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By Claudia Boyd-Barrett, California Health Report, November 9, 2020 Ever since her son, Landon, was born three years ago, Nakenya Allen has been fighting. Fighting to get a diagnosis for the cause of Landon’s digestive problems, which landed him in the emergency room multiple times before he turned 18 months old. Fighting to get doctors to take her concerns about her son’s constant distress seriously. And, after he was diagnosed with a rare birth defect in his spinal cord, fighting with...

NOW AVAILABLE ON DEMAND ADDICTION BORN OUT OF ACES AND THE RETURN OF HOPE Dr. Susie Wiet 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. Susie...

Multi-Day Virtual Training Institute in February 2021 Application Deadline: Thursday, December 3, 2020 Multidisciplinary teams are invited to participate in the Building Collaborative Responses to Trafficked Victims of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Institute. The Institute will focus on improving collaborative responses for adult/youth domestic violence and sexual assault victims who have also experienced human traffickiing. View and share the flyer for the institute . As a result of...

By Sigrid Bathen, Capitol Weekly, November 11, 2020 Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Stephen Manley refers to defendants in his courtroom as “clients” – an indication of the unusually informal and conversational tenor of the Behavioral Health Court he created more than two decades ago. “It tends to break through a barrier,” Manley said in a recent interview with Capitol Weekly. “Defendant is the word of the court. Client or patient is the word of treatment. Stigma is still a major...

By Eric H. Ball, ACEs Aware, November 8, 2020 I am a primary care pediatrician. My usual day consists of seeing a few dozen kids in my office. Most of them are healthy and happy. We discuss growth and development, give some immunizations, and answer parental questions. Then COVID-19 hit, and everything changed. My role has dramatically shifted in the last seven months. Now I spend a great deal of time each day helping families deal with the psychological impacts of COVID-19 and the...

By Ted R. Miller, Geetha M. Waehrer, Debora L. Oh, et al., Plos One, January 28, 2020 Abstract Objectives To estimate the adult health burden and costs in California during 2013 associated with adults’ prior Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Methods We analyzed five ACEs-linked conditions (asthma, arthritis, COPD, depression, and cardiovascular disease) and three health risk factors (lifetime smoking, heavy drinking, and obesity). We estimated ACEs-associated fractions of disease risk...

Doctors and nurses at a hospital in Sacramento, California were uncomfortable interacting with a 17-year-old black youth who had suffered a gunshot wound and was paralyzed from the neck down. DeAngelo Mack “They didn’t want to tend to him, because they thought he was disrespectful,” said DeAngelo Mack, who has advocated on behalf of hundreds of black and brown youth who have been victims of violence. “My work was to explain to them, of course he’s frustrated. He’s a 17-year-old kid who will...

A local Eagle Scout project is putting hospital patients in more reliable contact with their loved ones and medical providers. Fourteen-year-old Jeremy Hall, of Troup 99 in Boy Scouts of America's Tejon District, solicited donations of phone cables and wall chargers, accepting money as an alternative, then organized deliveries to three local hospitals. “I am so impressed with Jeremy," said Carol Stiltner, chief nurse of Bakersfield Heart Hospital, a recipient of phone-charging equipment that...

San Diego is California’s second biggest city. Its population of roughly 1.4 million also makes it the nation’s eighth biggest city , just after San Antonio and before Dallas. It often feels like a smaller town, though — especially in its local politics. As the Voice of San Diego reported recently, its mayor-elect, Todd Gloria, currently a state assemblyman, aims to change that. Mr. Gloria will be the city’s first mayor of color and first openly gay mayor. He may also be the most powerful...

By Laurence Du Sault, Cal Matters, November 4, 2020 San Francisco voters approved a new tax that will target businesses with the most disproportionately paid CEOs. Measure L required a simple majority to pass and was approved by 65.18% of voters Tuesday night, making San Francisco the first U.S. city to move to tax both private and public businesses based on how “overpaid” their top executives are. The measure, introduced by Supervisor Matt Haney and backed by the board, is expected to...

By Chuck Carroll, The Imprint, November 5, 2020 Los Angeles County voters have handily approved a ballot measure that requires the county to dedicate at least 10% of its unrestricted funds to youth development and other community investments as well as alternatives to incarceration rather than law enforcement and jail. In perpetuity. Measure J was strategically marketed as “Reimagine Los Angeles County” by proponents and shaded by critics as a dangerous and ill-considered step toward...

By Thadeus Greenson, October 28, 2020, Community Voices Coalition . Working on the North Coast, where the American Civil Liberties Union has had an ongoing presence since 2007, when it filed a landmark class-action lawsuit against Del Norte Unified School District on behalf of Native American students, Tedde Simon says she came to see there was what she described as a “widely understood issue.” In Humboldt County — home to seven federally recognized tribes and proportionately one of the...