Blog

Kansas City’s Resilient KC initiative, a partnership of Healthy KC and Trauma Matters KC, supports the emerging “upstreamist” movement in health care. The concept is to address health problems before they emerge as individual or community-centered health issues. Resilient KC targets community-based trauma. Long-term and often invisible damage can be caused by childhood abuse and neglect, a troubled home or toxic stress. These factors can influence an individual’s physical and behavioral...

Sonoma County Department of Health Services is starting an adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and resiliency fellowship that will train 25 community members as educators. Officials said the fellowship is unique to Sonoma County and is being launched at a time when community members and service providers are increasingly seeking out information about how to prevent and heal from adverse childhood experiences. Recent research on ACEs confirms that adversity during early childhood development...

Imagine a group of aliens from Mars has descended to Earth. They are peaceful, non-threatening, very smart, and have come to help us. They hear we want to improve our system of education and tell us they have exactly the answer. They had the same problem over on Mars, they explain, and they solved it with math. We decide to hear what they have to say. After all, there have been decades of concern over test scores, and especially over the achievement gap, which is the difference between test...

“The rent is too damn high” is more than a political slogan. It reflects the harsh reality of increasingly unaffordable housing in America today. Ever since the economic crisis of 2008, American has been in the midst of a “ great housing reset” —a shift from home-ownership to renting. But it’s not just that home-ownership that’s become increasingly unaffordable. Renting has too. Between 2001 and 2014, the number of renters who spend more than half of their income on rent grew by more than 50...

Preventing and treating adverse childhood experiences and providing peer support for people experiencing mental illness or substance abuse received major investments in the latest round of Community Health Endowment (CHE) grants. The CHE board of trustees approved grants totaling $652,456 for one year and $1,142,347 over three years. The new grants will: • Support and expand the Healthy Families America program, which provides home visitation and other services for parents of children under...

Much of our nation has been rocked recently in the wake of the election. There are intense emotions being felt throughout our community and our nation on both sides of the political aisle. We are at a pivotal stage in an event that affects every corner of our community. We are at a pivotal stage in intentionally deciding how we react to this event. Of all the luxuries we have in the United States, we do not have the luxury of alienating any one group of people; regardless of race, ethnicity,...

Nicole Opper's latest film, Visitor's Day, set in Puebla, Mexico, demonstrates how healing can happen when caring adults hold an intentional space of love and community for boys who have suffered from abuse and neglect.

This pdf explores barriers to accessing substance use disorder and mental health treatment services in rural communities and the benefits of telehealth for these communities. Assists practitioners with implementing telehealth technologies as a means to increase access to services. [Get the pdf at ...

The election of the highest number of women into the U.S. Senate is a harbinger of change to come in public policy affecting all of us. They will govern alongside one of the largest numbers of women elected to public office, and they will work with an increasing number of female top military leaders in our armed forces. And with this growing influence of women, we have an opportunity to make significant progress in addressing the mental health problems of our female veterans. This Veterans...

When we began our journey in 2003 to dismantle our zero tolerance disciplinary system in our schools, an interesting thing happened along the way. The crime rates went down, but not until we changed the way we disciplined kids in school. I am not sure how many folks similarly situated in juvenile justice understand that how we treat kids in our schools is one of the most essential factors in reducing crime among juveniles, and later in reducing crime among the adult population. As go kids,...

Following the election, many reports from schools reflected fear and anxiety among students and families about the potential for deportation. Other feared that the outcome gave a license to some to bully minorities or marginalized members within the community. Still others reported overt bullying and victimization. In response, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) put out guidance for schools, educators, and any adult working with children experiencing (or re-experiencing)...

It’s called The Martinsburg Initiative . It’s based on a Centers for Disease Control study that shows when children have adverse childhood experiences, like exposure to drugs and alcohol, it can have a major impact on their physical and mental developmental health. The Martinsburg Police Department and Berkeley County Schools are piloting the program at two elementary schools in Martinsburg. Shepherd University will provide technical services and volunteers via faculty, staff, and students...