Tagged With "Breonna Taylor"
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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 Historic Win For Students, Parents, And Advocates: LAUSD Officials Vote To End Random, Ineffective Searches In Schools [Witness LA]
June 19, 2019, by Taylor Walker In 2011, the Los Angeles Unified School District established a policy requiring schools to subject students at its 200 middle and high schools to daily “random searches.” School administrators pull kids out of class, search them with a handheld metal detector wand, and go through their bags and belongings looking for “contraband.” On Tuesday, after years of protest from parents, students, community groups, and others concerned about the practice, the LAUSD...
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A New Mother’s Dilemma: The Challenges Of Returning To Work [KPBS]
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Taylor is on the right track. The agency recommends that all babies be exclusively breast-fed for the first six months. On average, however, California women aren’t coming close to that goal. In fact, surveys show the rate of exclusive breast-feeding takes a big dive when babies hit the three-month mark. That’s about the time when many women have to return to work. Read the entire article HERE
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Bill On Governor’s Desk Aims To Reduce Childhood Trauma By Diverting Parents Into Treatment, Instead Of Prison [witnessla.com]
By Taylor Walker, Witness LA, September 13, 2019 An estimated 10 million US children have parents who are currently locked up, or who have previously been incarcerated. A bill currently on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk, SB 394, seeks to reduce the number of parents and children separated by incarceration by boosting diversion. Children arguably suffer the worst consequences of mass incarceration. In 2014, a UC Irvine study found that having a parent behind bars can be more damaging to a kid’s...
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Bipartisan trauma resolution passes the House unanimously
In the late afternoon on Feb. 26, the House of Representatives unanimously passed H. Res. 443 , a resolution recognizing the importance and effectiveness of trauma-informed care and calling for a national trauma awareness month and trauma-informed awareness day. The impetus for the resolution resides with the First Lady of Wisconsin, Tonette Walker, who has taken a strong leadership role in advancing trauma-informed policy and practice statewide through Fostering Futures , and has elevated...
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Budget Breakdown: Money For Diversion, Probation, Reform, And More [witnessla.com]
By Taylor Walker, Witness LA, January 14, 2020 On Friday, California Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled his plans for the 2020-2021 budget, a $222.2 billion proposal that features important changes to probation and pretrial diversion, jail reforms, and a potential prison closure, among other big changes in the world of justice. Below, WitnessLA has compiled some of the highlights from the governor’s proposed criminal justice spending. Based on Newsom’s January budget proposal, spending for the...
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CA Could Reduce Its Prison Population By 30,000, Says Report (witnessla.com)
A new report outlines strategies the state of California could employ that would reduce its prison and jail populations by 30,000 and save approximately $1.5 billion in prison spending. In 2016, there were over 200,000 people were locked in California’s prisons and jails. According to the report, lowering the incarcerated population by 30,000—by reducing the length of prison time for the majority of inmates by 20 percent—would make it possible for the state to close five prisons. The report,...
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Artificial Intelligence Will Soon Be Responsible For Reducing Implicit Bias In The San Francisco DA’s Office [Witness LA]
by Taylor Walker, Witness LA, June 14, 2019 On July 1, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón will launch a new artificial intelligence tool meant to eradicate potential racial bias in prosecutors’ charging decisions via a “race-blind charging system.” The first-of-its-kind algorithmic tool, created by the Stanford Computational Policy Lab, will also be offered free to any other prosecutor’s offices that wish to take part. “Lady justice is depicted wearing a blindfold to signify...
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As California Expands Ban on ‘Willful Defiance’ Suspensions, Lessons From L.A. Schools, Which Barred Them Six Years Ago
September 18, 2019 by TAYLOR SWAAK A s California this month expanded a statewide ban on suspending younger students for defiant behavior, lessons on how this increasingly sweeping school discipline reform may play out can be found in Los Angeles, which barred such suspensions on an even broader scale six years ago. Previously in California, “willful defiance” suspensions were not permitted in grades K-3. Beginning in July 2020, under the new state law , they will be prohibited for students...
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California Community Non-profits Get $1.3 Million to Push for Juvenile Justice Policy Change [JJIE.org]
Last week, a group of California-based foundations announced a $1.3 million investment into nonprofit community-based organizations in 11 of the state’s counties, including Los Angeles, through the Positive Youth Justice Initiative. This comes after two previous investments as part of PYJI’s three-phase initiative to eliminate racial disparities and transform the state’s juvenile justice system to better serve California’s vulnerable youth in need of trauma-informed care. This third monetary...
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California Department of Public Health has MCAH program that prevents ACEs!
In Federal-State partnership HRSA Maternal & Child Health the California Department of Public Health, MCAH have a home visiting program designed for families at risk for ACEs! The California Home Visiting Program (CHVP) is designed f or families who are at risk for adverse childhood experiences , including child maltreatment, domestic violence, substance abuse and mental illness. Home visiting is a preventive intervention that aims to promote maternal health, improve child development,...
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Webinar Slides and Recording: The Human Impact of Climate Change
Recorded live November 13, 2019. Find the slides attached below. Speaker: Elaine Miller-Karas, MSW, LCSW, Executive Director and Co-founder, Trauma Resource Institute. Guest: Kelly Doty, MA, Strengthening Families Program Manager, Youth for Change Host: Carey Sipp, Southeast Community Facilitator, ACEs Connection. Climate change emergencies are real and the human toll during and in the aftermath impact children, teens and adults. This webinar will hear from Kelly Doty, a survivor, who lost...
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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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State Dropping Ball in Dealing With Childhood Trauma, New Report Says [CaliforniaHealthline.org]
The lowest of 31 grades issued in the 2016 California Children's Report Card released on Wednesday was for dealing with the effects of childhood trauma. In Children Now's biennial assessment of the status of California kids, researchers gave the state a "D-" for how it deals with childhood trauma. The report contends that children who experience traumatic problems such as abuse, neglect and witnessing violence at home can suffer serious long-term consequences, including health...
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Supes To Increase Services For Parents Of Sex Trafficking Victims (witnessla.com)
Los Angeles is rated among the 13 “high intensity” areas for child commercial sex trafficking in the nation, according to the FBI . Kids as young as 10 years old (but usually between the ages of 12-18) are victimized throughout LA County. Over the last few years, the state of California has emerged as a leader in reforming its response to exploited children. Still, there have been growing pains , as the state works to decriminalize trafficked kids, and instead, treat them as the victims they...
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Two Years After End Of Indefinite Solitary In CA, CDCR Violating Terms Of Settlement, And Inmates Experiencing Lasting Psychological Effects, Says Center For Constitutional Rights (witnessla.com)
In 2015, California settled Ashker v. Governor , a historic class-action lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of a group of Pelican Bay State prison inmates who had each spent at least a decade in isolation. The settlement resulted in an end to the use of indefinite solitary confinement in CA prisons. On Monday, CCR filed a motion accusing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of violating the rights of inmates freed from indefinite...
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“Disgraceful” Disparities In School Discipline Funnel Kids Into Justice System [witnessla.com]
By Taylor Walker, Witness LA, November 11, 2019 Research and the national conversation around racial disparities in school discipline have largely remained focused on the outsized disparate treatment that black students receive when compared with their white peers. Yet Native American youth face much the same disciplinary treatment in schools that black students do, according to a report from San Diego State University and Sacramento Native American Higher Education Collaborative (SNAHEC)...
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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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Far More Women Are Being Sent To Prison For Life Than 10 Years Ago, Especially In California [Witness LA]
June 27, 2019 by Taylor Walker California has the highest proportion of women serving life (or virtual life) sentences in state prisons–one out of every four female prisoners, according to a new fact sheet from the Sentencing Project. The state with the next highest rate of life imprisonment among women in prisons is Louisiana, where one in seven imprisoned women will spend her life behind bars. Nationally, one out of every 15 of the 111,000 women in prison in the U.S. is serving life...
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Madera County jail inmates receiving tablets for education program (Fresno County - KFSN ABC30 )
MADERA COUNTY (KFSN) -- Inmates at the Madera County jail are getting tablets. The Department of Corrections has launched a learning program utilizing the technology. The educational program at the Madera County jail is getting smarter. The inmate population in Madera is now one month into a new tablet-based learning program called EDOVO. "This is a way for them to prepare for a successful re-entry back into their communities," said Chenault Taylor, EDOVO. The Chicago-based company provides...
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New Youth Council to Advise LA County Officials on Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice, and Other Matters Affecting LA's Kids [witnessla.com]
By Taylor Walker, WitnessLA, February 5,2020 On Tuesday, Feb. 4, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a plan to launch a Youth Commission to advise the board and county departments on matters of policy, budget, programs, and other issues that affect the county’s youth and their families. With this commission, the county has the opportunity to create a “trailblazing model” for jurisdictions across the nation, Supervisors Janice Hahn and Sheila Kuehl wrote in their motion. “In...
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Obama Foundation Announces Local Winners of My Brother’s Keeper Challenge Competition [WitnessLA.com]
On Thursday, the Obama Foundation announced the winners of the My Brother’s Keeper Challenge Competition, naming 19 community organizations across the nation that will receive money and support for expanding and launching programs to reduce violence, and to establish clear paths to opportunity for young men and boys of color. The California winners were the Liberty Hill Foundation /MBK LA County, the Sierra Health Foundation /MBK Sacramento, and the Urban Strategies Council /MBK Oakland. Two...
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Prop. 47 Reduced Recidivism & Infused Money Into Rehabilitation, But Also Boosted Theft-Related Crime Rates, Report Says (witnessla.com)
While California crime rates remain at historic lows, voter-approved Proposition 47 appears to have led to an increase in certain property crimes, according to a new Public Policy Institute of California report that aims to shed some light on the effects of the measure–an ongoing, contentious point of debate in the state. While researchers found what appeared to be a correlation between Prop. 47 and upticks in larceny, the measure did not make a measurable contribution to the state’s...
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CDC: Childhood Trauma Is A Public Health Issue And We Can Do More To Prevent It
Yesterday, NPR published the following story: CLICK HERE "Childhood trauma causes serious health repercussions throughout life and is a public health issue that calls for concerted prevention efforts. That's the takeaway of a report published Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experiencing traumatic things as a child puts you at risk for lifelong health effects, according to a body of research. The CDC's new report confirms this, finding that Americans who had...
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‘Change in culture’: New California guidelines aim to help teach social, emotional skills [Press Democrat]
The nation’s schools long ago broadened their missions beyond the teaching of academic subjects and participation in extracurricular activities. Educators have for decades been entrusted to teach students a wider range of life skills, including those that touch on emotions, empathy and relationships with other people. Now, a new state guide , released Wednesday, offers a slew of resources for teachers and administrators seeking to bolster kids’ social and emotional development. “Science...
Comment
Re: 4CA Policymaker Education Day is Back!
I can't make the meeting on May 1 but the attached chapter has information starting in p211 that shows the profound effect that skillful asking about ACEs has on subsequent medical care. The implications for the MediCal budget are in the multi-billion dollar range.
Comment
Re: OPEN for Public Comment: Prop 56 - Trauma Screenings
It is not clear to me what the $29. is for and who will be billed by whom. Having done this with 440,000 adults over a multi-year period, I would like to suggest that the State create a truly comprehensive medical history questionnaire posted on the Internet and that includes the ACE Questions. This would be free and people would list their names after disconnecting, ensuring their privacy. The output printed at home would consist of an iteration of all Yes answers, organized by body system.
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Advancing Racial Equity Webinar Series [apha.org]
By Tia Taylor Williams, American Public Health Association, May 2020 Alarming disparities within the COVID-19 pandemic — such as higher hospitalizations and death rates among African Americans — are sadly predictable and highlight the urgent need to address the root causes of health inequities. APHA is hosting this four-part webinar series to give an in-depth look at racism as a driving force of the social determinants of health and equity. The series will explore efforts to address systems,...
Calendar Event
Racism: The Ultimate Underlying Condition
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The Struggle to Overcome Racism [ssir.org]
By SSIR Editors, Stanford Social Innovation Review, June 1, 2020 The killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers has ignited protests and focused the national discourse on institutional racism and how to eradicate it. SSIR's editors have assembled a list of resources to help leaders of social change and activists trying to put an end to this intractable American scourge. Racism in the United States has been a longstanding crisis that the COVID-19 pandemic has cast into an even...
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Race Forward Statement - Justice Now [raceforward.org]
By Race Forward, June 2, 2020 In the days since four Minneapolis Police Department officers killed George Floyd, hundreds of demonstrations have broken out around the country. Race Forward stands in solidarity with the millions who have marched to demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and for those Black lives who have been taken prematurely by police brutality. We join their condemnation of all forms of racist violence, whether state or state-sanctioned or from...
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Racism Fuels Double Crisis: Police Violence and COVID-19 Disparities [chcf.org]
By Xenia Shih Bion, California Health Care Foundation, June 8, 2020 Across the US, two public health crises — one new and one ages old — have merged into a devastating tandem. Systemic racism undergirds COVID-19 health disparities and the plague of police violence, both of which kill Black Americans at disproportionately high rates. As protesters have taken to the streets to march against police brutality and to remember George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other unarmed Black people who have...
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I found my voice and I am going to use it
People are angry. Angry about institutional racism, angry about racial profiling, angry about police brutality, and angry about so many other displays of inequity that are happening in our country. People of color have always been marginalized in our society and people of all colors are finally saying enough is enough.
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George Floyd’s Death Is Killing Me (medium.com)
Like many of you, I have experienced the events of the past weeks with a profound sense of anguish. My heart goes out to the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. My heart breaks at the incomprehensible number who have been harmed by racist violence and by the inaction that has allowed those harms to take place. As a doctor and a policymaker, I often hear the question “what it is about black and brown people” that makes us more vulnerable to the virus? That question...
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Statement on Behalf of The California Endowment on Race & Racism: Using Pain for Transformation [calendow.org]
From The California Endowment, June 2020 Pain. Grief. Rage. Outrage. Frustration. Hurt. Ironically, at around the time that George Floyd pleaded for air while a police officer’s knee was lodged into his neck, our Board of Directors was scheduled to have visited the Equal Justice Museum and the Lynching Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama – a trip postponed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Lynching exhibit was thoughtfully constructed as a powerful reminder of America’s terrible past and history of...
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Academic Medicine and Black Lives Matter Time for Deep Listening (NEJM)
By Clyde W. Yancy, MD, MSc 1 , JAMA. Published June 30, 2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.12532 E choes of “medicine as the noble profession” continue to resonate, now 35 years since my legendary Chair of Medicine imbued me with this guiding ethos. Nobility in medicine is not obsolete; the selflessness, courage, self-sacrifice, and altruism on gallant display in the response to COVID-19 reassures that at its core, this ethic of egalitarian service remains intact and deeply established in the DNA...
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A Resolution Denouncing Racism and White Supremacy, and Supporting Equity, Wellbeing and the Safety of Black People and #BlackLivesMatter
WHEREA S , since our nation ' s inception , institutional and structural racism and injustice , namely the ma li gnancy and toxicity that i s white suprem acy , ha ve led to deepening racial disparities across all sectors of society and have lasting negative consequences for our communities , cities , and nation , robbing countless lives and futures of people of color in the process ; and WHERE AS , hist o rically , when Black people have fought for a more democratic society , the lives of...
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2020 Census Update – We’re Making Progress, but Our Work is Not Done! [childrennow.org]
WE HAVE THREE MONTHS LEFT: LET’S ENSURE EVERYONE IS COUNTED! Since our last 2020 Census update, there have been some new developments we are pleased to share. In April, our California Census response rate was 54 percent, and as of July 27th, 2020 , it is 63.9% . That is a nearly 10-percent increase during a once-in-a-century pandemic – which is amazing progress! Let’s keep the momentum going and increase the self-response numbers through October 31, 2020. The California Complete Count –...
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Turning Anger Into Action: Minority Students Analyze COVID Data on Racial Disparities [californiahealthline.org]
By Esther Landhuis, California Healthline, August 12, 2020 As the coronavirus swept into Detroit this spring, Wayne State University junior Skye Taylor noticed something striking. On social media, many of her fellow Black classmates who live or grew up in the city were “posting about death, like, ‘Oh, I lost this family member to COVID-19,’” said Taylor. The picture was different in Beverly Hills, a mostly white suburb 20 miles away. “People I went to high school with aren’t posting anything...
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California ACEs Academy Event: The Repressed Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Adult Well-Being, Disease and Social Functioning: Turning Gold into Lead
Thursday, September 3, 2020 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT | presented by Dr. Vincent J. Felitti *Priority will be given to Medi-Cal providers* 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...
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WEBINAR! The Repressed Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Adult Well-Being, Disease and Social Functioning: Turning Gold into Lead [avahealth.org]
CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY, Thursday, September 3, 2020 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT | presented by Dr. Vincent J. Felitti This training will award free CME/CE credits *Priority will be given to Medi-Cal providers* 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...
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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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WEBINAR ANNOUNCEMENT | CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY: A Practical Approach to Deciding the Next Right Step for Trauma Exposed Youth: The Pediatric Traumatic Stress Care Process Model [avahealth.org]
presented by Brooks Keeshin, MD Thursday, October 15, 2020 | 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (PT) Dr. Keeshin provides clinical care to children and adolescents with histories of child abuse and other traumatic experiences at Primary Children’s Center for Safe and Healthy Families. Additionally, Dr. Keeshin performs research and directs programs designed to improve the detection and response to children at risk for traumatic stress and suicide within healthcare and affiliated settings, including a SAMHSA...