Tagged With "War on Drugs"
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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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Pediatricians screen parents for ACEs to improve health of their babies
The Children’s Clinic , tucked in a busy office park five miles outside downtown Portland, OR, and bustling with noisy babies, boisterous kids and energetic pediatricians, seems ordinary enough. But, for the last two years, a quiet...
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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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Prescribing nature for health draws providers to Oakland, CA, conference
There’s now a growing body of research showing the positive health effects of nature. At a recent conference in Oakland, CA, clinicians who prescribe nature to help buffer ACEs and toxic stress experienced by children and families shared findings from their own research and others.
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Report reveals how foster care, juvenile and adult justice systems traumatize youth, calls for policy shifts
YWFC sponsored Sister Warriors meeting When she was 15 years old, Lucero Herrera was put in a rehab program by San Francisco’s Juvenile Court because she was getting drunk regularly. And in doing so, the court failed to explore the root of her drinking. Had they done so, she said, they would have found that anger and trauma were lurking underneath, driven by her ACEs: adverse childhood experiences. Lucero Herrera "Why did they put me in a drug program when I had an anger problem? I went...
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Report reveals how foster care, juvenile and adult justice systems traumatize youth, calls for policy shifts
YWFC sponsored Sister Warriors meeting When she was 15 years old, Lucero Herrera was put in a rehab program by San Francisco’s Juvenile Court because she was getting drunk regularly. And in doing so, the court failed to explore the root of her drinking. Had they done so, she said, they would have found that anger and trauma were lurking underneath, driven by her ACEs: adverse childhood experiences. Lucero Herrera "Why did they put me in a drug program when I had an anger problem? I went...
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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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Resource List -- Research & Reports
AcademyHealth -- "As the professional home and leading national organization for health services researchers, policymakers, and health care practitioners and stakeholders, AcademyHealth – together with its members – increases the understanding of methods and data used in the field, enhances the professional skills of researchers and research users, and expands awareness." Anda RF, Felitti VJ, Bremner JD, Walker JD, Whitfield C, Perry BD, Dube SR, Giles WH. The enduring effects of abuse and...
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Review of ACE studies confirms supporting parent-child relationship is key
When health care providers screen their pediatric patients for ACEs, what interventions might help improve outcomes for children? Dr. Ariane Marie-Mitchell, a pediatrician in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Loma Linda University, and a colleague sought an answer to that question in a systematic review of studies that was published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. As part of their inquiry, Marie-Mitchell and her co-investigator, Rashel Kostolansky , who was a...
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Rural Pregnant Women with Opioid Addiction Find a Doctor, Not a Judge (chcf.org)
With her husband and two young children, (Dr. Candy) Stockton packed up and moved hundreds of miles north to rural Shasta County. Today, Stockton, 42, practices family medicine at the Shingletown Medical Center in a tiny town in the shadow of Mt. Lassen, 30 miles east of Redding. The majority of Stockton’s patients live in poverty. “The economy is terrible,” she said, adding that the lack of educational opportunities for kids creates a cycle of despair that can afflict families for...
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Second-Generation Antipsychotic Drug Use Among Medicaid-Enrolled Children: Quality-of-Care Concerns
This evaluation from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General examines the quality of care provided to children receiving second-generation antipsychotics that were paid for by Medicaid. ...
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'Clear Link' Between Childhood Trauma and Substance Abuse, Addiction Doctor Says [johnsoncitypress.com]
By Jonathan Roberts, Johnson City Press, September 2, 2019 Almost half of all American children have experienced at least some form of childhood trauma. Many of these adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, can be tied back to drug and substance abuse, but their impact may be more widespread than many perceive. In Tennessee, an estimated 49% of children have at least one adverse childhood experience, and 24.1% have at least two. Nationally, those numbers sit at 45% and 20.5%, respectively.
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Depression, anxiety, suicide increase in teens and young adults, study finds (cbsnews.com)
More American teens and young adults appear to be struggling with mental health issues , and experts believe a number of cultural trends may help explain why. A new study found the percentage of teens and young adults with depression, anxiety and other mental health issues has increased sharply over the past decade. The same pattern was not seen in older adults. "We found significant increases in major depression, serious psychological distress which includes anxiety and hopelessness and...
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Leaders in SF public housing deal with their own and community trauma head on
Sengthong Sithounnolat, Jeris Woodson, Donald Greene, Ashley Blanco On a recent Saturday, 10 people gather around a table at the offices of Trauma Transformed in Oakland, Calif., where quotes from figures like Frederick Douglas, Nelson Mandela, and Coretta Scott King grace one wall as light streams in from a skylight above. The group is known as the Resident Warriors, which meets weekly. One participant talks of her recovery from addiction and her mother’s murder. Another mentions being...
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More U.S. Newborns Enduring Drug Withdrawal: Study (Healthday.com)
SUNDAY, April 26, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- The number of U.S. infants admitted to neonatal intensive care units to treat symptoms of drug withdrawal has nearly quadrupled since 2004, researchers report. Neonatal abstinence syndrome -- a...
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National collaborative provides roadmap for doctors to ask about adult patients' ACEs, current trauma
How do you ask patients about current and past trauma? And how do you respond to their disclosures? Those are two key questions that members of a national collaborative who are among the early adopters of trauma-informed care practices have answered in a recent article in the journal Women’s Health Issues. Dr. Edward Machtinger To Dr. Edward Machtinger, the lead author of the paper entitled, “ From treatment to Healing: Inquiry and response to recent and past trauma in adult health care” ,...
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New Alaska ACEs data reinforces importance of investment in early childhood
Pat Sidmore, our expert for all things data and ACEs and a planner for the Alaska Mental Health Board, Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, has collected new data that outlines when Alaska's children (0-17) acquire their ACEs. The slide below paints a pretty grim picture showing that our children are accumulating 50 percent of their ACEs before the age of 3, and more than 26% of them before the age of 1. Please feel free to share this slide as you see fit.
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New Sesame Street Tools Help Build Resiliency [rwjf.org]
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Sesame Workshop share a common vision of giving all children—especially the most vulnerable among us—a strong and healthy start in life. We know that childhood experiences lay the foundation for children to grow into productive and successful adults, and promoting healthy behaviors and supporting families from the very beginning can help kids thrive. But it’s equally important to address challenges that can undermine their healthy development. That’s...
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NJ medical school program requires all first-year students to learn about ACEs science
In 2015, Dr. Beth Pletcher, a pediatrician and associate professor specializing in genetics, was at the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Washington D.C. when she heard two speakers that forever changed her work with medical students. Dr. Beth Pletcher “I went to two talks on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that were so mind-boggling to me that I decided on my drive back to New Jersey that I had to do something about it,”says Pletcher, director of the Division...
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Parent Handouts: Understanding ACEs, Parenting to Prevent & Heal ACEs (English)
Please see the main post for these parent handouts in the ACEs Connection Resources Center. These two flyers ( Understanding ACEs and Parenting to Prevent & Heal ACEs ) can be downloaded, distributed, and used freely. One is brand new and the other is a revision. Both flyers were made with generous support from Family Hui, a Program of Lead for Tomorrow. Translations of these flyers are in progress and will be shared by Family Hui and updated on ACEs Connection when available.
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Parental verbal affection and verbal aggression in childhood differentially influence psychiatric symptoms and wellbeing in young adulthood (Child Abuse and Neglect)
Abstract Previous research has shown that exposure to parental verbal aggression is common and associated with increased levels of depression, anxiety, dissociation, and drug use. A key question that has not been addressed is whether...
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Re: Pediatric Symposium at National ACEs conference offers lessons learned and the way forward
More random thoughts about office ACEs screening.... Everyone needs to know their ACE score - but we don’t necessarily need to be getting ACE scores in the doctor’s office only because this could put a person on a list to be discriminated against in the future or experience the violence of forced psychiatry. The ACE study is a population study and tells us that with a certain amount of trauma exposure during childhood- there is a certain amount of increased likelihood for a problem for ex -...
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Re: ACOG Policy Statements on Drug Use During Pregnancy and what Is Actually Happening in the Real World
ACOG Policy Statement on the Non-Medical Use of Prescription Drugs During Pregnancy Committee on Health Care for Underserved Women Number 538, October 2012 (Reaffirmed 2014) Below is the Link to the Complete ACOG Committee Statement: Non-Medical Use of Prescription Drugs During Pregnancy T he 4 P's of Screening Mothers for Drug use During Pregnancy P arents: Did any of your parents have a problem with alcohol or other drug use? P artner: Does your partner have a problem with alcohol or drug...
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Re: ACOG Policy Statements on Drug Use During Pregnancy and what Is Actually Happening in the Real World
State Policies on Substance Use During Pregnancy as of July 1, 2014 From: GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE STATE POLICIES IN BRIEF The above guidelines give the requirements of each state regarding policies on Substance use during pregnancy. Substance Abuse Reporting and Pregnancy: The Role of the Obstetrician-Gynecologist (ACOG Policy Statement) Number 473, January 2011 (Reaffirmed 2014) Committee on Health Care for Underserved Women Abstract: Drug enforcement policies that deter women from seeking...
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Doctor-patient role-playing featured in ACEs Connection webinar
On an ACEs Connection webinar on Monday, Dr. Andrew Seaman, an assistant professor at Oregon Health & Science University, showed how he navigates his students through the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). And, in an unusual twist for a webinar, Seaman and O’Nesha Cochran, a peer mentor with the Mental Health Association of Oregon, role-played doctor-patient interactions to show how to develop the skills to communicate with patients with high ACE scores. About 90 people...
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Doctor-patient role-playing featured in ACEs Connection webinar
On an ACEs Connection webinar on Monday, Dr. Andrew Seaman, an assistant professor at Oregon Health & Science University, showed how he navigates his students through the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). And, in an unusual twist for a webinar, Seaman and O’Nesha Cochran, a peer mentor with the Mental Health Association of Oregon, role-played doctor-patient interactions to show how to develop the skills to communicate with patients with high ACE scores. About 90 people...
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Dozens of stakeholders representing thousands of practitioners send public comments on Calif. ACEs-screening plan
Update: We posted this story on Tuesday evening and received a response from the Department of Health Care Services Wednesday that clarifies additional information. DHCS information Officer Katharine Weir said that subject to budget approval by the legislature and the governor: The reimbursement rate will be $29. Federally Qualified Health Centers will also be reimbursed for screening pediatric patients for trauma through Prop 56 funds and federal matching funds. In response to a question...
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From aromatherapy to anger management: How schools are addressing the 'crisis' of childhood trauma [NBCNews.com]
Schools are experimenting with new ways to address behavior issues and support students who are struggling emotionally. By Elizabeth Chuck and Marshall Crook May 20, 2019, 11:24 AM EDT YAKIMA, Wash. — Instead of going outside for recess on a recent Friday, fifth-grader Thomas Stevenson walked down a hallway in Ridgeview Elementary School and entered a dimly lit room. Inside, lavender aromatherapy filled the air, spa-like music played and a projector broadcast clouds onto a screen. Passing by...
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Hearing in House Education and Labor Early Childhood Subcommittee addresses intersection of trauma and education
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris (l) and Karina Chicote, Churchill Fellow from western Australia meet after congressional hearing After watching the hearing on a monitor in the overflow room, Karina Chicote, a Churchill Fellow from western Australia, and I hustled to the hearing room in hopes of speaking to the lead witness, Nadine Burke Harris, MD, the first Surgeon General of the State of California. She was deep in conversation with others, including a young woman who wanted to tell her how...
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Hillary Clinton’s Comprehensive Agenda on Mental Health [The Briefing—Fact Sheets]
The first bullet under Early Diagnosis and Intervention of today’s release of Hillary Clinton’s mental health agenda is titled “ Increase public awareness and take action to address maternal depression, infant mental health, and trauma and stress in the lives of young children.” It states “We also know that infant mental health depends on children forming close and secure relationships with the adults in their lives, and that too many children are growing up in environments that cause them...
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How collaboration helps clinic in San Mateo County, CA, tackle ACEs in children
Dr. Elizabeth Grady is a pediatrician at the South San Francisco Clinic, a community clinic of San Mateo Medical Center. She and Susana Flores , a senior public health nurse with San Mateo County Health, spoke with me about how the clinic and other health agencies in San Mateo have been able to craft ways to work together to prevent and heal toxic stress in children. Grady also talked about how she and Flores have been working with the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative (RBC), a group of...
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Researchers share learned lessons from screening for adverse childhood experiences in pediatric clinics
What are the reasons that parents or caregivers do not fully disclose their own or their young children’s ACEs when asked to fill out an ACE screening form in their child’s pediatrician’s office? That was one of the many questions raised in a recent webinar entitled Screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences in the Pediatric Primary Care Setting: Practical Considerations and Lessons Learned . Dr. Kavitha Selvaraj, an attending physician at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s hospital...
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Interim report of the President’s opioid commission says its final report will address early intervention strategies for children with ACEs
On August 8, President Trump spoke to the opioid crisis in this country and declined to declare a national emergency as recommended by the “President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.” Instead, the President emphasized the law and order aspects of the problem and the importance of preventing drug use in the first place since addiction is so hard to overcome. The Commission will make a final report in the fall. The recently released interim report makes eight...
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A Kaiser pediatrician, wise to ACEs science for years, finally gets to use it
Dr. Suzanne Frank has known about the impact of childhood adversity on young lives for decades. She’s seen the fallout in the faces of young people huddled in beds at a children’s shelter where she worked years ago. She’s seen it as the regional child abuse services and champion for the Permanente Medical Group. And she’s seen it in hospital examination rooms where, as a member of the Santa Clara County’s Sexual Assault Response Team, she’s been called in to examine shell-shocked children...
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A plethora of journal articles on ACEs science
As the community manager of ACEs in Pediatrics, I comb the web looking for pertinent studies and information that may be of interest to ACEs in Pediatric members. In the last several days the journals Pediatrics, the North Carolina Medical Journal, Child Abuse & Neglect and the Journal of Women's Health have published a number of articles on ACEs science. Here is a list of some of the articles and commentary featured in each journal: ACEs and Pregnancy: Time to Support All Expectant...
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Abused as a small boy. Now what? [BridgeMI.com]
When the fidgety, anxious, 5-year-old boy from northern Michigan came in about a year ago to see pediatrician Tina Hahn, it was soon apparent to her this was a case medication alone would not solve. “He was trying to hide under the chair. He looked panicked and overwhelmed. He was in that fight or flight mode,” said Hahn, who was then in practice in Alpena. The boy, she learned, had been taken away from his mother when he was 3, from a home rife with drug use, alcoholism and severe physical...
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ACE Fact Sheets to Give Your Doctors, Patients & Beyond (free downloads)
I was first inspired to create a fact sheet summarizing the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) after reading a comment in “Got Your ACE score?” A reader wished she had a form to give her doctor that documented the vast body of evidence explaining how early trauma increases risk for chronic physical and mental health conditions and much more.
I could relate.
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ACEs Research Corner — February 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 science. Thank you, Harise!! -- Jane Stevens] Kambeitz C, Klug MG, Greenmyer J, Popova S, Burd L. Association of adverse childhood experiences and neurodevelopmental disorders in people with fetal alcohol...
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ACEs Research Corner — January 2020
Research papers this month include links between ACEs and bullying, dropping out of high school, adult disability, and the effects of countering ACEs.
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ACEs research roundup: Intergenerational poverty; TIC curriculum; obesity; opioids, school-based health
Health Status of Children Enrolled in a Family Navigator Program to Eliminate Intergenerational Poverty , Clinical Pediatrics All Traumas Are Not Created Equal JAMA Pediatrics Adverse Childhood Experiences: A Case-Based Workshop Introducing Medical Students to Trauma-Informed Care The Journal of Teaching and Learning Resources The Evidence on School-Based Health Centers: A Review Global Pediatric Health Adverse Childhood Experiences in Infancy and Toddlerhood Predict Obesity and Health...
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ACEs Screening
This is a collection of resources regarding screening for ACEs . This list aims to give a broad overview and is not all-inclusive. We welcome suggestions; if you have any, please comment below! This resource list is organized in alphabetical order. Pediatric Campus in Santa Rosa ACEs screeners, 2019 Description: ACEs screeners for 4m-11y and 12y-18y in English and Spanish are in the attachments below. Whole Child Assessment (WCA) , 2019 Description: The Whole Child Assessment (WCA) is a...
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After 5-year journey to integrate ACEs science, Santa Rosa, CA, pediatric clinic is trauma-informed, from head to toe
Dr. Meredith Kieschnick was among the first physicians in the U.S. to hear the term, "adverse childhood experiences". That was in 1998, early on in her career as a pediatrician, when the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) published its initial findings in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine . “I attended a conference at which (Dr. Vincent) Felitti spoke,” she recalls. Felitti, at that time director of the Health Appraisal Center at Kaiser Permanente...
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Solano County's (CA) ACEs initiative, a robust community effort, makes room for input from all
In a house called “Johanna’s House” on a tree-lined side street in Vallejo, Calif., four women are filling out the adverse childhood experiences (ACE) survey given to them by Maria Guevara, the founder of Vallejo Together, an organization that serves homeless residents in Vallejo. The house was named for Johanna Dilag, a homeless woman who was found dead along with her dog.
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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The Relentless School Nurse: Full Disclosure: I am Fearful to Welcome Another September
School is about to begin and for the first time in my 18 years as a school nurse, I am fearful to welcome another September. I work in an urban district where community gun violence is sadly commonplace, but that is not my fear. I travel throughout the city from school to school where drug dealing is an open-air exercise, but that is not my fear. Emergencies are often solitary experiences because school nurses work independently, but that is not my fear. Families facing deportation from...
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Those who separate immigrant children from parents might as well be beating them with truncheons
Many people who see reports of children separated from their parents might think that, because they’re not crying, that they’ve adjusted. Or, if they are crying, they’ll eventually stop and get over it. But, the reality is that those who participate in separating children from their parents and those who are caring for them in the detainment centers might as well be beating them with truncheons.
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Trauma education and mindfulness help youth living amid gun violence
Armon Hurst, 2nd from left, first row, Teens on Target, courtesy of YouthAlive! Eighteen-year-old Armon Hurst serves as vice president of the student body at Castlemont High School in Oakland, Calif. He has a 4.0 grade point average, is an avid baseball player, and is slated to go to college next year. But until a few years ago, Hurst would find himself waking from nightmares in the middle of the night. It was difficult to concentrate at school, and he wasn’t eating well. Armon Hurst “There...
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Traumatic Experiences Widespread Among U.S. Youth, New Data Show
[This is a media release from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.] New national data show that at least 38 percent of children in every state have had at least one Adverse Childhood Experience or ACE, such as the death or incarceration of a parent, witnessing or being a victim of violence, or living with someone who has been suicidal or had a drug or alcohol problem. In 16 states, at least 25 percent of children have had two or more ACEs. Findings come from data in the 2016 National Survey...
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Update on bills re: childhood adversity in California Legislature
Below is an updated table of bills that address childhood adversity in the Legislature in 2019. The list is not exhaustive, so please email Kelly Hardy with Children Now if you think a bill is missing and/or if you have any questions. Email: khardy @childrennow.org . Here are key dates for the remainder of the legislative session: July 10 = last day for bills to pass out of policy committees July 12 – August 12 = Summer recess August 30 = last day for fiscal bills to pass out of committee...
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When Parents Fear "It's All My Fault"
Many of my colleagues in the field of early childhood mental health work with what are termed "high risk" populations. Children of drug addicted parents, victims of child abuse, and families in abject poverty. While the challenges these families face are daunting, I find myself feeling some envy for my colleagues whose clients are in such obvious distress that the need for intensive treatment of parent and infant is not in question. In my rural, small-town population things are not so clear.