Tagged With "War on Drugs"
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1/3 of CA children who need mental health treatment fail to receive it
Thirty-seven percent of California children who need mental health treatment failed to receive it, according to the most recent data available on kidsdata.org. Madera, Merced, Monterey, and Tulare counties had the lowest rates of all counties with available data, with nearly half of children who need mental health treatment failing to receive it in the previous 12 months. Screening, early identification, and treatment are critical, as untreated mental illness can disrupt children’s...
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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 good compromise will result in California becoming a 'sanctuary state' [LA Times Capitol Journal]
California is about to become a so-called sanctuary state. What does that mean? It means California will refuse to help federal agents deport people who came here illegally but are staying out of trouble and contributing positively to the state. But it means ratting out the bad guys to the feds — the convicted robbers, killers, drug traders and other assorted criminals. “If you’re a violent felon, we don’t want you in this country,” says state Senate leader Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles).
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'A hidden health crisis': Toxic stress driving up Kern death rates [The Bakersfield Californian]
An invisible disease has been killing middle-aged white people throughout the southern San Joaquin Valley at higher rates than ever before. The disease can’t be detected by a blood test or remedied with a prescription. It’s been referred to as one of the country’s greatest unaddressed public health crises and a rising “epidemic of white death.” The disease is toxic stress, a result of childhood trauma and other environmental stressors like poverty, food insecurity and basic living needs not...
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A MUST WATCH: Addicts Among Us - a hopeful documentary about ACEs and addiction in Humboldt County, California (YouTube Video)
I want to share this important documentary from Humboldt County with you and encourage you to make the time to watch it and share it with others in your organizations and spheres of influence. It is 52 minutes long, but well worth your time. The associate producer of the video, James Faulk - one of the central interviewees of the film - attended First 5 Humboldt's Town Hall on Adverse Childhood Experiences where the connection between early childhood adversity, mental health struggles,...
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Avoiding The ER: Paramedics Link Patients To Local Mental Health Treatment [CA Healthline and USA Today]
For Kelly Kjelstrom, plugging the gaps in mental health care can mean something as simple as a late-night taco and a friendly chat with a patient. Kjelstrom, 45, is a community paramedic in Modesto, California. Part of his job is to help psychiatric patients avoid the emergency room, where they can get “boarded” for days, until they are released or a bed opens up at an inpatient facility. When a 911 call involves a potential mental health crisis, specially trained paramedics like Kjelstrom...
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Board of State and Community Corrections Awards $96m In Prop 47 Grants
SACRAMENTO (June 13, 2019) – The Board of State and Community Corrections today approved grant awards from a voter initiative that reduces from felonies to misdemeanors certain low-level crimes and directs state savings to programs primarily focused on mental health and substance-use disorder treatment. It is the second round of Proposition 47 funding approved by the Board, to which voters allocated the bulk of the state savings for rehabilitative grants targeting Prop 47-impacted...
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Breakdown: California’s mental health system, explained (calmatters.org)
"Mental health advocates have long described California’s fragmented mental health system with words like “struggling” and “broken.” Evidence of its consequences can be found in our jails and prisons, our hospitals and clinics, our schools and colleges. The problem touches those living in comfortable middle class suburbs, remote rural towns, and on the streets of the state’s biggest cities." "Not only do a sixth of Californians experience some mental illness, but 1 out of every 24 have a...
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Briefs on current adverse childhood experiences in children in selected California cities
Attached are briefs on current ACEs in children in selected California cities, with comparison with state and county data. They were prepared by the Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health, a project of the Child and Adolescent...
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Building Resilience Through Understanding Substance Use Disorders and Their Impacts on Others
The reach of substance use disorders in America is far more significant than people think. 21+ million Americans struggle with substance use disorders. Their substance use and addiction-related behaviors impact 100 million more Americans. These are the moms, dads, husbands, wives, children, brothers, sisters, grandchildren.... Together, these two groups represents more than one-third of the American population!
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CA Reducing Disparities Project, Implementation Pilot Projects - TRIBE
CA Dept of Public Health's partner in the California Reducing Disparities Project, Implementation Pilot Projects (IPP). The one described below features the community defined evidence practice of the African American IPP: Whole Systems Learning. The Turning Resilience into Brilliance for Eternity Program (TRIBE) is a 5-year program that takes a public health approach to prevent mental illness, by promoting health in a scientific way, for African American foster and adjudicated youth. The...
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Access the California Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s Data Dashboard!
The California Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention (CDSS/OCAP), has developed a new County Prevention Data Dashboard to identify areas of strength and need pertaining to the prevention of child maltreatment across California. This tool presents relevant data in one location for primary and secondary prevention planning purposes and shares indicators of major risk and protective factors for child abuse and neglect, social determinants of health, and early stages of...
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Adversity and resiliency: The case for integrating ACEs and Strengthening Families approaches
Attached is the PowerPoint that was presented by Diane Kellegrew, Jane Stevens and Katie Albright in a webinar April 16. And below is the slide that ID's the presenters.
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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 Adds Its Clout to States Battling High Drug Prices [nytimes.com]
Gavin Newsom dived into the highly charged debate over prescription drug prices in his first week as California’s governor, vowing action on a topic that has enraged the public but has proved resistant to easy fixes. His idea: Find strength in numbers. Within hours of taking office on Monday, Mr. Newsom signed an executive order proposing a plan that would allow California to directly negotiate with drug manufacturers. The state would bring to the bargaining table not just the 13 million...
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California And Four Other States Point The Way For States To Downgrade Drug Offenses And Reduce Prison Populations [witnessla.com]
In fives states over the last five years, voters and lawmakers have downgraded felony drug possession to a misdemeanor. California was the first in 2014, with Proposition 47. Then came Utah (HB 348) and Connecticut (HB 7104) in 2015, and Alaska (SB 91) and Oklahoma (State Question 780) in 2016. A new report from the Urban Institute looks at the effect of these reform laws on prison populations, economics, and communities and how other states might fare if they followed the lead of CA, UT,...
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California Community Reinvestment Grants Program [business.ca.gov]
The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) is pleased to announce the release of the California Community Reinvestment Grants (CalCRG) program Draft Grant Solicitation for public review and comment. The Draft Grant Solicitation consists of two sections: 1. The Guidance and Overview section provides an overview of the program, application requirements, application evaluation, and program administration. 2. The Scoring Criteria section provides an outline of the...
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California Community Reinvestment Grants Program Workshop
The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GOBiz) recently announced a series of workshops on the new California Community Reinvestment Grants program. The goal of this new program is to provide grants to community based non-profit organizations and local health departments in order to serve communities disproportionately affected by past drug policies. The structure of the program and input and feedback from attendees will be discussed in order to further develop the...
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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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California Ends Practice of Billing Parents for Kids in Detention [themarshallproject.org]
Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed into law on Wednesday a sweeping package of criminal justice reform bills including a ban on the practice of billing parents for their children’s incarceration, which had been prevalent statewide for decades and was the subject of a Marshall Project investigation earlier this year. The new law — introduced by two Democratic state senators from the Los Angeles area, Holly Mitchell and Ricardo Lara, and approved by the legislature on Sept. 6 — prohibits...
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California Ends Practice of Billing Parents for Kids in Detention [themarshallproject.org]
Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed into law on Wednesday a sweeping package of criminal justice reform bills including a ban on the practice of billing parents for their children’s incarceration, which had been prevalent statewide for decades and was the subject of a Marshall Project investigation earlier this year. The new law — introduced by two Democratic state senators from the Los Angeles area, Holly Mitchell and Ricardo Lara, and approved by the legislature on Sept. 6 — prohibits...
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California issues update on state residents' ACE scores from 2011 & 2013 surveys
The latest adverse childhood experiences survey from the California Department of Public Health shows that 42% of the population has an ACE score of 3 or higher; 16% have an ACE score of 4 or higher. Those with an ACE score of 4 or higher are: 3x more likely to be current smokers 4x more likely to have a depressive disorder 2x more likely to have asthma 2x more likely to be obese 4x more likely to have COPD 3x more likely to have a stroke Here are a few other highlights from the six-page...
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California Mulls Allowing Safe Spaces for IV Drug Users [SCPR.org]
A bill in Sacramento would make California the first state in the country where drug users could be provided with a place to inject. The bill's author says the measure is aimed at reducing overdoses and other problems caused by drug abuse. "In the U.S. we have criminalized rather than treated addiction as a medical or social issue," said Assemblywoman Susan Eggman (D-Stockton). "Our prisons are full of people suffering from issues of addiction. Being able to provide a safe place for someone...
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Updated Community Health Assessment now available [Humboldtgov.org]
The Community Health Assessment (CHA), a comprehensive overview of the health of the Humboldt County community, was presented at the Board of Supervisors meeting this afternoon. The Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Public Health report looks at traditional public health measures of illness, mortality, nutrition and physical activity in the community. The CHA also includes data about income, housing status, community safety and access to care, as underlying...
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Use Of Buprenorphine To Treat Opioid Addiction Proliferates In California [CA Healthline]
Buprenorphine, a relative newcomer in the treatment of opioid addiction, is growing in popularity among California doctors as regulatory changes, physician training and other initiatives make the medication more widely accessible. The rate of Medi-Cal enrollees who received buprenorphine nearly quadrupled from the end of 2014 to the third quarter of 2018, according to data released by Medi-Cal , the state’s Medicaid program. The rate for methadone — an older and more commonly used drug — was...
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Vaping More Common among Youth with Lower School Connectedness
Using E-Cigarettes At Least Seven Times in Lifetime, by Level of School Connectedness, 2013-2015 California youth with low levels of connectedness to their schools have higher rates of e-cigarette use than their more connected peers. Reporting in 2013-2015, 18% of students with low levels of school connectedness in grades 7, 9, 11, and non-traditional programs had used e-cigarettes at least seven times—almost three times the estimate for youth with high levels of school connectedness (6%). A...
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Webinar recording available: Making Meaningful Change—Addressing ACEs through Public Policy
On February 18, 2020, nationally recognized experts discussed policy and advocacy strategies on local, state, and national levels using evidence from studies they have conducted with legislators and the general public. Speakers shared advocacy and messaging "how to’s" including communicating the effects of structural racism as an ACE, fostering equity as an essential component of resilience, and leveraging the power of community-based ACE, trauma and resilience networks to inform policy.
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Welltopia: A new online resource for Californians
Welltopia , a new website launched today by the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI), offers a wide range of essential resources to help Californians,...
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What should trauma-informed cities and counties ask their states for?
The people who are doing most of the pioneering work to integrate trauma-informed, resilience-building practices based on ACEs research (writ large) are doing so in cities and counties across the U.S. Now that more state agencies are learning about ACEs, many people in local communities are wondering what they can ask states for to help grow local efforts. Karen Clemmer, the maternal child adolescent health coordinator for Sonoma County’s Department of Health Services, and I were...
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Why Jerry Brown is a criminal justice visionary (SanDiegoUnionTribune.com)
Gov. Jerry Brown may not want to discuss his legacy just yet, but he is a visionary on criminal justice reform as he used his State of the State speech this week to underscore. He is the first California governor to realize the self-defeating folly of governments routinely ruining the salvageable lives of so many people by locking them up for so long. Brown noted that the state incarcerates nearly three times as many people per capita now than it did in 1970 — while spending nearly three...
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ACEs Science Champions Series: Why this financial coach integrates ACEs-based training
In foreground, Dr. Donielle Prince (l) and Saundra Davis (r) ____________________________ Saundra Davis, a financial coach and consultant who trains other coaches on building resilience among the working poor, knew she had met her partner in helping people deal with their “money disorders” when she first met Dr. Donielle Prince in Sacramento at a black women’s gathering in 2015. Dr. Prince works with ACEs Connection as its San Francisco Bay Area regional community facilitator. She also...
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Workshop in Oakland, CA: Adverse Childhood Experiences: Health and Mental Health Consequences
Drs. Vincent Felitti and John Preston will do a presentation about ACEs from 1-5 pm, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016, at Kaiser Center Auditorium, 300 Lakeside Drive, 2nd floor, in Oakland, CA. The course is sponsored by the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Mental Health Training Program. This is the course description: [The workshop organizers say that this workshop is not limited to licensed professionals, but anyone who is interested. Seats are limited, and...
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Yoga helping inmates transcend jail cells [KEYT - Santa Barbara]
An ancient spiritual practice is helping rehabilitate men and women at the Santa Barbara County Jail. Prison Yoga Santa Barbara (PYSB) invites inmates to practice yoga, meditation and mindfulness during incarceration at no cost to taxpayers. Ginny Kuhn is the force behind the non-profit staffed by volunteers. The program is modeled after The Prison Yoga Project which was started yogi James Fox at California’s San Quentin State Prison 15 years ago. Kuhn's motto for PYSB is 'Working Freedom...
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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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Sexually Transmitted Disease Rates Continue To Rise In California [Cap Radio]
Chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis are up in California over the past five years, including in places like San Francisco county, where people are contracting chlamydia at nearly twice the rate of the rest of California. Gonorrhea among women is up 47 percent, and there’s a concerning spike in the number of babies being born with congenital syphilis. Dr. Karen Smith, director of the California Department of Public Health, says the rise in homelessness statewide has led to more unprotected sex.
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Should California drop criminal penalties for drug possession? [SFChronicle.com]
For better or worse, California likes to decide drug policy at the ballot box. Voters have already approved marijuana legalization, but criminal sanctions against users of heroin, cocaine and other drugs are very much intact, though they’ve been moving in a more lenient direction. It would not be surprising to see a proposition entirely eliminating criminal penalties for drug possession in the near future. The removal of criminal penalties for drug possession — which is very different from...
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Should Los Angeles County Predict Which Children Will Become Criminals? [PSMag.com]
One of the primary goals of Los Angeles County’s child welfare system is keeping kids out of lock-up. But in this pursuit, the county took a surprising step: It used a predictive analytics tool as part of a program to identify which specific kids might end up behind bars. The process wasn’t incredibly complicated: It involved administering and assessing a questionnaire about a child’s family, arrests, drug use, academic success, and abuse history. But the goal was...
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Sobriety program for homeless people yields results in Petaluma [PressDemocrat.com]
Paul Palmer is part of Sober Circle at the Mary Isaak Center (Photo by Beth Shankler) ____________________________ At this time last year, Paul Palmer was going on seven years of being homeless. A methamphetamine addict living along the Petaluma River, he had been in and out of rehab a few times, but it never seemed to work. He mostly kept to himself, staying out of the way of police officers and other homeless people, burrowed deep into the bushes along the river bank on the north side of...
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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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Sonoma County foster children given too many psychotropic drugs, report finds
Sonoma County does not adequately monitor the use of psychotropic drugs among local foster youth, raising the possibility the county may be inappropriately medicating children or over-prescribing the mind-altering medications, according to a report released Tuesday by the California Auditor’s Office. County officials, however, strongly questioned some of the findings and insisted state auditors reviewed only limited documentation of the care foster youth received. The state did not review...
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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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Stockton emerging as public health model for toxic stress intervention [Bakersfield.com]
While scores of public agencies are working to develop resources and programs to address childhood trauma and toxic stress in their communities, San Joaquin County has been turning itself into a model for how to address the issue. “This is not a new concept for us,” said Barbara Alberson, senior deputy director of policy and planning at the San Joaquin County Public Health Services Department. “It’s in our DNA.” The county performed a Community Health Needs Assessment in 2016 that identified...
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Substance Use Disorder and Brain Development
The inputs a brain experiences during its developmental stages have a profound impact on whether that person will develop a substance use disorder (if they choose to drink or use other drugs). In turn, developing a substance use disorder (SUD) as a tween, teen, or young adult dramatically influences that person's brain development. And why is understanding this causality important? The risk factors for developing a substance use disorder are the result of inputs the brain experiences (or...
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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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RYSE Center's Listening Campaign: Young people in Richmond, CA help adults understand trauma, violence, coping, and healing
"My experience with violence is very brutal...I grew up with violence as if it were my sibling." - LC participant (youth) "We know we can't run the city- it's too complex- but our experience and our voices should count, especially because we're the most effected ." - LC participant (youth) "Our city's problems are shared by us all; we are all part of the problem AND the solution. Listening is a key component to healing." - LC Share Out partici pant (adult) Three years ago, RYSE Center in...
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Sacramento Court Helps Kids By Healing Parents’ Addictions [CaliforniaHealthline.org]
At 10 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, a line of parents pushing strollers filed into a conference room at the Sacramento County Courthouse. They sat at rows of narrow plastic tables, shushing their babies and gazing up at a man in a black robe. Hearing Officer Jim Teal sounded his gavel. “This is the time and place set for Early Intervention Family Drug Court,” he began, gazing sternly at the rapt faces of parents who sit before him. “Graduation from this court is considered a critical factor in...
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Sacramento Native American Health Center Presentation by Jeanine Gaines (Citizen Potawatomi Nation)
On June 11th, Jeanine Gaines from the Citizen Potawatomi Nation presented to the Resilient Sacramento ACEs Connection meeting discussing the intersection of ACEs and historical trauma of first nation people. My intention was to upload the information for everyone to review right away but I found myself so emotionally moved that it took a full moon meditation to be able to free my feelings and write about my experience during and after the presentation. I consider myself well read concerning...
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San Francisco Hopes to Improve Care for People with Mental Illness Living on Streets [californiahealthline.org]
By Brian Krans, California Healthline, December 12, 2019 San Francisco Mayor London Breed has promised to tackle her city’s homelessness crisis, a vexing situation involving drug abuse and mental illness that is compounded by the city’s high housing costs. Breed has asked Dr. Anton Nigusse Bland, most recently the medical director for psychiatric emergency services at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, to help solve the problem. In March, she appointed him to the newly created...
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San Juan Capistrano Christian PTSD Drug Rehab Trauma Informed Care Launched [newswire.net]
By willian brown, Newswire, February 6, 2020 San Juan Capistrano Christian PTSD drug rehab center PTSD & Trauma Drug Rehab launched trauma informed care services and a special First Responder Drug Rehab Program in Orange County. These services are delivered by licensed counselors and therapists as residential or outpatient treatments. San Juan Capistrano Christian PTSD drug rehab center Christian Drug & Alcohol Treatment Centers (CDAT) dba PTSD & Trauma Drug Rehab has launched...
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Santa Barbara County supervisors relinquish $38.9 million grant for treatment facility [LompocRecord.com]
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors split Tuesday on a decision to relinquish a $38.9 million state grant for a transition complex that was recently cut from plans for a North County jail. The 3-2 decision effectively kills a last-minute proposal from Sheriff Bill Brown, who sought reconsideration of the grant to alternatively fund the 228-bed treatment facility, which would have been staffed by the county’s Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Health Services department. The board...