...

On November 23, the morning after his home was drawn into a different school zone, Mark Gonsalves slipped out of his office in Midtown Manhattan and rode the subway to the Upper West Side. He met his wife outside a tan-brick building on West 61st Street. It was P.S. 191. Together, they entered the school’s library, a sparse room with butterfly stickers pasted to the wall and wooden shelves full of donated books. A promotional video was playing. It showed children of different races smiling...

Mood swings and sudden changes in behavior can be a normal part of growing up, often starting in the tween years. But they can also signal substance abuse. They're among the signs that parents should look for if they're concerned that their child might be using drugs. Other signs include sudden changes in his or her relationships with family and friends. The child might stop caring about how he or she looks. Parents might notice changes in personal habits, like always locking a bedroom door...

By now, you have probably heard about Kalief Browder. Kalief spent three years in Rikers Island, two of them in solitary confinement, before charges against him were eventually dropped. He was 16 years old. Reports indicate that he was assaulted by correctional officers on camera and denied mental health services. After his release, the depression and flashbacks caused by these experiences led Kalief to take his own life. While his story is tragic, it is not unique. Youth placed in adult...

Teen angst has morphed into epidemic levels of suffering! How might we help our youth transform their pain into potential and go from trauma to growth? The wisdom traditions suggest that we may be most effective in promoting growth and change when we start with ourselves. When you come to this seminar, you'll experience self-compassion practices first hand. You may find that you can be transformed with self-compassion and how to share it with the teens you love and care for. Please join me,...

By Daniel Champer, LCPC, Intermountain Clinical Manager of School Based Service s A quick internet search of the phrase “mushroom cloud” reveals that the technical definition of the phenomena is “a distinctive pyro-cumulus mushroom-shaped cloud of debris and usually condensed water vapor resulting from a large explosion.” The phrase will also conjure up frightening descriptions related to 1950’s nuclear trials and WWII documentaries. The aforementioned imagery is pretty universal. Yet, for...

During my two years off from medical school, I’ve been volunteering as a court appointed special advocate for children in the foster care system. And I’ve spent a lot of time reading about how these kids’ experiences could affect the rest of their lives. The seminal research on this happened in the late ‘90s using data from more 17,000 Kaiser patients. What the researchers found was that patients who reported more adverse childhood experiences were more likely to suffer from such long-term...

Just as life, for many, now takes place both online and in the physical world, so too does death. Social media has brought back the kind of public grieving often seen in ancient Greece —open performances of sadness that bring people together for communal mourning. And a new study shows that the connections made online after a loss can last for years to come. In the study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, Will Hobbs and Moira Burke looked at data from more than 15,000 Facebook...

A new report out says in the 2014-2015 school year, 8 percent of Texas students who dropped out did so in the seventh or eighth grades . The Fort Worth school district is taking several measures to prevent students from dropping out before high school and keep them on the path to graduation. Listen to the KERA radio story. ‘I thought I would pass’ For Jade Mayweather, problems at school started at a young age. “I used to get in trouble a lot, sixth and seventh-grade year. Sometimes, I used...

Christopher Goins is the founding principal of Butler College Prep, a four-year-old charter high school on the far South Side of Chicago with a student population that is 95 percent low-income and Black. Much like Goins, who is a bold and snazzy dresser, Butler stands out. Though surrounded by the blighted blocks of the Pullman community, Butler has fast become a model of what urban education should look like, particularly for African-American boys. “I know Black kids,” Goins said. “I do.”...