Tagged With "Helping Children Heal"
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4 New Communities Join ACEs Connection: May of 2020
In the past month, new communities have joined ACEs Connection . Please find details about each of them below. Community Manager: ACEs Connection Community Facilitators Support You & Your Initiatives For questions about starting or growing an initiative, using our site and tools, please reach out to one of our regional contacts. Communities in: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic states, contact @Alison Cebulla (ACEs Connection Staff) Western states, contact @Gail Kennedy (ACEs Connection Staff)...
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AMCHP Urges Congress to Support These Priorities for Maternal and Child Health in the Next COVID-19 Relief Package (AMCHP)
May 7, 2020. AMCHP Urges Congress to Support These Priorities for Maternal and Child Health in the Next COVID-19 Relief Package Additional Resources for the Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant Due to COVID-19, there are already gaps being felt in Maternal and Child Health services, with additional resources needed to address these issues both now and in the aftermath of the immediate crisis. These range from delays in initial newborn hearing and bloodspot screening to...
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Announcing Trauma and Resilience Competencies for Nursing Education
The authors are pleased to announce the Trauma and Resilience Competencies for Nursing Education. These competencies serve as a guideline of minimal expectations and reflect essential knowledge, skills and behaviors for three levels of nursing education: 1) undergraduate, 2) graduate, and 3) psychiatric nurse practitioner programs. The Trauma and Resilience Competencies, developed in 2018 at the Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies at Fairfield University in Connecticut by an Expert...
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Childhood Trauma, Neglect Linked to Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Risk (HCP Live)
By Patrick Campbell, May 1, 2020, HCP Live. While most ongoing research into the impact of mental stress focuses on current stress, a new analysis of the CARDIA study suggests a dysfunctional childhood could be linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease 30 years later. Results of the analysis indicate children who experienced childhood dysfunction, such as family dysfunction, abuse, and neglect, were more likely to experience cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality, even after...
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COVID-19 and Healthcare worker's families: behind the scenes of frontline response [thelancet.com]
By Amine Souadka, Hajar Essangri, Amine Benkabbou, et al., EClinical Medicine, May 17, 2020 During the COVID-19 outbreak, healthcare professionals are exposed to a high-risk of infection and mental health problems, but also fear of contagion and spreading the virus to their families. In fact, considering them as individuals implies looking beyond their function as frontline responders and taking into account their societal role as parents, spouses and offspring. While work-family balance is...
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University of Florida Graduate Public Health Course: Trauma-Informed Approaches for Individuals, Communities, and Public Health: Student Project Summaries
The University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions partnered with Peace4Tarpon under the Robert Wood Johnson Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) grant. Together they created 2 online graduate courses that focus on addressing ACEs and creating trauma-informed and resilience-based programs from a public health approach. Peace4Gainesville and Peace4 TheBigBend have also contributed to these courses. This post is intended to showcase some of the work of the...
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ACEs Research Corner — May 2020
[Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site -- abuseresearch.info -- that focuses on the health effects of abuse, and includes research articles on ACEs. Every month, she's posting the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs. Thank you, Harise!! -- Jane Stevens] Williams AB, Smith ER, Trujillo MA, et. al. Common health problems in safety-net primary care: Modeling the roles of trauma history and mental health. J Clin...
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What Do We Do? What Do We Do Now?
People’s response to the great chasms of structural inequities glaringly laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic have been further inflamed by the murder of George Floyd and deaths of other African Americans in recent weeks. The acute emergency of the pandemic has eased, but the violence inflicted on racial minorities and now those who are protesting the inequities in our society has compounded the outrage. Right after the pandemic began running riot across the US, I often heard people ask: When...
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"Addiction begins with solving a problem, the problem of human pain, emotional pain"
In his groundbreaking book , In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction , trauma and addiction expert Dr. Gabor Maté writes, “There are almost as many addictions as there are people.” ACEs Connection founder and publisher Jane Stevens read that quote as a springboard to asking Maté to define addiction and explain whether or not it is always rooted in adverse childhood experiences. Maté, along with filmmaker Michelle Esrick and Saturday Night Live star Darrell Hammond,...
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If You’ve Lost Your Health Plan In The COVID Crisis, You’ve Got Options (Kaiser Health News)
By Julie Appleby, June 12, 2020, Kaiser Health Network. The coronavirus pandemic — and the economic fallout that has come with it — boosted health insurance enrollment counselor Mark Van Arnam’s workload. But he wants to be even busier. The loss of employment for 21 million Americans is a double blow for many because it also means the loss of insurance, said Van Arnam, director of the North Carolina Navigator Consortium, a group of organizations that offer free help to state residents...
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THURSDAY!! Cracked Up, The Evolving Conversation: Generational Trauma - Breaking the Cycle [crackedupmovie.com]
CRACKED UP THE EVOLVING CONVERSATION Episode 4: Generational Trauma - Breaking the Cycle with Darrell Hammond, Comedian, actor, SNL Legend Michelle Esrick, Filmmaker, activist Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Author of The Body Keeps the Score Jane Stevens, Founder of ACES Connection and special guest Jane Fonda Academy Award-winning actor, producer, author and activist Thursday June 25th at 1pm PDT / 2p MT / 3p CT / 4pm EDT Hosted by ACEs Connection THE PRICE OF THIS LIVE EVENT IS $12.50 We have...
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Linda Grabbe: Helping her communities develop resilience through the Community Resilience Model
Grabbe searched for models that would help her homeless and addicted patients. “There are good body-based models for psychotherapy, which may be the most effective approach for trauma,” she says, “but hardly any of my patients were receiving any kind of therapy. There are thousands of people in our communities who have high ACE scores who will never get the years of psychotherapy they deserve. CRM is a self-mental wellness care tool and is exquisitely trauma-sensitive—so it can help enormously.”
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Association of Parental Mental Illness With Child Injury Occurrence, Hospitalization, and Death During Early Childhood [jamanetwork.com]
By Shiow-Wen Yang, Mary A. Kernic, Beth A. Mueller, et al., JAMA Pediatrics, June 22, 2020 Key Points Question Are young children whose parents have severe mental illness, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder, at greater risk of injury compared with children of parents without severe mental illness? Findings In this cohort study of the 1 999 322 singleton births in Taiwan from 2004 to 2014, children of parents with severe mental illness had higher rates of...
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A Better Normal Tuesday, June 30th at Noon PDT: Reinterpreting American Identity, a Community Discussion
"I think that all of us, regardless of our racial or ethnic background, feel relieved that we no longer have to deal with the racism and the sexism associated with the system of slavery. But we treat the history of enslavement like we treat the genocidal colonization of indigenous people in North America, as if it was not that important, or worse, as if it never happened." —Angela Davis, "The Meaning of Freedom" Please join us for the ongoing community discussion of A Better Normal, our...
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Resilience for Children & Families: Being Brave When Things are Hard
Building Resilience with Children During Racial Discrimination & Violence: This attached Resilience Brief for Children has been the hardest one I have written yet. I have been an active advocate for the equal treatment of people from all backgrounds, religions, ethnic heritages, orientations, and families my entire life. It is hard to see the pain present today, not only due to COVID19 but also due to the harm and anger we see daily in the news. I want to share a story about the person...
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The Relentless School Nurse: 10 Things Parents Can Do Now to Help Prepare Children For Returning to School
School nurses have been industrious during COVID-19, using innovative skills to do one of the things we do best, providing information for our families. Everyone's health literacy has been tested through the pandemic. The messaging from our most trusted institutions like the CDC has been confusing and ever-changing. As states have released vague return to school guidelines, it is clear that the details for keeping our students and staff safe will depend on each school district to create...
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Help Navigating the Road to Community Resiliency
The first time I ever heard the words trauma-informed care and the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study was in the summer of 2014. At the time, I was working for the local Police Department as the Director of a grant-funded Crime Reduction Project aimed at reducing drug-related and violent crime. Of the many program goals, one was to develop a rehabilitative corrections program for felony offenders with addictions in order to reduce recidivism. Though I’ve lived in this region for...
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Do safe, stable, and nurturing relationships work? New research has important findings for responding to ACEs
While we know that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can cause risk behaviors, research has told us that the presence of protective factors can help mitigate the effects of ACEs. Common risk behaviors such as smoking tobacco and alcohol misuse can be a result from the trauma of childhood disadvantage. In responding to ACEs, public health research proposes that protective factors such as safe, stable, nurturing relationships (SSNRs) with a caring adult can mitigate the long-term effects of...
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How a Pandemic Could Advance the Science of Early Adversity [jamanetwork.com]
By Danielle Roubinov, Nicole R. Bush, and W. Thomas Boyce, JAMA Pediatrics, July 27, 2020 The reach of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is global, a health crisis with a ubiquity never before experienced. While the physical health consequences of COVID-19 appear to affect proportionally fewer children compared with adults, its psychosocial consequences may be magnified within families who consistently weather a landscape of severe stressors or adverse childhood experiences...
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Donald Trump is the product of abuse and neglect. His story is common, even for the powerful and wealthy.
“In order to cope,” writes Mary Trump, “Donald began to develop powerful but primitive defenses, marked by an increasing hostility to others and a seeming indifference to his mother’s absence and father’s neglect….In place of [his emotional needs] grew a kind of grievance and behaviors—including bullying, disrespect, and aggressiveness—that served their purpose in the moment but became more problematic over time. With appropriate care and attention, they might have been overcome.”
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Baby courts: A proven approach to stop the multigenerational transmission of ACES in child welfare; new efforts to establish courts nationwide
The organization Zero To Three estimates that in the U.S., a child is taken into the child welfare system every six seconds. “Many of society’s most intractable problems can be traced back to childhood adversity. Being in the child welfare system increases the likelihood of more adversity and criminality. Baby court is a proven approach to healing the trauma of both child and parent, and breaking the cycle of maltreatment,” says Mimi Graham, Ed.D ., director of the Florida State University...
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Baby courts: A proven approach to stop the multigenerational transmission of ACES in child welfare; new efforts to establish courts nationwide
The organization Zero To Three estimates that in the U.S., a child is taken into the child welfare system every six seconds. “Many of society’s most intractable problems can be traced back to childhood adversity. Being in the child welfare system increases the likelihood of more adversity and criminality. Baby court is a proven approach to healing the trauma of both child and parent, and breaking the cycle of maltreatment,” says Mimi Graham, Ed.D ., director of the Florida State University...
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Back-to-School in a Pandemic? Questions, Concerns, and Discussion with School Nurse, Robin Cogan
Robin is a brilliant, passionate, and vocal school nurse with almost two decades of experience as a New Jersey school nurse in the Camden City School District. She is the Legislative Co-Chair for the New Jersey State School Nurses Association and she joined us last week for A Better Normal community discussion about back-to-school (or not) plans families are facing this school year. Robin serves as faculty in the School Nurse Certificate Program at Rutgers University-Camden School of Nursing...
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Trajectories of childhood adversity and mortality in early adulthood: a population-based cohort study (The Lancet)
Prof Naja H Rod, PhD , Jessica Bengtsson, MS , Esben Budtz-Jørgensen, PhD , Clara Clipet-Jensen, MS , Prof David Taylor-Robinson, PhD , Prof Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen, PhD , et al. Published: August 15, 2020 DOI : https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30621-8 Background Childhood is a sensitive period with rapid brain development and physiological growth, and adverse events in childhood might interfere with these processes and have long-lasting effects on health. In this study, we aimed to...
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Does VP Candidate Kamala Harris know about ACEs? You bet!
Nadine Burke Harris, California’s Surgeon General, has a lot in common with the vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris—Jamaican heritage, surname, home state—and a commitment to addressing ACEs and toxic stress. As reported in the New Yorker article by Paul Tough, “The Poverty Clinic,” Dr. Harris told Kamala Harris, then San Francisco district attorney, about ACEs in 2008 and in response, she offered to help. District Attorney Harris then introduced her to professor of child and...
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Re: Baby courts: A proven approach to stop the multigenerational transmission of ACES in child welfare; new efforts to establish courts nationwide
IIRC Duke University was implementing a pilot program for new mother’s to go home with “nursing assigned” to aide in transition of motherhood. (Also for second time mother’s if firstborn had special needs)This idea, coupled with above, could totally reduce incidences. Identifying those at risk, assessing their needs and early intervention, IMO, are key. If schools, because children spend so much of their time there, had qualified Mental Health Professionals employed- they could play a...
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Introducing the Transform Trauma with ACEs Science Film Festival & Follow-Up Discussions
Transform Trauma with ACEs Sciences Film Festival & Follow-Up Discussions The following weekend watch parties and follow-up discussions are co-hosted by ACEs Connection, The Relentless School Nurse , and The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy & Practice (CTIPP) . We appreciated the filmmakers for making these films free to watch for our members and for the public programming of PBS. The films we’ll feature are as follows: Portraits of Professional Caregivers Whole People Part 1...
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ACEs Aware Seeking Applicants to Support Clinical Work [acesaware.org]
ACEs Aware Seeking Applicants to Support Clinical Work Apply by September 15, 2020 ACEs Aware , led by the Office of the California Surgeon General (CA-OSG) and the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), is hiring for three new positions to further the mission of supporting Medi-Cal providers across California with training, clinical protocols, and payment for screening children and adults for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Aurrera Health Group is the project management...
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Survey for ACEs Connection: PCEs, ACEs, and Health Outcomes
ACEs Connection, we need your help ! We are performing a research study to better understand the relationship between positive childhood experiences (PCEs), ACEs, and health outcomes in adulthood. All we need is 5-10 minutes of your time and your honesty to complete the following anonymous survey. With your help we can find a better way to combat ACEs and to support the development of children into resilient adults. Just a little bit more about the survey: This survey is sponsored by the...
Calendar Event
Accountability Breakfast 2020 - Free!
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CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY: Parental ACEs and Pediatrics: Transforming Well Care [avahealth.org]
CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY (CAA) , funded by ACEs Aware, is providing free online training to Medi-Cal providers and others featuring: Practical strategies for integrating trauma-informed health care into your team’s practice that improves patients’ well being and the productivity of your practice. Meet colleagues with experience and success providing trauma-informed health care in their practices. Learn from national and local experts. Talk to other professionals from your region in small...
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Addiction Born Out of ACEs and The Return of Hope [avahealth.org]
The downstream effect of childhood trauma has been well documented regarding the biological and psychosocial impacts. This presentation will highlight the neurobiological changes associated with ACEs that function as a "primer" for the onset of addiction and related behaviors. It will conclude with principles for influencing these same pathways that assist with restoration of the mind and health downstream effect of childhood trauma has been well documented regarding the biological and...
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RSVP now! FREE Learning opportunity for CA healthcare providers: Oct 1, 2020 at noon PST
RSVP now for a presentation by Susie Wiet, MD who is an integrative developmental psychiatrist with expertise in holistic treatment of trauma-addiction, dual diagnosis, and complex psychiatric disorders. Target Audience T his activity is intended for CALIFORNIA physicians, physician assistants, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, psychologists and social workers engaged in the care of patients who have experienced violence or trauma. Educational Objectives After completing these...
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Improving Discharge Care for Children with Special Health Care Needs through a Nurse-led Learning Collaborative (Lucile Packard Foundation)
September 22, 2020 *Wondering if there is a connection between ACEs and children with special healthcare needs - there is a connection, click HERE to read a Child Trends report. Please see below to learn what nurses are doing to address the unique needs of children with special healthcare needs and their families. Source Being discharged from the hospital is a vulnerable time for families and caregivers of children with special health care needs (CSHCN). Appropriate resources and support are...
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Free 2020 Virtual Trauma-Informed Care Conference
Each year, STAR hosts a Trauma-Informed Care Conference to help educate the next generation of leaders and build a strong network of Trauma-Informed professionals in the state of Georgia. The conference will be held on Saturday, October 3rd from 10:00am- 1:00pm EST and Sunday, October 4th , 2020 from 2:00pm-5:00pm EST conducted virtually via Zoom.
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Strengthening the predictive power of screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in younger and older children (Child Abuse & Neglect)
By Heather A Turner, Megan Henley, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104522 . Abstract Background There is increasing interest in routine screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) to help identify high-risk children who would benefit from interventions. However, there has not yet been sufficient research concerning which particular set of ACEs would be most predictive as a potential screening tool. Objective This study compared 40 Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), covering...
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'A Better Normal:' Can universal ACEs screening be equitable? -- Concerns and solutions
Can universal ACEs screening be equitable? A conversation about concerns and solutions. When: Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2-3:30 pm PDT/5-6:30 pm EDT This webinar explores what it takes to ensure that equity is built into the process of screening and providing support for families who have experienced trauma and want help. REGISTER HERE Background At the beginning of this year, California, through the ACEs Aware initiative began rolling out universal screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs),...
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NOW AVAILABLE ON DEMAND: The Repressed Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Adult Well-Being, Disease and Social Functioning: Turning Gold into Lead (Dr. Vincent J. Felitti) [avahealth.org]
The ACE Study reveals how typically unrecognized adverse childhood experiences are not only common, but causally underlie a number of the most common causes of adult social malfunction, biomedical disease, and premature death. Moreover, it enables one to see that the Public Health Problem is often an individual’s attempted Solution to childhood experiences about which we keep ourselves unaware. A renowned physician and researcher, Dr. Vincent J. Felitti is one of the world’s foremost experts...
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A Novel Model for a Free Clinic for Prenatal and Infant Care in Detroit (Maternal Child Health Journal)
By Katherine Gold, Bradley Garrison, Sherie Garrison, Penny Armbruster, April 28, 2020, Springer Nature. Maternal and Child Health Journal (2020) 24:817–822 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-020-02927-1 Abstract Purpose Detroit experiences the highest preterm birth rate and some of the worst birth outcomes in the country. Women and children have extremely high levels of poverty and face numerous barriers to care including lack of trust and racial disparities in care and concrete barriers such...
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Hope and Progress, No Matter What! — an ACEs Connection/Cambia Health Foundation “Better Normal”, Oct. 22, 2020
The election is upon us. In two short weeks, we voters in this country decide who will lead us for the next four years. We have the opportunity to embrace — as a national priority — the tenets of understanding, nurturing and healing that underlie the science of adverse childhood experiences and move in a direction that embraces cultural and racial equity and anti-racism. Or not.
What is clear is that no matter what, the ACEs movement will continue.
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The Intersection of Systematic Racism, the Pandemic, and SDoMH: Reality Mandates Change
Systematic racism is at the core of mental health disparities and social determinants of mental health (SDoMH).Upstream factors obstruct patient access to needed and appropriate assessment, timely intervention, with treatment for these populations often reflecting poorer quality, and ending prior to completion of treatment. COVID-19 and the recent pandemic have only amplified meso and micro-level gaps in care. considered, provided, and reimbursed.
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New Resource: Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic One-Pager (English & Spanish!)
English: The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , ACEs Connection , and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance have co-created a newly developed resource, “Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in both English and Spanish. This material is intended for Californian families experiencing the severe...
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Childhood abuse, neglect may significantly alter brain structure, function (Healio)
By Joe Gramigna, November 9, 2020, NEI Max; Nov. 5-8, 2020. Childhood abuse and neglect appear to have significant effects on brain structure and function, as well as on the epigenome, according to a presenter at the NEI Max virtual conference. “Early life adversity can increase mortality and morbidity in adulthood,” Deborah A. York, MSN, PMHNP-BC, APRN, CCRA , psychiatric nurse practitioner at Mountain Mind Private Practice in Colorado, said in a presentation. “Early life adversity may...
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The Pandemic Is Raging. Here's How to Support Your Grieving Students [edweek.org]
By Brittany R. Collins, Education Week, November 12, 2020 Over the past few decades, trauma-informed teaching has gained ground in the United States, yet rarely is grief included in the conversation. In the midst of a global pandemic, with teachers and students confronting loss in and outside the classroom in new and myriad ways, it is more critical than ever to apply a grief-sensitive lens to our conversations about curricula and trauma in the school system. We are not the people we were a...
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Workplace mental health: from bit player to the red carpet? (Health Europa
By Adrian Wakeling, November 16, 2020, Health Europa. It has become increasingly apparent that mental health is becoming a bigger player in the story of our working lives. After decades in a purely non-speaking part – one of those characters who move their lips in the background and form part of the ‘rent a crowd’ – workplace mental health is finally being given the chance to be heard and influence the plot. Of course, many of the lines we hear have become a little over-familiar and...
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From Wildfires to Childhood Trauma, a Resilience Cooperative Transformed the Way Clinics Face the Unthinkable
What helped Sonoma health center staffers navigate one catastrophe after another was what they had learned about trauma in the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative.
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Make “Giving Tuesday” your day to support the work of ACEs Connection. Help us meet our matching grant goal of $50K, and your gift will be matched, dollar-for-dollar!
"This Giving Tuesday, and every day, we thank you for your support," said members of the ACEs Connection staff on a recent "all staff Zoom." L-R (top row) Laurie Udesky, Carey Sipp, Gail Kennedy, Lara Kain (second row) Cissy White, Rafael Maravilla, Donielle Prince, Jenna Quinn (third row) Ingrid Cockhren, (off camera) Alison Cebulla, Jane Stevens. Out that day, and grateful all the same, were Karen Clemmer, Dana Brown, Elizabeth Prewitt, Marianne Avari, and Samantha Sangenito Called “the...
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Opportunity to sign on to “A Trauma-Informed Agenda for the First 100 Days of the Biden-Harris Administration”—Deadline Dec. 8th
The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice ( CTIPP ) is inviting individuals and organizations to express their support for a set of executive actions for the Biden-Harris Administration to take “to address trauma and build resilience throughout the country.” Most of these actions could be taken early in the Administration and would not require congressional action with the exception of some recommendations that could be included in a new stimulus package. The recommendations are...