Tagged With "health equity"
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2017 Children's Mental Health Report
Of the 74.5 million children in the United States, an estimated 17.1 million have or have had a mental health disorder — more than the number of children with cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined. Half of all mental illness occurs before the age of 14, and 75 percent by the age of 24. In spite of the magnitude of the problem, lack of awareness and entrenched stigma keep the majority of these young people from getting help. Children and adolescents struggling with these disorders are at risk...
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2017 Spring Webinar Series: Trauma-Informed Approaches in Minnesota Schools
April 12, noon-1:30: Trauma-Informed Approaches in Minnesota Schools Dr. Mark Sander, Hennepin County; Stacy Bender-Fayette and Sharleen Zeman-Sperle, Peacemaker Resources Many Minnesota schools are trying innovative approaches to promote social emotional learning and to make the classroom a safe learning environment for children who have experienced trauma. This webinar is a chance to hear from three such innovators: Dr. Mark Sander, a psychologist working in the Minneapolis Public Schools...
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2019 School Mental Health Webinar Series
Join the Pacific Southwest MHTTC for upcoming distance learning opportunities on key school mental health topics. Together we will advance our understanding of how to build wellness, resilience, and success for the whole school community. Upcoming Webinar: Mental Health and Student Learning Outcomes: An Introduction Mental Health & Student Learning Outcomes Series - Webinar 1 Thursday, March 21 6-7 p.m. ET / 3-4 p.m. PT / 1-2 p.m. HT / 9-10 a.m. ChT Register Are you a school...
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All pupils will be taught about mental and physical wellbeing (gov.uk)
It's a start. Clearly many children do not grow up in households where this information is known and understood and healthy patterns hold. I believe we still have a way to go including ACEs and that emotional health is key. All children in England will be taught how to look after their mental wellbeing and recognise when classmates may be struggling, as the Government unveils new guidance for the introduction of compulsory health education. Bold new plans set out today (Monday 25 February)...
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An Evidence-Based Indictment of Inaction
If schools are to be guided by data, the data says more than 2 of 3 children experience at least one ACE: children of all incomes, all colors, all social levels, all educational levels. It is all of us. Is your school trauma-informed?
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An Evidence-Based Indictment of Inaction
If schools are to be guided by data, the data says that 2 of 3 children experience at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE): children of all incomes, all colors, all social levels, all educational levels. It is all of us. Is your school trauma-informed?
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Partnership expands mental health resources for schools [news.iu.edu]
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's Indiana School Mental Health Initiative has partnered with The Lutheran Foundation to provide online resources to support schools and community partners as they address students' social, emotional, behavioral and mental health needs. The Lutheran Foundation’s statewide LookUp Indiana website provides information along with a resource directory of mental health provider agencies searchable by name, city or ZIP code. The Indiana School Mental Health...
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Peek Inside a Classroom: Danny
When you look inside a classroom, there are some things you can not see . . .
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Peek Inside a Classroom: Jasmine
Wiry, active, savvy. Jasmine. There were not many good days. . . only random moments of calm in a violent storm, erupting on a ‘hair trigger’
When you look inside a classroom there are some things you can not see….
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Program offers hundreds of young men, boys safe space to heal from ACEs
Dennis McCollins recounts some of the experiences that caused him to harden against the world as a teenager. “There were times I went to more funerals than birthdays,” says McCollins, who is the clinical director of the School Based Health Center at Greenwood Academy in Richmond, Calif. And it took its toll: “I spent time homeless. I got expelled [from school]. I was so angry and upset and mad,” he says. Dennis McCollins Then a man that he met when he was sent to Job Corps as a teen turned...
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Finding Balance in Disorienting Times: A Live Webinar TODAY
Finding Balance in Disorienting Times: A Live Webinar on May 1 During uncertain times, you may find yourself not feeling very steady – and that’s ok! Join Kaiser Permanente, Sanford Harmony and Healthier Generation on Friday, May 1 at 11 a.m. P D T / 2 p.m. E D T for a live webinar: “ Finding Balance in Disorienting Times .” In this session, you’ll learn practical tips to steady yourself in disorienting times, including setting boundaries, understanding why and how to use gratitude and...
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Graduations, non-linear paths, & the importance of getting started
With graduation season upon us, I have been thinking a lot about one of my favorite graduation speeches. It’s the speech that Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey’s Anatomy, gave in 2014 at Dartmouth College. She references the typical expected advice from a graduation speech: “Follow your dreams. Listen to your spirit. Change the world. Make your mark. Find your inner voice and make it sing. Embrace failure. Dream. Dream and dream big." And then she says, "I think that's crap."
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Healing in the Classroom: Juneau School Tries New Tack to Help Students [juneauempire.com]
By Michael S. Lockett, Juneau Empire, December 4, 2019 Just as a house built on a shattered foundation won’t stand straight, mounting research points toward a child’s earliest years as setting a pattern that will last their whole life. “What happens early in your life has really big and dramatic impact on the later parts of your life,” said Alex Newton, the counselor at Glacier Valley Elementary School – Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx. “All development for kids starts with their early caregiver...
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Houston Teachers Drafted to Become Trauma Counselors [dailybeast.com]
As Houston ’s school district of more than 200,000 students scrambles to repair damaged schools before classes begin next week, they must also plan for traumatized students to enter the classroom. The Houston Independent School District is in the process of working with counsellors, nurses and social workers to develop a “mental health recovery plan” for the district’s hardest hit schools, according to a statement from HISD. In the meantime, Mental Health America of Greater Houston and...
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How COVID-19 Impacts Children’s Mental Health
Mental health among children and youth is already a concern. In 2018, there were 41,087 hospital discharges for mental health issues among California youth ages 5-19, a 38% increase in the last decade . With the emergence of COVID-19, children with existing mental health issues must endure the added burden of a pandemic. Children often rely on schools to provide mental health services, but school closures have made it difficult to access and preserve the quality of these services. Historical...
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How to Help a Child Struggling With Anxiety [npr.org]
By Cory Turner, National Public Radio, October 29, 2019 Childhood anxiety is one of the most important mental health challenges of our time. One in five children will experience some kind of clinical-level anxiety by the time they reach adolescence, according to Danny Pine, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health and one of the world's top anxiety researchers. Pine says that for most kids, these feelings of worry won't last, but for some, they will —...
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How to Talk with Kids About COVID-19 [healthier.stanfordchildrens.org]
By Erin Digitale, Stanford Children's Health, March 10, 2020 As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread, experts at Stanford Children’s Health have advice about how families can prepare their children for the continued news coverage and conversations around the outbreak. Parents and caregivers should communicate in an age-appropriate way that addresses children’s questions without stoking anxiety, says Stanford Children’s Health psychiatrist Victor Carrion, MD , who also directs...
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Hundreds of staff brought into Scottish schools to help pupils with mental health problems
https://inews.co.uk/news/scotland/hundreds-of-staff-brought-into-scottish-schools-to-help-pupils-with-mental-health-problems/amp/?__twitter_impression=true The plan was a key part of Nicola Sturgeon's Programme for Government Hundreds of extra nurses and counsellors are to be brought into schools across Scotland to help pupils cope with mental health problems, amid concerns over “devastating” waiting times. The plans will see 600 extra specialist mental health staff working in the nation’s...
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Starting This Week! School Mental Health Wellness Wednesdays - Connect • Reflect • Support
From our friends at the Pacific Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (A SAMHSA funded TA center for the mental health field) School Mental Health Wellness Wednesdays! In times of uncertainty, there is one thing we do know: educators and school mental health leadership are resilient, creative, tenacious and…needing support to provide support. The context of our schools is changing, and the context of our work is changing. In times of uncertainty, unpredictability, and...
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Temporary Free Access to Paediatrics & Child Health (PCH) articles (Oxford Academic)
Temporary free access to highly cited articles making an impact in Paediatrics & Child Health ( PCH ) has just been opened up by Oxford Academic. If you're a research hoarder like me, you'll want to check this out. https://academic.oup.com/pch/pages/highly_cited_articles
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Misunderstood, mislabeled, mistreated
Finally, a “doctor told me NOT to call it a “mental illness” it’s a “mental injury”
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Children's Mental Health Network
Website: Children's Mental Health Network Info: The Children’s Mental Health Network provides weekly news and unbiased analysis of key issues focused on children, youth and families’ mental health and well-being. The Network reaches a widely diverse audience. Readers and contributors to the Network come from all walks of life – parents, youth, community leaders, policy-makers, state and federal officials, and increasingly, similar groups from countries across the globe. Common among all who...
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LGBTQ+ Youth: A Guided Workbook - #1 NEW RELEASE on Amazon!
Friends, Check out this new tool to use with youth of all ages! LGBTQ+ Youth: A Guided Workbook to support Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity is the most comprehensive, practical and user-friendly workbook written specifically for clinicians and educators to engage and support lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and questioning youth. *Deal with the challenges of coming out *Understand sexual identity, gender norms and fluidity *Safety plan and address negative attitudes at school and in...
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LIVING SAFE: Back to school and behavioral health [www.yourhoustonnews.com]
by Katherine Cabaniss, Cypress Creek Mirror August 23, 2016 Students have returned to school. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are on their minds. Teachers, parents, administrators, and all who care about kids are focused first on academic achievement. In the Greater Houston area, one program focuses on students’ minds in a different way. Mental Health America of the Greater Houston Area (“MHA”) concentrates on kids’ mental health. MHA’s goals further not only student success, but also...
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The Relentless School Nurse: A Back to School Message From Your School's Chief Wellness Officer - The School Nurse
The school nurse is your child’s Chief Wellness Officer! So first things first: be sure your school has a school nurse in your child’s building every day. If not, there are 55 million reasons to have one. School nurses have access to 95% of our nation’s 55 million children every day, all day. We are the dedicated, licensed health professionals in your school community, whose eyes and ears are an extension of yours. The history of school nursing goes back more than 100 years, to the tenements...
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The Relentless School Nurse: Access to the Research Behind Evidence-Based Practice Must Not End at Graduation
A virtual library card is needed for the legions of working professional nurses who must be current in our practice. However, our access to the very journals that hold the most cutting edge, evidence-based nursing practice (EBP) is inaccessible once we graduate. Of course, we can purchase individual subscriptions to journals, but that financial burden is often elusive for nurses who are paying off massive student debt. This important issue was raised on Twitter by public health nurse Melanie...
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The Relentless School Nurse: Candida Rodriguez is Creating Community Through the Power of Conversations That Matter
Candida Rodriguez is my mentor, while she may disagree with that statement and say it is the opposite, it is the absolute truth. My respect, admiration, and amazement at the depth of her knowledge, talent, and compassion astound me every time we work together. Candida serves her complex and ever-changing community with dedication, skill and a relentless pursuit of coordinating care for her students and families. We are partners in the Community Cafe Initiative that began in 2015 after I...
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The Relentless School Nurse: Grieving Alongside my Student
I usually love the fall, anticipation of cooler days, the beauty of the leaves changing, back to school excitement and all that comes with a new season. That was true until the fall of 2009. There are events that mark before and after periods when life is irrevocably changed. In September of 2009, that moment came via the most unwanted phone call. My father had experienced, what the doctor called a “life-ending event”. The days leading up to and following his death are a blur, the impact...
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The Relentless School Nurse: Imagine the School Nurse as the Chief Wellness Officer
My summers are spent teaching at Rutgers-Camden School of Nursing in the School Nurse Certificate Program. It is truly one of my most cherished roles and this summer was no exception. Every year I learn alongside my students, all who are adult learners returning to school to meet the state requirements to become school nurses. But truthfully, it is so much more than only meeting course requirements. The students are vulnerable, learning a new nursing specialty, and challenging themselves in...
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The Relentless School Nurse: The Ripple Effect - When Community Violence Comes to School
Elizabeth (Liz) Clark, MSN, RN NCSN is a school nurse's school nurse. Her leadership skills were honed as President of the CO Association of School Nurses. She served on the national level as the CO NASN Director, completing her term in 2017. Liz has a prominent presence on Twitter and uses the social media platform to elevate school nursing practice. Liz is a natural teacher and you can find her sharing the most recent peer-reviewed articles with colleagues to promote health and learning. A...
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The Relentless School Nurse: What Happened at School Today - There are Just Some Things Nursing School Can’t Prepare You For
Aaron Schaidle, BSN, RN is a new school nurse working in Indiana. He contacted me via Twitter to share his view of why we need a school nurse in every school. Aaron provides a compelling perspective on safe staffing, through his lens as a new school nurse. I appreciate Aaron adding his voice to this important discussion. The health and safety of our students and staff are at risk, why is this even a question in 2019? But, as we know it is...there is no shortage of school nurses willing to...
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The Relentless School Nurse: When the Health Office Pass Includes Emotions
The collaboration between school counselors and school nurses creates safe spaces for students at school. Building a coalition between school counselors and school nurses creates a safety net for our most complex and challenging students while benefiting the whole school community. Promoting connections through intentional relationship building, and ensuring a school environment that is physically, emotionally and psychologically safe changes the culture and climate. Read about an amazing...
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Resilience registration is now open!
This conference is designed to bring educators, students, parents, pastors, community members, health departments, corrections and any other professions that deal with human capital, to the table of solutions and collaboration. This is Jim Sporleder's first national conference. Jim is the author of Implementing a Trauma-Informed School and the Principal of Lincoln High School in the award winning documentary Paper Tigers. resilience.essdack.org Here's the link to register:...
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Rural schools find an online resource to fill gaps in mental health services for students
In rural Kentucky, students go to school with people they’ve grown up with. It’s not uncommon for their teachers and principals to be family friends or even relatives. This can create a tight-knit school community, but it can also make privacy hard to come by. Vivian Carter, a longtime teacher and principal and the current innovation coordinator at Hazard Independent Schools, in Eastern Kentucky, said students don’t always open up to the adults in the school building if they have issues at...
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Re: Graduations, non-linear paths, & the importance of getting started
Dreaming is a good thing, if it is followed up with setting goals to reach those dreams. That is called hope - "Ideas and Energy for the Future". It can be taught and learned, but through our cultural beliefs and values, not a through programs or mandates. Too many adults working with kids give up on them. We can not tolerate that from any of our workmates. We can create this culture if we choose to. Collective efficacy is a powerful tool.
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We need to prepare for the mental health impact of coronavirus on kids [latimes.com]
By Sonali Kohli, Los Angeles Times, May 7, 2020 Four-year-olds have playdates through closed windows, sliding their toy cars in unison on either side of the glass. A high school student worries about his mother going to work in a food-packing warehouse, at risk for contracting COVID-19. Another teen says “there is nothing to look forward to,” as he tries to avoid sliding into depression. Worried parents are calling school district hotlines seeking help for their troubled children. Experts...
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Why Mandating Mental Health Education in Schools is a Band-Aid on a Gaping Wound
Don’t get me wrong: of course I care deeply about the mental and physical health of children, including my own son’s. I don’t want students to suffer in silence and shame. But I am very concerned about just how this topic will be taught in schools.
Ask the Community
ACES Education and Health
Hello ACES Education Community, 1. I am wondering if anyone knows of schools who are collecting ACES questionnaires on their teachers and staff? 2. I am also wondering if anyone knows of any studies or organizations that study the wellbeing or health of educational employees? Thank you so much in advance! "the quote: "We Teach who we are" by Parker Palmer is driving these questions!
Ask the Community
Behavioral Health in Schools
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...
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Re: ACES Education and Health
Hi Jessie, I'm most like going to do a master's thesis on teacher ACE scores and their perception of discipline practices in schools. Did you happen to get information on your questions? I would love to hear what you got if you did. Thanks!
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Re: ACES Education and Health
Not yet! I looks like you are doing this work! How can I help? I have been working in schools for many years... I would be happy to be a sounding board if you want or need one! Thank you for doing this important work!
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Re: Resilience registration is now open!
I am so excited to see this is happening. I will be there. And thank you all for what you are doing. Much love, Randa Fox, Not On Our Watch America Foundation 713-447-0489
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Re: Resilience registration is now open!
I can't seem to register. I'll keep checking back. Randa
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Re: Resilience registration is now open!
Here's the registration link, Randa: http://resilience.essdack.org/registration/
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Re: An Evidence-Based Indictment of Inaction
Hey Daun I know when I was in high school my parents did not have a clue what was going on with myself and my two younger brothers....Their COMMUNICATION SKILLS and their CONFLICTS RESOLUTION SKILLS were practically non existent. All they knew WAS RAGE and RAGE then HIT ME.... with my own children I have taken so many parenting classes. But more important for me as a DAD is to recognize when my daughter or son 's Spirit IS CLOSED TOWARDS ME and they begin to isolate and not want top...
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Re: An Evidence-Based Indictment of Inaction
Wow, Rick, thank you for sharing. I am sorry that you had such experiences as a child. I am so encouraged by your own reflection and your own learning and your own changes. It sure seems like you may have broken the generational cycle. I am guessing that your own kids feel much differently about their childhoods with you !
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Re-Opening Schools Experts (ROSE) Task Force
Excerpt: "In the end, it will not be enough that adult experts declare schools “safe”. In the final, trauma-informed analysis, each child in their own body, brainstem, limbic system and HPA axis, must feel safe. They must be part of the task force. If the children don’t feel safe, it is all for naught."