Tagged With "Annual Families Fathers Conference"
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2 Webinars from Strategies 2.0
Empower Latin American Communities to Prevent Sex Trafficking 10am to 11:30am on 6/13/19 A 90-minute webinar focusing on the scope and overview of sex trafficking of Mexico and Latin America and how it connects to the United States. This webinar will increase awareness of the vulnerabilities Spanish-speaking populations face, increase access to human trafficking victim and survivor services, and highlight resources/tools to educate Mexican and Latin American communities. Weaving in theory...
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37th Annual Child Abuse Prevention Symposium Recap
"Speak Out! Confronting the Culture of Child Sexual Abuse and Secrecy" was the theme of Santa Clara County's 37th Annual Child Abuse Prevention Symposium which featured a Keynote conversation with Olympic Gold Medal winning gymnast and current UCLA Assistant Gymnastics Coach Jordyn Wieber. Jordyn, and other athletes and survivors of former USA Gymnastics team doctor and serial child sex abuser Larry Nassar, earlier spoke to a U.S. Senate Subcommittee about a “culture of silence” more...
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A fast, easy way for pediatricians to screen kids for ACEs...and other health issues
Last November, the California Department of Managed Care gave its stamp of approval to a new version of Whole Child Assessment 2.0 , a tool that screens for children’s adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). It was recommended as part of recently passed legislation calling for trauma screening for children in California. But the Whole Child Assessment 2.0 (WCA) does more. It also queries patients about other critical safety and health issues, including whether they have enough to eat, whether...
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A Quest To Understand Adoption, Attachment, and Suicide
Join me and my guests, John Brooks and Nancy Newton Verrier, on “About Health.” Monday March 7th from 2-3PM on KPFA.org or 94.1FM. We will discuss, The Girl Behind the Door, A Father’s Quest to Understand His Daughter’s Suicide , by John Brooks. It provides a profound look into adoption, teenage suicide, and attachment issues. When John and Erika’s daughter Casey jumped off of the Golden Gate Bridge in 2008, John began to unravel a heartbreaking truth—Casey had been in pain since birth,...
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Bankruptcy and privatization will not lead us to recovery. [preventioninstitute.org]
By Rachel A. Davis, Prevention Institute, May 7, 2020 My father, a farmer, called me a few weeks ago to share that he had just stopped picking mid-harvest because of disruptions in produce distribution lines due to the coronavirus pandemic. I felt concerned for my family, for other farmers, and for families across the country that were struggling to feed their children. In the meantime, my sister, the ranch manager, spent days personally handpicking and boxing 1,600 pounds of the unpicked...
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Bringing Baby Home Educator Training
Two thirds of couples experience a decline in relationship satisfaction upon the birth of their first child. This can lead to postpartum depression and reduced involvement by the father in the life of their children. Even the strongest relationships are strained during the transition to parenthood. Lack of sleep, never-ending housework and new fiscal concerns can lead to profound stress. The Bringing Baby Home Educator Training prepares people to independently teach pregnant and parenting...
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ACEs Champion Julie Kurtz Gives Every Child (and Adult) a Voice
Julie Kurtz hasn’t stopped creating ways to build and promote resilience in herself and others who have experienced trauma since she left her family home for college at age 18. Although she experienced four types of adversity during her childhood, the CEO of the Center for Optimal Brain Integration has traveled a complex journey to mitigate those adversities by recognizing her own internal resilience, building skills to buffer her toxic and traumatic stress, uncovering her voice through...
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ACEs Science Champion Series: Dr. Angela Bymaster: This Faith-Based Physician Integrates ACEs Science with Healing Arts
Dr. Angela Bymaster, a family physician at Washington Elementary School in San Jose, CA, operates her clinic in a portable unit on the school property.
Because the unit faces students as they are dropped off by their families, she gets to “pick up the kids” before they are sent to the clinic, practicing “upstream medicine.”
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ACEs Science Champions Series: Allen Nishikawa: ACEs Storyteller Helps People Develop Their Resilience
Sonoma County ACEs Connection members Allen Nishikawa and Lena Hoffman at California Policymaker Education Day, 2018 Allen Nishikawa, a sansei, or third-generation Japanese American, majored in political science and American history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he participated in antiwar (Vietnam) marches. But it was his experience as a military brat — moving from school to school across the U.S. and even to Japan as a child — that shaped his own childhood experiences and...
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California healthcare providers adapt ACEs screening from in-person to virtual environment
Dr. Amy Shekarchi, a pediatrician based in Los Angeles, CA, was helping to lead the rollout of ACEs screening among 50 health care providers at six clinics affiliated with the L.A. County Department of Health Services when the COVID-19 pandemic hit—days before she was set to launch the effort. “We had trained everybody in doing face-to-face [ACEs screening], and when COVID-19 happened we thought, let’s not throw the screening out. Everybody was ready,” says Shekarchi, who is the pediatric...
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Whole People Series & Study Guide (www.pbs.org)
There's a fantastic five-part series, Whole People , done by PBS, " spotlighting the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) through personal and community stories. It explores the long-term costs to personal well-being and our society. While much work needs to be done, there are many innovative developments to prevent and treat ACES. We all play a role in becoming a whole people." It's amazing. The five topics covered are as follows: Childhood Trauma Healing Communities A New...
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Why trauma-informed care is needed in Los Angeles County: Guest commentary [DailyNews.com]
When Jake was a child, his parents would scream at him every day. They told him everything he did was wrong and he was worthless. One day when Jake was 4, his father threw him against the wall three times. It was not until his mother found Jake talking to himself at age 12 that she saw he — and her family — needed help. When Jake entered therapy, he was hearing voices in his head and had a severe stutter. He never felt safe and found it hard to trust others. Today, Jake, a 58-year-old Los...
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Wisconsin state agencies end year one of trauma-informed learning community; goal is to be first trauma-informed state
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...
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Youth court banishes blame; leads with ACEs science
YMCA Marin County Youth Court in San Rafael, California In her opening statement, 17-year-old youth advocate Eva advises jurors how to proceed and summarizes her “client’s” good qualities. “As you will see, Julian is genuine, well-spoken and friendly. I recommend asking him about his friends and family, his future plans and his activities outside of school.” (First names only of all minors are used to protect their privacy.) Welcome to the YMCA Marin County (CA) Youth Court, one of 1,400...
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SF Giants promote "Audrie and Daisy" on Netflix tomorrow (Friday, Sept, 23)
This Friday, September 23 , don’t miss the premiere of a compelling new documentary called Audrie and Daisy on Netflix. To kick-off the upcoming launch, we staged an unconventional but inspiring send-off with the help of the San Francisco Giants this past Sunday . It was our 19th Annual Strike Out Violence Day at AT&T Park, and this year, the Giants hosted the courageous families of Audrie Pott and Daisy Coleman, the two young women who are featured in the new film about two teenagers...
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Social distance puts squeeze on multigenerational homes [sfchronicle.com]
By Otis R. Taylor Jr., San Francisco Chronicle, April 10, 2020 Gerardo Peña can’t pay this month’s $2,700 rent for Right-Way Shoe Repair on College Avenue in Oakland, a store he’s owned for 16 years. He also can’t pay the $2,300 he owes for Shoe Clinic, the sister repair shop less than 2 miles away on Piedmont Avenue. He’s owned that store for seven years. “I know he’s stressed out,” Leslie Peña said about her father. “I think everybody is.” [ Please click here to read more .]
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Solano County launches its ACEs and resilience initiative inviting all to take action
Elizabeth Huntley recalls the day when her family’s life was turned upside down. “One day my mom woke up and she packed up all of our clothes, all five of us…and she took me and my younger sister who had the same father… down to my paternal grandmother’s house…and she left us there. She took my middle sister to a town near Birmingham, Ala., and left her there. She took my only brother and an older sister back to Huntsville and left them at a sister’s house. Then she went back to that housing...
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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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Safe House .[The California Sunday Magazine]
By Lizzie Presser A group of Latina women across the country have been working in secret, turning their homes into shelters for abused immigrant women. Valentina* drove two hours up the California coast to the flat farming town of Santa Maria and stopped outside a white motor home. “Silvia,” she sang, tilting her head out the car window on a recent afternoon. With broad shoulders and dyed-blond hair framing her soft face, Valentina is striking even without her signature crystal-encrusted...
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Safeguards for Youth Briefing
Webinar Details Date: Thursday, March 5 Time: 11:00-11:30 AM PST Kidsdata.org recently compiled data on Safeguards for Youth to highlight important protective factors and supportive services for California children. Learn about the Safeguards for Youth framework and where to easily access these data. Also, hear from a specialist at the Child Abuse Prevention Center about adopting a prevention mind-set and using trauma-informed practices to address adversity among children. Speakers will be...
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Screening for Childhood Trauma
Dr. Ken Epstein has been in the social services sector for nearly four decades and has witnessed firsthand the long-term effects of trauma. As both the son and father of fellow social workers, the work runs in his blood. Now, he’s helping Bay Area health clinics screen for and address childhood trauma through the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative (RBC), led by Center for Care Innovations (CCI) and made possible by Genentech.
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Sen. Kamala Harris on Immigrants: ‘Here’s the Truth, Mr. President’ (timesofsandiego.com)
California’s new Senator, Kamala Harris , delivered her maiden speech on the Senate floor Thursday, addressing the contributions of immigrants to society. This is a transcript of her remarks. I rise today humbled to offer my first official speech as the junior United States senator from the great state of California. x I rise with a deep sense of reverence for this institution, for its history, and for its unique role as a defender of our nation’s ideals. Above all, I rise today with a sense...
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'Sesame Street' Releases Pandemic PSA For Tired Parents Featuring Elmo's Dad [huffingtonpost.ca]
By Al Donato, Huffington Post, April 15, 2020 If you’re an exhausted parent at home right now, you have a friend in Elmo’s dad, Louie. In the latest pandemic programming from “Sesame Street,” the children’s series has released a PSA for parents starring the famous Muppet’s father. In the PSA, Louie reveals that, like many kids cooped up at home, Elmo won’t leave his parents alone. “It is wonderful to spend so much time with our children, but it can also be a bit ...” the older Muppet pauses,...
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Survey: Healthcare providers, community organizations weigh in on California's ACEs screening program
In January, California took a historic leap forward to promote universal ACEs screening of the state’s 13 million adults and children in the Medi-Cal program. The eventual goal is to promote ACEs screening for all patients, but this is a first step in dealing with a major issue that ACEs science has identified: that many children will develop serious health problems later in life because the healthcare system is not currently set up to detect the roots of those problems. The term ACEs, which...
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The State of the Evidence for Intervention and Prevention Programs for Child Welfare-Involved Populations [CEBC]
As of May 2019, the California Evidence-Based Clearing House (CEBC) has reviewed and rated over 450 programs. These programs are organized across 47 unique topic area s and each topic area varies in the number of programs with published peer-reviewed research evidence. The topic areas with the smallest number of research-supported programs are listed in the first table below in order to illustrate where gaps in effective services exist for child welfare-involved populations. The second table...
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Birth, Breastfeeding and Beyond Conference
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Safeguards for Youth Briefing
Calendar Event
Strategies 2.0 Webinar
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Tulare County is schooled on the ACEs [TheSunGazette.com]
It was a somber opening for the 10th annual Tulare County Child Abuse Conference as Executive Director of CASA Marilyn Barr welcomed social service agencies, non-profits, and law enforcement representatives from around Tulare County...
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Undocumented workers face obstacles qualifying for benefits during the pandemic [calmatters.org]
By Jacqueline Garcia and Erica Hellerstein, Cal Matters, April 14, 2020 Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Hector had a stable job as a cook at an Italian restaurant in Oakland. Suddenly, in mid-March, about a dozen workers were laid off, including him. “There was a low clientele and the restaurant wasn’t doing well,” said Hector, who didn’t want to provide his last name due to his undocumented status. Hector, a 45-year-old married father of three and a grandfather, was left struggling to care...
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DULCE helps pediatricians in Oakland, CA, prevent toxic stress in newborns
On a recent day in early March, Laura Lopez met a former patient of hers in the waiting room of Highland Hospital’s pediatric clinic in Oakland, CA. The patient had forgotten her Medi-Cal card and called Lopez asking for help. But in the brief conversation, Lopez, a family specialist with the DULCE program, learned about some dire changes in the patient’s life. Laura Lopez “Without me even asking, she shared with me that she had separated from her partner, that she needs to apply for food...
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During COVID-19, how does a trauma-informed school pivot to distance learning?
Antioch Middle School seventh-grader Alyssia Garcia was accustomed to scanning the cafeteria during lunch for kids who might need her assistance. “I’d look for kids who looked sad, kids who were sitting alone, kids who looked angry,” says Garcia, a peer advocate at her school. Alyssia Garcia When she’d spot students sitting alone or looking sad, she’d approach them and ease into conversation. “If it’s a sad person, I’ll try to cheer them up or ask them what the problem is,” she says. “If...
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Early childhood educators learn new ways to spot trauma triggers, build resilience in preschoolers
A hug may be comforting to many children, but for a child who has experienced trauma it may not feel safe.
That’s an example used by Julie Kurtz, co-director of trauma informed practices in early childhood education at the WestEd Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS), as she begins a trauma training session. Her audience, preschool teachers and staff of the San Francisco-based Wu Yee Children’s Services at San Francisco’s Women’s Building, listen attentively.
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Early childhood educators learn new ways to spot trauma triggers, build resilience in preschoolers
A hug may be comforting to many children, but for a child who has experienced trauma it may not feel safe.
That’s an example used by Julie Kurtz, co-director of trauma informed practices in early childhood education at the WestEd Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS), as she begins a trauma training session. Her audience, preschool teachers and staff of the San Francisco-based Wu Yee Children’s Services at San Francisco’s Women’s Building, listen attentively.
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Early Discount 20th Annual Families & Fathers Conference
Call to action- Fathers and Families Coalition of America is nearing the 20th Annual Families and Fathers Conference, March 4-7, 2019 in Los Angeles, California with a comprehensive program that hosts presenters from the United Kingdom, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Bolivia and throughout the United States. We are providing the conference information for your consideration to participate. We are asking you to share this conference information with your community...
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Editorial: Los Angeles Should Help pull its Residents out of Crisis, not Sink Them even Deeper [latimes.com]
By The Times Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times, March 8, 2020 Imagine a woman named Monica. She trudges up the steps toward the courthouse door but stops short, overcome by a feeling of dread. Each time she’d walked through that door in the past she’d had to leave behind something of value before she could walk out again. Once it was the money for next month’s rent, because she had to pay a traffic fine. And then it was her apartment itself, because she was too many months in arrears. And,...
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Education: Tony Thurmond’s silver bullet (Capitol Weekly)
Abandoned by his father and orphaned at age 6 after the death of his mother to cancer, Tony Thurmond believes he could have easily ended up in prison. Instead, the 50-year-old Richmond resident is the new state superintendent of public education. He is the second African-American in the position after Wilson Riles, who served 1971-83. “I’ve spent years analyzing my experience,” he said. “Why is my experience not the experience of many of my peers? If you look who is in jail, it is largely...
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Elevating the Parent Voice at the February 27th SoCal Learning Community
Did you know? The Strategies 2.0 SoCal Learning Community is a free peer learning experience for existing and emerging leaders in the child abuse prevention and family strengthening field . The Feb. 27th convening focuses on elevating the parent voice in order to strengthen and improve services for families. It will include a presentation about Dads Matter, a Los Angeles based program, and a parent panel. Re-visioning Prevention: Exploring Systems Innovation and Best Practices in the...
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Family First Scholarships for 21st Annual Families and Fathers Conference
21st Annual Families and Fathers National Conference February 24-27, 2020 Hilton Los Angeles Airport 5711 West Century Boulevard Los Angeles, California 90045 I am honored to announce The Family First Scholarship supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as a Title Sponsor and State of California First 5 as a Co-Sponsor for the 21 st Annual Families and Fathers Conference, Next Level 2020! the terms "putting family first" and "it takes a village to raise a child" parallels with why we have...
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Fentanyl Epidemic: A Father's Love Starts his Fight [myvalleynews.com]
By Jeff Pack, Valley News, February 11, 2020 When he took to the podium at the Temecula City Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 4, Alex Capelouto’s father looked shaken, but he took a deep breath, adjusted his glasses and began to read from a speech he had written. “I’m Alex’s dad,” the man said. “I’m here on behalf of Jacob Alexander, 2017 graduate of Chaparral High School. Dec. 3, 2019, dead. I’m here on behalf of Caleb Dunlap, senior at Great Oak High School, Dec. 15, 2019, dead. I’m here on...
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ACEs Science Champions Series: First 5 San Mateo County (CA) Forges Ahead with Trauma-Informed Initiative
Each year for the past 20 years, First 5 San Mateo County has spent nearly $7 million to help meet the needs of children from birth through age five, and support their families. In 1998, First 5 was established and funded in California by Proposition 10, which funneled tobacco tax dollars into transforming the early childhood system and guaranteeing better outcomes for all counties in the state. In January 2018, the First 5 San Mateo County started a planning committee based on incorporating...
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First health-related cost of ACEs study shows $113 billion price tag for California; just one ACE costs $28 billion
Researchers who have been looking for a way to quantify the health toll of ACEs in dollar terms, now have an example in a newly-released study of California. ACEs exacted a toll costing an estimated $113 billion annually, according to the study in the journal PLOS One that was commissioned by the Center for Youth Wellness. ACEs-associated cardiovascular disease was the condition that lead author Ted Miller dubbed “the giant in the room.” It accounted for $29.6 billion in spending, more than...
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For Some Students, Hunger Is Part Of The College Experience [CaliforniaHealthline.org]
When Marci Maxey’s father moved to Texas to take care of her ailing grandmother last August, the Sacramento resident found herself alone for the first time in her life. She was taking classes at a community college and didn’t have a job. She had some money from her family, but it wasn’t enough to live on. “There were times when I felt that maybe I’m not going to be able to have enough food,” she said. Because Maxey qualified for her college’s work-study program, she was eligible for food...
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FREE Resilience Workshop (8/16/19) on How to Support Someone Who Has Experienced Trauma
Join us at Berkeley City College for a free workshop, How To Support Someone Who Has Experienced Trauma. Event flyer attached.
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Just one year of child abuse costs San Francisco, CA, $300 million….but it doesn’t have to
In 2015, 5,545 children in San Francisco, CA, were reported to have experienced abuse. Of those, the reports of 753 children were substantiated. The expense to San Francisco for not preventing that abuse will cost $400,533 per child over his or her lifetime. That adds up to $301.6 million for just that one year, according to “ The Economics of Child Abuse: A Study of San Francisco.” And, because child abuse is profoundly underreported, the costs are likely to be as much as $5.6 billion/year,...
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LA’s At-Risk Youth Need Community Resources & Healing, Not Punishment & Pepper Spray [witnessla.com]
WitnessLA, June 5, 2019. From juvenile hall to county jail to prison to deportation, I’ve experienced first-hand the lifelong obstacles that contact with the criminal justice system can produce. As a troubled youth in the mid to late 1980s, I found that my time in LA County Probation’s juvenile halls and camps provided few resources or guidance to change my negative behavior. Instead, I learned better ways to defend myself against other troubled, gang-involved youth. It was gladiator school,...
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More than 70 4CA participants converge on Sacramento, talk ACEs to power
Mai Le, an ACEs champion and program associate with First 5 San Mateo, wasted no time getting to the point of why she was asking lawmakers to support legislation that would help prevent adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). “When I was a child, my father had a psychotic break and was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia,” she said in a conversation with Eric Dietz, a staff member for State Senator John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa). L-R: Eric Dietz, Richa Sharma, Mai Le “I’m a high achiever,...
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NFL Athlete Lawrence Phillips: The Broken Kid
http://blitzweekly.com/lawrence-phillips-the-broken-kid/ http://www.thenation.com/article/who-killed-lawrence-phillips/ Today NFL athlete Lawrence Phillips' death was ruled a suicide by the coroner. His ACEs score (Adverse Childhood Experiences) was by all accounts extremely high. By all accounts, he did not receive treatment for this unrelenting childhood trauma and attachment disruption. Abandoned by his father, abused by his stepfather, removed from his mother, placed in group homes, and...
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NPPC shares lessons learned and results from ACEs screening pilot sites
For Dr. Mercie Digangi, a pediatrician at Kaiser Southern California in Downey, CA, ACEs screening provided a crystal clear before-and-after in how she changed treatment plans for her pediatric patients, she explained to attendees of a December 2 webinar organized by the National Pediatric Practice Community on ACEs (NPPC) and cosponsored by ACEs Connection. Dr. Mercie Digangi One case that turned ACEs screening into a never-go-back moment for her was a three-year-old who was speech-delayed.