Tagged With "California Surgeon General"
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Helping Kids Find the Wisdom in Overwhelm
In an unprecedented global shutdown, many of us, especially without the noise and distraction of everyday life, are facing intensified, often destabilizing feelings. And that includes kids—whether they’re able to say so or not.
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Their Kids Died on the Psych Ward. They Were Far From Alone, a Times Investigation Found [latimes.com]
By Soumya Karlamangla, Los Angeles Times, December 1, 2019 Mia St. John’s cellphone lit up with a message from the psychiatrist treating her son. The voicemail shimmered with hope, the first she had felt in months. The doctor said Julian, admitted to a psychiatric facility with schizophrenia, seemed more cheerful, was talking more with other patients and would soon begin a new art project. “Very happy to see he’s coming around a bit,” the doctor said. It was November 2014, and Julian, 24,...
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TIC: News and Notes for the Week of October 21, 2019 [dhs.wisconsin.gov]
ACEs, Adversity's Impact There is only one boat: The myth of normalcy by Dr. Gabor Mate Understanding historical trauma to strengthen community Childhood trauma linked to early, premarital childbirth and poor health for women Early life racial discrimination linked to depression, accelerated aging When mothers are killed by their partners, children often become 'forgotten' victims. It's time they were given a voice Children's language skills may be harmed by social hardship Does racism...
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What's Lost When Black Children Are Socialized Into a White World [theatlantic.com]
By Dani McClain, The Atlantic, November 21, 2019 Jessica Black is a Pittsburg, California, mother of two black teenagers, both of whom have been disciplined multiple times at their middle and high schools. Her daughter has been suspended more than once, and teachers often deem her son’s behavior out of line, reprimanding him for not taking off his hoodie in class and for raising his voice. In observing her own family and others, Black has noticed a pattern: Behaviors that many black parents...
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Taming the Dragons: Helping Children Cope: Ages Birth to Twelve Years
Taming the Dragons is a training manual for parents, foster parents, and kinship caregivers. It was developed out of a crisis nursery in WA state by Sue Delucchi. English and Spanish versions attached here for free downloads.
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Testing In California Still a Frustrating Patchwork Of Haves And Have-Nots [califroniahealthline.org]
By Anna Maria Barry-Jester, Angela Hart, and Rachel Bluth, California Healthline, May 4, 2020 Months into the spread of the coronavirus in the United States, widespread diagnostic testing still isn’t available, and California offers a sobering view of the dysfunction blocking the way. It’s hard to overstate how uneven the access to critical test kits remains in the nation’s largest state. Even as some Southern California counties are opening drive-thru sites to make testing available to any...
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[Repost] Trauma-informed Care: It Takes More Than a Clipboard and a Questionnaire
California is about to launch an ambitious campaign to train tens of thousands of Medi-Cal providers to screen children and adults up to age 65 for trauma, starting on January 1, 2020. It is well-established that the early identification of trauma and providing the appropriate treatment are critical tools for reducing long-term health care costs for both children and adults. Research has shown that individuals who experienced a high number of traumatic childhood events are likely to die...
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Mark your calendar for March 10 tweet chat on CA ACEs screening!
Hey ACEs Connection communities! Please join us for a boisterous tweet chat about ACEs screening in California on March 10 at 10 am Pacific/ 1 pm Eastern for #SaludTues, hosted by @saludamerica and co-hosted by @CYWSanFrancisco, @acesconnection and @CHCShealth. Get your thumbs ready, and spread the word! What: Tweet chat Who: Salud America, co-hosted by Center for Youth Wellness, ACEs Connection and Center for Health Care Strategies. When: Tuesday, March 10, 10am Pacific/ 1 pm Eastern Why:...
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More Adolescents Seek Medical Care for Mental Health Issues [californiahealthline.org]
By Phillip Reese, California Healthline, November 11, 2019 Less than a decade ago, the emergency department at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego would see maybe one or two young psychiatric patients per day, said Dr. Benjamin Maxwell, the hospital’s interim director of child and adolescent psychiatry. Now, it’s not unusual for the emergency room to see 10 psychiatric patients in a day, and sometimes even 20, said Maxwell. “What a lot of times is happening now is kids aren’t getting the...
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How to Shelter in Place if You Live With Domestic Abuse [kqed.org]
By Michelle Wiley and Shannon Lin, KQED, March 24, 2020 Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted a shelter-in-place order across California. The order, which limits the kinds of businesses and activities that are allowed, is meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and encourages people to stay inside their homes as much as possible. But what do you do when home is a dangerous place? For many survivors of domestic violence in California, sheltering in place can feel strangely familiar. Many...
Ask the Community
Help our public radio station with our reporting: How did separation from your parents as a child impact you?
KQED is the NPR-affiliate public radio station based in San Francisco, CA. We’d like to hear from adults (18+) who were separated from their parents when they were children. Perhaps the separation was due to economic reasons, war and conflict, incarceration, foster care, or something else. How did that period of separation impact you in the long-run? How did it impact you as a parent? We’re interested in this topic due to recent news of parents and children being separated at the U.S.-Mexico...
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Parenting Matters: Supporting Parents of Children Ages 0-8 (The National Academies Press 2016)
A study published by The National Academies of Sciences in 2016 resulting in 10 Recommendations to build support for parents... "Over the past several decades, researchers have identified parenting- related knowledge, attitudes, and practices that are associated with improved developmental outcomes for children and around which parenting- related programs, policies, and messaging initiatives can be designed. However, consensus is lacking on the elements of parenting that are most important...
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Positive Childhood Experiences offset ACEs: Q & A with Dr. Robert Sege about HOPE
Tufts University medical professor Dr. Robert Sege directs the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine and is nationally known for his research on effective health systems approaches that address social determinants of health. He is also the principal investigator for the HOPE framework (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences).The HOPE framework is based on research that shows how positive childhood experiences can mitigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences. Sege and colleagues...
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ACES Aware Webinar: Dec 13th, 12-1pm PT - Public Comments about soon-to-be-released Request for Proposal
The Department of Health Care Services and the California Office of the Surgeon General are hosting a webinar of the Trauma-Informed Care Implementation Advisory Committee’s Provider Education and Engagement Subcommittee. Subcommittee members will discuss a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) released for public comment as part of the ACEs Aware initiative. The draft RFP invites external organizations to apply for grants to support provider training activities, provider engagement activities...
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California has Begun Screening for Early Childhood Trauma, But Critics Urge Caution [sciencemag.org]
By Emily Underwood, Science, January 29, 2020 On 1 January, California became the first U.S. state to screen for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)—early life hardships such as abuse, neglect, and poverty, which can have devastating health consequences in later life. The project is not just a public health initiative, but a vast experiment. State officials aim to cut the health impacts of early life adversity by as much as half within a generation. But critics say the health benefits of...
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California Plans to End 'Lunch Shaming' That Guarantees Meals for All Students [usatoday.com]
By Joshua Bote, USA Today, October 14, 2019 A bill signed Saturday by California Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to cut the recent trend in schools of "lunch shaming." SB 265, which was originally introduced by California state Sen. Robert Hertzberg, will require that all public school students have a "state reimbursable" meal provided by the school "even if their parent or guardian has unpaid meal fees." It amends the Child Hunger Prevention and Fair Treatment Act of 2017, which previously stated...
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Cancer as a survivor
Many people use the phrase CPTSD to stand for PTSD from complex trauma. To me, C-PTSD means cancer and PTSD. I have cancer and I’m a trauma survivor. I’m a survivor with cancer but not yet a cancer survivor. Will I be a survivor squared?
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Children & Families COVID19 Resilience Brief 5: Music For Healing
Click on the pdf link for the full child-friendly article.
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Each Mind Matters: Raising Awareness For Men's Mental Health
“Don't Drive Like My Brother!” Sound familiar? “Car Talk” is the highly popular, long-running radio show hosted by two brothers who dispense colorful advice to callers to help them solve their car problems. Imagine for a moment a similar show where men – and those who care about them – called in every Sunday morning to ask how to tune up their mental health, to keep their emotions from overheating, or their mind running smoothly? Traditionally, men are raised to be self-sufficient, tough,...
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Should police officers be in schools? California education leaders rethink school safety [edsource.org]
By Michael Burke, EdSource, June 11, 2020 A movement to reform California public school policing and drastically rethink school safety is quickly gaining momentum amid nationwide protests against police brutality following the killing of George Floyd. In Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento and San Francisco, administrators and school boards are under pressure from community groups who are renewing demands for police-free schools and calling on districts to instead hire more counselors and other...
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Network of Care: The Power of You
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Peer to Peer Session: Coffee & Connections
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Natalie Audage Joins PACEs Connection
Natalie Audage, new PACEs family and community resources lead, says her middle and high school education in dictatorships – Aleppo, Syria and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – where her parents were teachers on the international circuit, made her realize that human rights were not universal. That’s why a light bulb went off in her senior year at Princeton University, when the chemistry major took a class on human rights. She realized she could combine her love of science with her desire to help the...
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Impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) inspires launch of Number Story national public awareness campaign
Understanding the story behind one’s score can empower and support people and families, which is what NumberStory.org -- and “The Story of Your Number” campaign -- is designed to do.
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New Resource Available: Creating Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments for Children
The Essentials for Childhood Initiative would like to share a new resources titled, “Creating Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments for Children.” This new resource is intended to elevate primary prevention strategies that support creating Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments (SSNR&Es) for children and highlight 2019 data from the Awareness, Commitment, and Norms Survey provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This document was...
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Interview with Dr. Nadine Burke Harris & Dave Ellis
We recently sat down with Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, California’s first surgeon general, and Dave Ellis, the first executive director of the Office of Resilience at the New Jersey Department of Children and Families. A pioneering voice on prevention, early identification, and treatment of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), Dr. Burke Harris gained national prominence with her viral 2015 TED talk on this topic. Dave Ellis made his name as a national leader in providing trainings and...
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COVID Is Driving a Children’s Mental Health Emergency [scientificamerican.com]
By Julia Hotz, Photo: Getty Images, Scientific American, December 13, 2021 When COVID shut down life as usual in the spring of 2020, most physicians in the U.S. focused on the immediate physical dangers from the novel coronavirus. But soon pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris began thinking of COVID’s longer-term emotional damage and those who would be especially vulnerable: children. “The pandemic is a massive stressor,” explains Burke Harris, who is California’s surgeon general. “Then you have...
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To solve the Black maternal mortality crisis, start with upending racist practices
It’s been all over the news for months: Black women in the United States are dying from complications during their pregnancies or in childbirth at alarming rates, and those deaths are preventable. Less well explored is how systemic racism and historical trauma have been at the core of what’s driven up these rates over several decades. A March 20 conference entitled The Impact of ACEs on Black Maternal Health took an in-depth look into why Black maternal mortality and complications during...
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A Report on How Stigma Harms Youth Exposed to Parental Substance Use Disorder
A New Path Forward: A Report on How Stigma Harms Youth exposed to Parental Substance Use Disorder and Recommendations for a New Path Forward NEW REPORT: On February 3rd, Starlings Community released a FIRST of its kind report on how stigma impacts youth exposed to parental substance use disorder. Approximately 1 in 6 youth are exposed to the stress and stigma of a parent's substance use disorder. These children/youth are at double the risk for depression, triple the risk for addiction, and...
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Stress Busters Handout
We all have inner strengths and resilience that can help us deal with challenges and stress. To help us manage stress, PACEs Connection and ACEs Aware created a handout based on seven evidence-based stress busters , as described in the Roadmap for Resilience: The California Surgeon General’s Report on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Toxic Stress, and Health . These interventions can help reduce stress, improve health, and build resilience. Please share widely! The handout is available in the...
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New Resource Available: Hardships and Hope in California During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Family Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic Questionnaire Brief, Wave 1
I am reaching out to share a new resource, “ Hardships and Hope in California During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Family Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic Questionnaire Brief, Wave 1 ,” developed by the Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , a project of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the California Department of Social Services ; CDPH’s Office of Strategic Development and External Relations (Fusion Center ); and the Population Reference Bureau , Kidsdata . The...
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How to Handle the Effect of the Pandemic on Your Child with Dr. Nadine Burke Harris [Uncommon Ground with Van Jones]
March 2022 | Uncommon Ground with Van Jones D r. Nadine Burke Harris joined Van Jones to answer a series of listener questions, such as, “How can we help to make sure our children are still socialized during periods of isolation?” and “How do we help our young ones grieve?” More details on the podcast: “The thing that is most important for us as parents and caregivers is this: to be able to be there for our kids, we gotta take care of ourselves.” Former California Surgeon General, Dr. Nadine...
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Many California Families Can't Access Mental Health Care for Kids. This East Palo Alto Mom Found a Way [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
By Blanca Torres, USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, Illustration by Anna Vignet/KQED, September 30, 2022 Jasmine Cuevas stood at her kitchen stove preparing migas, stirring a pan of eggs and tortillas before calling her four children to dinner. She spooned servings onto plates while asking each about their day. “I get out of work, get them from school and then we come straight home,” she said. “And, it’s a wreck: dinner, homework, reading, bath and then bedtime by 7:30 at the...
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North Carolina moves closer to creating nation's first ACEs-informed courts system
(l-r) Judge J. Corpening; Ben David, district attorney, New Hanover County; Chief Justice Paul Newby; Judge Andrew Heath, executive director, Administrative Office of the Courts of the Chief Justice's ACEs Informed Courts Task Force. David and Heath serve as Task Force co-chairs . “There is not any more important work going on in the State of North Carolina,” said Ben David, District Attorney for New Hanover County and co-chair of the Chief Justice’s ACEs-Informed Task Force . The Task force...
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How much would the NAS poverty reduction packages reduce referrals to CPS and foster care placements? Would they reduce racial disproportionality in child welfare? (nasonline.org).
Because of a collaboration with Columbia University and UW-Madison, we have answers to these questions. By Peter Peter Pecora, Casey Family Programs, March 17, 2023 - Overview The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recently released a “ roadmap ” to reduce child poverty by as much as half through the implementation of a series of social policy packages. The aim of this study was to simulate the reductions in Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement and foster care placements that are...
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Villainizing and restricting social media will worsen, not help, youth mental health (youthtoday.org)
RYAN COLLERD/AP To read more of Nia West-Bey's article, please click here. The U.S. Surgeon General issued a 25-page advisory , arguing that social media, lacking sufficient safeguards, harms our nation’s youth. Even before that 2023 report, state and local policymakers were holding hearings and introducing legislation that villainizes and seeks to restrict youth access to social media. Members of Congress have thundered away at TikTok’s CEO and Montana’s state lawmakers recently banned the...