Tagged With "alaska"

It was the little red trauma-informed schoolhouse. Katherine Wickersham-Wade, the Nay’dini’aa Na’ Kayax (Chickaloon Village) clan grandmother who started the Ya Ne Dah Ah School , Alaska’s first Tribally operated school in 1992, might not have used that language. But she did envision a school that would wrap its students in Native ancestral traditions and Ahtna language, instill self-confidence and repair some of the damage inflicted by historical trauma—the disruptions to culture and...

How childhood stress can impact mental health in adulthood by Jill Burke, Alaska Dispatch News Extreme stress and young brains are a bad combination, something that sets in motion feelings and behaviors that can haunt us long into adulthood. And just in time for the school year, a new study may help explain why. The Duke University study used neuro-imaging to look at the biological effect of childhood stress on the adult brain. It's important research, because it parallels existing knowledge...

This is an important article and the research is vital. Several things worry me however. I think we must stop using terms like "stress" when children are exposed to abusive adult acts: neglect, addiction etc. Stress is inaccurate in these circumstances and lets adults off the hook for their failure to properly care for children. Another thing that worries me: there is talk of "home" and "neighbourhood" which are important, but a child spends more time at school than in either. There is a...

Hello--I work for a health foundation in Alaska and our (geographically large) borough is beginning its third cohort of trauma-sensitive schools. With this work and intention, our schools are contracting with local behavioral health providers to offer accessible, onsite services to meet student needs, particularly emergent and episodic. We need to determine a strategic, standardized and sustainable model for the long-term as need and capacity grows in our school district. There are...