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Becoming Trauma-Informed "As we come together facing this global pandemic, we are all experiencing heightened levels of stress which could be viewed as a collective trauma. The purpose of this toolkit is to build a better understanding of what trauma is and how trauma affects the thoughts, actions and behaviours of people affected by it so that we can come together in solidarity and hope. As we come together facing this global pandemic, we are all experiencing heightened levels of stress...

https://youtu.be/oq0174uvzkI

I just wanted to share a recent podcast interview. Those of you who have followed me know I'm all about promoting the need to "Make Parenting Education A National Priority". All of us want to see ACEs significantly reduced moving forward. In fact, Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris has set the goal of 50% reduction within 20 years. I do not see a pathway for this to happen unless we make parenting and child development education a priority in all of our high schools. In this podcast interview I share...

Loren McCullough, 2/11/21, positiveexperience.org/blog In our last blog post , we introduced the Black History Month series we’ll be running on the HOPE blog, to highlight and honor the work of Black individuals in the fields of public health, education, and child welfare. Today, we reflect on Ruby Bridges and the harmful effects of racism against Black girls in education. In next week’s post, we will be releasing a new resource that walks you through four questions you can ask to begin...

There is some confusion about the differences and similarities between PTSD and CPTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) sound alike but although they have some similar symptoms, they are completely different disorders. In this article, we shall examine together the differences and similarities of these two life-changing diagnoses. What is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? Post-traumatic stress disorder develops when a person experiences...

By Jessica Grose, The New York Times, February 4, 2021 In early September, as the school year inched closer, a group of mothers in New Jersey decided they would gather in a park, at a safe social distance, and scream their lungs out. For months, as the pandemic disrupted work and home life, these moms, like so many parents, had been stretched thin — acting as caregivers, teachers and earners at once. They were breaking. As are mothers all over the United States. By now, you have read the...

By Darius Stovall, The Modesto Bee, February 10, 2021 “You are not depressed” is a sentence that I have heard in my family a lot. As an African American man, the word “depression” was colored as dirty, better yet heresy. Mental health was not viewed as something that I needed to be a successful Black man. I needed God, good test scores, and connections to people who could put me in places I couldn’t get into by myself. Black culture and mental health have always been as separate as the East...

By Rajni Dronamraju and Debbie I. Chang, San Francisco Chronicle, February 9, 2021 Almost everyone, to some extent, has suffered from the isolation, uncertainty, or emotional and economic effects of the pandemic. But for some kids and families — particularly those who are low-income and part of communities of color — the scars of the pandemic threaten to last a lifetime. In the short term, the Bay Area’s most vulnerable children are at greater risk for exposure to domestic violence,...

By Neal Morton, The Hechinger Report, February 1, 2021 Shyra Adams vividly remembers the days after the death of Tony Robinson, an unarmed Black teenager killed in 2015 by police in her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. Angry and distraught over the injustice, Adams, then a high school sophomore, staged a walkout with hundreds of other students, who filled the state Capitol to protest Robinson’s death. She joined weekly protests and helped organize sit-ins at her school. Then, she cried...

By Jonathan Holloway, The New York Times, February 10, 2021 Many of the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 were driven by a belief that they were in acting in accord with the principles fashioned at the birth of this country, that their protest embodied America’s long history of patriotic rhetoric about freedom and citizenship. And in this, they are at least partly right: Such rhetoric has been used time and again by white supremacists — one of the latest iterations being the...

From Matthew Libassi, Valdosta Daily Times, January 15, 2021 To study perinatal depression in women – before and after childbirth – and possible new treatments, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research has been awarded more than $4 million in multi-year grants. The research will be led by Kristina Deligiannidis, MD, associate professor at the Feinstein Institutes’ Institute of Behavioral Science. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here:...

Online Compassionate Leadership Online Training focused on leading teams who work in high-stress and trauma-exposed environments starting in March. The Compassionate Leadership Online Program will give you the skills and knowledge needed to cultivate a culture of compassion within your teams and organization. It is a series of 5 2-hour long sessions and runs from March-May 2021. This program is led by experts in the field of compassionate leadership - Cambria Walsh, Consultant and Trainer on...