Tagged With "Bottom up Regulation"
Blog Post
In the Return to "Normalcy" in 2021
Okay, so we all are hearing of the end of life as we have come to know it for the past 14 months. The social isolation, physical distancing, mask-wearing, business shutdowns, country lockdowns, and travel bans are what we in the region have endured since March 2020. The disruption of life from Covid-19 is expected to come to a close as more than one vaccine has been approved and is being used in the Caribbean. As we adults relish in the return to school of our children, our return to gainful...
Blog Post
When Acknowledgeing Our Family's Failures Is Not Betrayal.
As a child to Caribbean parents, growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, it was rare to see families which did not raise their children with physical and verbal abuse on a regular basis. The conversations we children engaged in with our "best friends" often revealed the dark secrets lurking behind the facades of our picture-perfect family lives. Even in the seeming "best" families, the children faced private, if not public shaming. Some lived in fear of parental outbursts to their childish...
Blog Post
How Caribbean Parents Can Hurt Their Children
Growing up in the Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago) in the 1970s - before the age of enlightened parenting - meant that I was raised in a strict culture. Whenever there was an infraction by us children, there would be verbal and often physical "retribution". This culture did not only exist in the immediate home but also extended to our visits to our grandparents. (It was easy to understand where my mother had received her parenting style when I witnessed my grandmother disciplining me and my...
Blog Post
ACEs and Human Trafficking Research
Ten years ago today the Trafficking In Persons Bill of Trinidad and Tobago was laid in the country's Parliament. It was eventually passed, assented to, and became law as the Trafficking In Persons Act, Chapter 12:10. (The Act itself took effect in January 2013.) So to commemorate the anniversary of the introduction of the Bill, we will share one of the first of what we hope will be many resources on the link between childhood trauma and human trafficking. The report, titled " Domestic Sex...
Comment
Re: #ChooseToChallenge - What leads to a man assaulting a woman or a child?
Excellent points made by all parties in that discussion, Juleus! Our societies are largely unaware of the harm caused because we are underplaying the value of regional research into the issues. Even then, the issue is hard to raise and engage in dispassionately due to the high emotions involved and the strong value placed on our matriarchs. Here in Trinidad and Tobago, reports from children's advocates revealed that abuse is perpetrated by female caregivers (largely physical and verbal) and...
Blog Post
Young Black Men's Mental Health During Covid-19
Research from the UK suggests that men from racialised backgrounds are reporting higher levels of mental distress during the pandemic compared to white men (Proto et al., 2021). Contributing factors include bereavement, loneliness and worries about coronavirus and misinformation.
Blog Post
FREE Virtual Screening of the Resilience Documentary - 14th to 18th March 2021
Hi everyone! Well, it is Friday afternoon and I am sure as Caribbean people you are as excited as I am for the weekend. If you are missing the movie theatres being open in your country, do not despair because --- we've got you covered for the next few days! So this is BIG news for those who have been looking forward to seeing " Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope ". There will be a FREE virtual screening over a four-day period from Sunday 14th to Thursday 18th March...
Blog Post
Building a Multi-System Trauma-Informed Collaborative.
Since the effects of childhood trauma do not play out in isolation, an effective response to child trauma should benefit not only children but the communities in which they live. This feeds into what we know from studies about factors that impact a child's growth - they occur within the family, community and also are climate-related. Multiple studies reveal the extremely high percentage of youth in contact with the law and under the care of social services who have been exposed to violence...
Blog Post
UK 'Punishing Abuse' Report Finds Many Justice-Involved Youth have Trauma Histories.
A published study from West Midlands in the United Kingdom, titled "Punishing Abuse", has confirmed what many have long suspected - many youth are being punished in the criminal justice system for acting out in the aftermath of childhood trauma. It looked at 80 youth, 67 of whom were male, and many of whom were of Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) heritage. They included White and Black Caribbean youth, some of whome were born in and others whose parents came from the Caribbean island...
Blog Post
Is There A Link between ACEs and Human Trafficking?
Today is March 25th and - just in case you have no clue why that date is significant to us in the Caribbean - it marks the anniversary of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 by which the British Parliament abolished the trade in slaves in the British Empire. (If you are not a student of history, you can read the Wikipedia version here .) True, the abolition of the institution of slavery itself occurred nearly 30 years later but this 1807 legislation was a proverbial "nail in the coffin" for slavery...
Blog Post
Grief and Crime.
Odd title. What's the deal with that? How is crime connected to grief? I've spent a few decades serving (in one form or other) people who were incarcerated or had a history of incarceration. A few years ago, I was privileged to do a program on the topic of "Grief and Hope" at a local penal facility with a group of amazing men. During the course of our time together, both I and they were surprised to find out that most of them had experienced grief in childhood prior to them becoming involved...
Blog Post
Interesting Weekend Tweet.
For us in the Caribbean, there is a tendency to cover up sex crimes committed against children by their relatives. When the offence is made known, the first call is seldom to the police but to other relatives. This is often done to strategize how to preserve the family's reputation (albeit at the expense of the child's mental and physical health), may be motivated by a false sense of protection to spare the child the shame of the offence being made public, or to confer some benefits upon the...
Blog Post
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - A Season of Diverse ACEs
Hi everyone. While it is rare that we post on a weekend, we want to highlight that for the people of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, life has been challenging recently. Yesterday, what has been feared became a reality as the La Soufriere volcano began to slowly release ash, smoke and lava and eventually erupted, after months of seismic activity. This comes after a year of dealing with Covid-19 and the economic fallout from lockdowns and loss of employment. Thankfully, the death toll from...
Blog Post
Changing Our Response to Childhood Adversity.
"For generations, we have trained practitioners to consider childhood suffering only through the institutional lens of child protection. Through research on the prevalence of ACEs in our most vulnerable children, it has become clear this approach is not enough." This is the introduction to an online event, "Changing Our Response to Childhood Adversity", to be hosted by The Learning Institute (https://www.learninginstitute.co.uk/) of the UK on 30th June 2021 where they will unveil their...
Blog Post
Rebounding from La Soufriere - Looking Back as We Look Forward.
Good morning Caribbean peoples! As events continue to unfold in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, we want to take a look back to 1979 when the La Soufriere volcano last erupted. At present, volcanic ash covers the islands, electricity has been cut and water supplies have been affected while tens of thousands are being evacuated to safer parts of the main island and to other territories. Life remains unsettled and the experts suggest the volcanic activity may continue for weeks or months.
Blog Post
Can We Talk About George Floyd? [Al Jazeera article]
Hi everyone. As everyone knows, the year 2020 was defined by a series of events, many of which linger to this day. Covid-19, as devastating as it and government efforts to curb it have been, may have been eclipsed for a time by the reporting and riots which ensued after the horrific death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in the USA. Last week, the tension of a 3-week trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd ended with a guilty...
Blog Post
Wondering Wednesday - Could California's Roadmap to Resilience Help the Caribbean?
Hello everyone and welcome to another Wondering Wednesday. This is where we examine what is working or has been introduced in other parts of the world and explore the value of adapting those ideas and concepts to the Caribbean. Today we are examining some of the components of a report published in December 2020 by the State of California in the USA. Titled "Roadmap for Resilience: The California Surgeon General’s Report on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Toxic Stress, and Health", it is...
Blog Post
The Trauma of Nowhere to Go [Newsday article]
Good Monday morning everyone. We hope the week was restful. We bring you an extract from a Sunday Newsday article with an update from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines where the situation continues to evolve. As the threat of further eruptions from the La Soufriere volcano remains, a new trauma is being seen, particularly among those displaced by the event. "As St Vincent and the Grenadines enters into its third week of dealing with effects of the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano, the...
Blog Post
May 3 to 7 - The Treating Trauma Master Series: A 5-Module Series on the Treatment of Trauma
Hi everyone. Sorry to interrupt your Sunday. However, we think that this info is important and requires a timely response. The US based National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine (NICABM) is offering a series of 5 modules on the treatment of trauma featuring some well-known experts in the field. They include Bessel van der Kolk, MD (featured in the cover image of this blog post), Pat Ogden, PhD, Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD, Dan Siegel, MD and Stephen Porges, PhD. The 5...
Blog Post
Self-Compassion: The Secret to Reducing PTSD Symptoms? [NICABM article]
Hi everyone. 😀 As many of us know first-hand, negative self-talk can come very easy depending on what happened to us. Research points to the value of Self-Compassion to help reduce the effects of those adversities, including PTSD. The article linked below is, in part, about the work of Asle Hoffart, PhD, adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Oslo, who "wanted to study how self-compassion impacted symptoms of PTSD. Hoffart measured self-compassion with his six-part...
Blog Post
Bryan Stevenson Nailed It!
Hi everyone. If you missed the Feature Address of Picower Institute's symposium on Early Life Stress and Mental Health, you missed a treat. Bryan Stevenson blew everyone away with his flawless talk on racial injustice and how this has shaped the American judicial system to the devastation of persons, many of whom have suffered childhood and generational trauma. It was one of the most powerful opening talks of any conference I have ever heard! We shared excerpts of his talk using Twitter...
Blog Post
Adverse Babyhood Experiences (ABEs): 10 New Categories of Adversity Before a Child's 3rd Birthday (Free Downloadable Journal Article) | PACEsConnection article
Hi ACEs Caribbean Community! We know some of you receive the email updates from PACEs Connection but sometimes a riveting article may slip through the cracks. So, just in case you missed it, we are happy to share the article from Dr Veronique Mead on Adverse Babyhood Experiences (ABEs). Here is an excerpt: "Adverse babyhood experiences (ABEs) are a new construct derived from large bodies of evidence that identify a different group of risk factors from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
Blog Post
Intergenerational transmission and prevention of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) [Science Direct]
Hi everybody. It's Friday and we want to share some ACEs research wirh you that you can digest over the weekend. 📖 This is a heads-up on a recently published study from the USA on intergenerational trauma and ACEs and how it is transmitted and can be prevented. Angela J. Narayan, Ph.D., L.P. and her colleagues published it in April 2021. Here is an excerpt from the abstract. "In recent years, research and practice on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have shifted from delineating effects...
Blog Post
PACEs Connection: Not just another social network
At last week’s fabulous HOPE Summit, one person told me that they didn’t realize all the things that PACEs Connection does.
Blog Post
ACEs and the Oldest Oppression.
Hi everyone. So it's still the 25th and apart from expressing how important it is to use appropriate language when discussing child trafficking and exploitation, we do have another post for you on this important topic of ACEs and Human Trafficking. Mrs Harmony Grillo, a Survivor Leader and founder of the nonprofit Treasures, recently did a TEDx Talk titled, The Oldest Oppression in the World. As you can expect, she is referring to the sexual exploitation of primarily women and girls in...
Blog Post
Criticizing ACEs in Peer Reviewed Professional Journals Impairs Child Abuse Treatment
Criticizing ACEs in Peer Reviewed Professional Journals Impairs Child Abuse Treatment Jeoffry B. Gordon, MD, MPH May 23, 2021 As a family doc practicing in San Diego I was privileged to hear Dr. Vincent Felitti talk about his inspired development of the ACEs questionnaire and its association with many adult mental and physical diseases directly from him only a few years after his original insight. Yet, although I had a lively clinic and learned how to manage a vast array of medical...
Blog Post
Courage and Vulnerability
So the field of sports - specifically tennis - is experiencing some of what the UK royals, singers, TV stars, entertainers and others have seen in recent times. We're not referring to opening up after the Covid-19 lockdowns, but transparency in the discussion around mental health. Top seeded Naomi Osaka has withdrawn from the French Open after expressing feelings of vulnerability and anxiety. Last year, she was vocal and wore face masks to highlight a range of social issues especially around...
Blog Post
Barbados Research into Childhood Malnutrition and Maltreatment.
Happy Friday everybody! As you know, with that comes some weekend reading for you. Today, we are sharing a report from research conducted in Barbados that links childhood malnutrition and maltreatment to personality disorders which persist into adulthood. It is the work of Rebecca S. Hock and her colleagues using data from the 47 year longitudinal Barbados Nutrition Study. Published in Psychiatry Research (Volume 269, November 2018, Pages 301-308), the work, " Childhood malnutrition and...
Blog Post
Five Years On - 5 Ways to Boost Your Resilience at Work
Hello. It's Wellness Wednesday everyone and we're bringing you a Harvard Business Review article from 5 years ago. Don't worry, it's relevant for today even more than the author could have imagined at the time. The author, Mr. Rich Fernandez, was a director of learning and organization development at Google, eBay and J.P. Morgan Chase. Rich began by writing, "Many of us now work in constantly connected, always-on, highly demanding work cultures where stress and the risk of burnout are...
Blog Post
Promoting positive parenting for families in poverty: New directions for improved reach and engagement
Good Friday morning everyone. How was your week? I am sure we are all looking forward to the weekend. As we set things up for this week's "Food For Thought Friday", we want to examine an area which was excluded from the original ACE study of 1998 - that is, the consideration of poverty. It has been an area of criticism of the original study especially where researchers desiring to replicate it want to address the needs of persons living in cramped urban conditions. There is a 2017 study done...
Blog Post
Resilience and Children in Residential Care - What the Data Shows
Hi everyone. The recent discovery of the bodies of 215 children at a residential school in Canada has led to an explosion of discussion online and many calls for the federal government of Canada to implement a series of recommendations from a previous national commission to investigate similar issues. Also arising are discussions on the state of residential care for children as a whole and the degree to which such institutions are properly addressing the inherent needs of the children under...
Blog Post
What Do We Do Once We Realize the Prevalence of Adversities?
When people hear about the mental and physical health risks of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress, one of the first questions is, “What do we do about this?” Awareness of the prevalence of adversity and the impact of stress on the brain and body leads to the possibility for prevention and response. Whether you are acting within a family, agency, organization, business or community, the next steps should be taken knowing that we will all work together to bring about change.
Blog Post
Adversities. Resilience. Gratitude.
Adversity can be a powerful word especially when you are a Trauma Counsellor aware of ACEs. This revolutionary study on the impact of our Adverse Childhood Experiences has provided us with so many answers as to why we are the way we are. At least it did for me and the people I work with every day. It has also raised many important questions. One being, how can one build resilience through past adversities? How did I do it? Having done the ACE test and getting a maximum score of 10 on it, I...
Blog Post
California PACEs Connection initiatives spark new connections in regional meeting
Among PACEs Connection initiatives around the country, it’s well known that our social network is something like a bustling, giant town square where people share ideas, resources and any number of conversations about how to prevent childhood adversity and promote positive childhood experiences. On May 14, PACEs Connection assembled a virtual town square gathering of PACEs initiatives in California, where we have 58 initiatives sparking action all across the state. Speakers at the gathering,...
Blog Post
Wrestling Ghosts Watch Weekend on PACEs Connection (June 11-13th) & Zoom Discussion with Director Ana Joanes on June 15th at 7p.m. EST.
Wrestling Ghosts is the fourth and final film in the Transform Trauma with ACEs Science Film Festival series. The film can be watched, free of charge, on PACEs Connection from Friday, June 11th through Sunday, June 13th where it will be streamed all weekend. The streaming will be followed by a Zoom discussion with Wrestling Ghosts Director, Ana Joanes, and the co-sponsors of the Transform Trauma with ACEs Science Film Festival (CTIPP, PACEs Connection, & the Relentless School Nurse) on...
Blog Post
Reclaiming the Narrative of Black Fatherhood
Fathers play a critical role in the healthy development of children and families. This is why it's important to address structural and systemic barriers that prevent Black men from being fully present in their children's lives—so that all families have a chance to thrive. My wife and I have been married since 2019, but we’ve known each other since we were 14-year-olds. We are raising a blended family. She has a daughter who is 9 and a 7-year-old son. I have a son who is 8, and together we...
Blog Post
Gwyneth Paltrow x Nadine Burke Harris: How Does Childhood Trauma Impact Health Outcomes? [goop.com]
From Goop, June 16, 2020 “You can’t grow up Black in America and not feel outraged by the terrible health disparities that are still going on every day,” says Nadine Burke Harris, MD , the first surgeon general of California. GP got on a video call with Harris, who is an expert on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Her book, The Deepest Well , explores the connection between adversity, trauma, and toxic stress in childhood and health outcomes later in life. Much of her work focuses on...
Blog Post
Explore the Role of Culture in Healing with La Maida Project
La Maida Project is thrilled to share videos from our recent webinar series “Exploring the Role of Culture in Healing”. We had an great audience turn out and robust dialogue with our panel of guest speakers including Ken Epstein, PhD LCSW , leader in trauma-informed systems transformation, Anil Vadaparty , CEO of child-welfare agency McKinley, and Omid Naim, MD , integrative psychiatrist and founder of La Maida Project. In these webinars we discuss the role of leadership in trauma-informed...
Blog Post
Building a Restorative Restart to School in the Fall
As we look towards the reopening of in-person instruction in the fall, planning and reimagining for a restorative restart to our school systems that emphasizes student and educator mental health is a priority. In addition, there is a windfall of one-time funding coming to districts from federal and local funds for just this purpose. Recently a wise educator said to me, ‘you know, if you want to get to the hearts and minds of school leaders to make changes for the fall you need to do so by...
Blog Post
When Self-Care Doesn't "Work"
You can't fail at self-care. If something isn't helpful, maybe you haven't yet found your own way.
Blog Post
Racism as an Adverse Community Experience
By Christina Velez, The Relationship Foundation July 15, 2021 Have you ever questioned the ways that racism and trauma intersect? As a person of color, I know I have. Racism is a core determinant of health which often leads to social inequities. From watching PBS’s video on “Mental Fitness for Resilience-The Trauma of Racism” it was interesting to learn how racism and trauma, often converge in inseparable ways. Dr. Terri D. McFadden, a general pediatrician, and professor at Emory University...
Blog Post
World Day Against Trafficking in Persons Coming Up on 30 July
Good Sunday morning everyone. We hope you are enjoying the weekend. While we seldom post on the weekend, today is different. Why? Well, because it's the 25th of the month and, as promised, we want to bring you a post that highlights the issue of slavery and human trafficking. This week will mark the United Nations observance of World Day Against Trafficking In Persons on 30th July. The commemoration of the Day was proclaimed in December 2013 by the United Nations General Assembly, in its...
Blog Post
Five Ways to Protect Your Emotional Health Post-COVID [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
By Bethany Teachman, Greater Good Magazine, July 15, 2021 You’ve been waiting…and waiting…and waiting for this amazing, magical day when you could return to “normal life.” For many people in the U.S., it feels like that dim light at the end of the pandemic tunnel is becoming brighter. My 12- and 14-year-old daughters now have their first shot, with the second one soon to follow. I was euphoric when the kids received their vaccinations, choking up under my mask at the relief that my family...
Blog Post
Trauma and COVID-19: Addressing Mental Health Among Racial/Ethnic Minority Populations Webinar
The Office of Minority Health (OMH) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cordially invites you to join a national audience of mental health professionals, health advocates and educators, health care providers, public health professionals, and OMH partners and stakeholders for an upcoming webinar: Trauma and COVID-19: Addressing Mental Health Among Racial/Ethnic Minority Populations July 29, 2021 | 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. ET As part of the OMH observance of National...
Blog Post
PACEs Champion Dwana Young navigates community-driven ACEs healing centers in New Jersey
In 2020, New Jersey, a state with about 9 million people spread over the rural countryside and dense urban areas like Newark, launched a new entity: the NJ Office of Resilience (NJOR). The NJOR is unusual because it is a public-private partnership. It brings together three private foundations as well as the NJ Department of Children and Families to provide community-driven strategies for preventing, treating, and healing from ACEs. Like a ship’s navigator laying out a course on charts, Dwana...
Blog Post
Simone Biles, ACEs and PCEs [positiveexperience.org/blog]
By the HOPE Team, 7/28/21, positiveexperience.org/blog Like so many people, we spent part of the weekend transfixed by the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Despite COVID, no crowds, and troubles with the Tokyo organizing committee, the athletes dazzled us with their speed, endurance and grace. In particular, Simone Biles seems superhuman – a woman who seems to defy gravity and performs gymnastic feats that had been thought to be impossible. She wears her past on her body and outfit: her collarbone bears...
Blog Post
When Cyclones Party In Your Backyard
Happy "Fri-yay" to everyone! Over the past week ago, the world was shocked out of its focus on evolving virus strains when the media launched an all-out assault on our sensibilities with headlines that screamed " Code RED for humanity !" What they were referring to was not an alien invasion or zombie apocalypse but the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) that the climate crisis was propelling us to a point where, even with our best efforts, we would not be able...
Blog Post
Institutional Child Sexual Abuse: Problem and Prevention
Despite institutional child sexual abuse being a known and alarming issue, most recently highlighted by investigations of the Boy Scouts and USA Gymnastics, little is known about the extent of the problem and best practices for prevention.
Yesterday, PACEs Connection hosted a webinar with Dr. Billie-Jo Grant and Terri Miller, experts in school employee sexual misconduct. They cover the scope of the problem, why it is so difficult to address, and best practices for prevention.
Blog Post
Upcoming Presentation on the Causes/Impacts of ACEs in the Caribbean
On Friday, August 27, 2021, at noon, I will be the guest speaker at Port of Spain Adult Library’s monthly International Men's Day Trinidad and Tobago (IMDTT) discussion. The title of my talk is The Causes and Impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in the Caribbean. ACEs pose huge challenges across the globe. Unfortunately, not much has been done in the Caribbean to uncover the links between ACEs and many of the developmental challenges we face. My presentation will highlight some of...
Blog Post
Substance misuse linked to risk profiles, study finds - Jeff Grabmeier
The study found that scores assessing childhood trauma exposure among adults with substance misuse issues were 24% higher than previous estimates for other adults in the child welfare system, and 108% higher than the general population. While many parents and caregivers involved in the child welfare system suffered trauma as children, new research suggests that those with substance misuse issues as adults may have had particularly difficult childhoods. Not surprisingly, children in these...