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Fueled by the opioid-abuse crisis, the medical community is on the cusp of major change in how it treats chronic pain, a first-ever Pima County opioid symposium was told Friday. Chronic pain is the most common pre-existing condition leading to an opioid overdose, state data show. And unresolved trauma, which is a major risk factor for substance-use disorders, is also a characteristic in some chronic-pain patients, Dr. Bennet Davis of the Integrative Pain Center of Arizona told those in...

Here in California, many people think that it’s only liberal Democrats who have a corner on championing the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and putting it into practice. That might be because people who use ACEs science don’t expel or suspend students, even if they’re throwing chairs and hurling expletives at the teacher. They ask "What happened to you?" rather than "What's wrong with you?" as a frame when they create juvenile detention centers where kids don’t fight, reduce...

Origins offers a number of training and consulting services. We developed The Basics as a half-day session to provide the foundation to support trauma-informed and resilience practices across sectors and industries. The session includes an overview of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, the neurobiology of toxic stress, the impact of social and historical trauma, and the science of resilience. We have tested The Basics with two cross-sector audiences, in Los Angeles and Phoenix.

As a social work professional, I was involved in the trauma field twenty years ago. But I became a charismatic nondenominational church pastor, starting a college campus prayer movement. With my cultural heritage and training at an evangelical seminary, the focus of my ministry has been intercession, multi-ethnic discipleship and servant leadership. However, the development of community service involvement with the ministry brought me back to the engagement in my previous professional field.

A scan done in March by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) through StateNet of bills introduced in 2017 that specifically include adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the text produced a surprising volume of bills (close of 40) in a large number of states (18). A scan done a year ago produced less than a handful. NCSL is a bipartisan organization that serves both state legislators and their staffs. The shear volume of bills in so many states represents a promising...

Creating a supportive environment is helping reduce student behavior issues in Arizona schools and empowering students to pause before they respond instead of reacting to adverse events. Research shows experiencing six or more adverse childhood experiences increases risk factors for chronic diseases, which can reduce a person’s life by up to 20 years, said Marcia Stanton, coordinator of the Adverse Childhood Experience Initiative at Phoenix Children’s Hospital . Adverse childhood experiences...

While a large amount of research has focused on how poverty affects students’ academic achievement, information about the effects of toxic stress and adverse childhood experiences on learning are just coming to the forefront. Some kids “come into a family that has the resources and the support to provide what they need, but, unfortunately, we know many kids don’t,” and spend much of their lives trying to catch up and overcome challenges, said Marcia Stanton, coordinator of the Adverse...

As part of her campaign to bring awareness to the negative effects of bullying and the current culture of violence, the reigning Miss Arizona, Katelyn Niemiec, will be speaking at Light Hall Auditorium on Thursday, April 20 beginning at 6:30 p.m. Niemiec was crowned Miss Arizona in June of 2016. While advancing her platform Bullying S.T.O.P.S. Here, she has devoted thousands of hours speaking at schools and communities as an advocate for the prevention of bullying. For the lecture, titled...

Traumatized children are not curious, they are defensive. Creating a sense of curiosity in your child and modeling how to ask investigative type questions - questions with no particular right or wrong answers - will enlarge their capacity to rebound. Trauma-informed parenting restores the awe and wonder of childhood.

Sponsored by AATN, TRUST and the Hickey Family Foundation THIS WEEKEND! March 18 and 19, 2017 I AM JANE DOE, a powerful new documentary film written and directed by Mary Mazzio, narrated by Academy-Award and Golden Globe nominee Jessica Chastain ( Zero Dark Thirty, Miss Sloane ), and produced by Mazzio and Academy-Award nominee Alec Sokolow ( Toy Story ), chronicles the epic battle that several American mothers are waging on behalf of their underage daughters who were bought and sold on...

Arizona State University's Center for Child Well-Being has invested in helping organizations increase their training budgets through taking advantage of federal funding. The National Title IV-E Roundtable conference which will be held in Phoenix, AZ May 23-25th . 2017 marks the 21 st year of this event and our theme of Examining Efficiency and Increasing Access Across Systems through Collaboration is timely given the changes occurring at the federal level. 20 states will be represented so...