ACEs Connection Webinar: The trauma toll on pediatric immigrants, refugees and their families

The trauma toll on pediatric immigrants, refugees and their families

Date:  Friday, December 14, 2018

Time: 10:30-11:30 am Pacific Time/1:30-2:30 Eastern Time

Central American asylum seekers, including a Honduran girl, 2, and her mother, are taken into custody near the U.S.-Mexico border in June in McAllen, Texas. John Moore/Getty Images

Please register here for this webinar.

 News accounts say it all: “Families Are Still Being Separated at the Border, Months After ‘Zero Tolerance’ Was Reversed,” reads a headline to a Nov. 30 story by the investigative news non-profit ProPublica. “Images and news reports of tear gas being used on children and families seeking asylum at our border have stunned and shaken pediatricians just as they have so many others across the country,” wrote American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Colleen Kraft, in a recent press releaseresponding to other actions targeting migrants.

The federal government ordered 287,741 new deportations in the fiscal year ending in September 2018, a record high since such data was first tracked in 1992  by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, according to a CBS news report.  And the federal government is weighing whether to change its so-called public charge policy that could restrict access to health care for many immigrants.

Please register here for this webinar.

The webinar will provide tips for health care providers in pediatric settings and beyond, including:

• What visuals, posters, policies and messaging help convey a trauma-sensitive, safe waiting area for these patients?
• How do you use ACE screeners, handouts and trauma-sensitive language to find out whether children have been directly impacted?
• What happens in an exam to establish trauma and torture for asylum seekers, and when would you refer?
• What are examples of how pediatricians work in cross-sector coalitions to develop trauma-sensitive practices for immigrants at risk for trauma?

When: Friday, Dec. 14, 2018, 10:30-11:30 am Pacific Time/1:30-2:30 Eastern Time

Please register here for this webinar.

Our Speakers include:

Dr. Heyman Oo, MD MPH, a primary care pediatrician in Marin County and an Associate Physician/Clinical Instructor for the General Pediatrics Department at Zuckerberg San Francisco General and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. She earned her BA in Psychology and Neuroscience from Yale University, Doctorate in Medicine from University of California San Diego and Masters in Public Health from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Healthcare Policy and Administration. She completed her residency in the PLUS (Pediatric Leadership Advancing Health Equity) Residency Program at UCSF while learning clinical medicine. Over the last 10 years, she has worked with various migrant and refugee populations in multiple capacities and has spent a significant time abroad. Oo taught middle school to migrant worker’s children in China and volunteered at a refugee clinic in Thailand. She has experience providing high-quality direct clinical care for immigrant patients, coordinating multidisciplinary partnerships with health departments, community-based organizations and schools to develop programs to serve newcomer populations as well as advocating for immigrant policy change on the local and national level. She is currently the Pediatric Champion at Marin Community Clinics for a pilot project with the Center for Youth Wellness that screens for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in a pediatric primary care setting. She presently serves as Co-Chair for the AAP Chapter 1 Advocacy Committee and as a board member for the San Francisco Marin Medical Society.

Dr. Raul Gutierrez is a community pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. He is a clinical instructor for UCSF, practicing at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. There he co-founded and directs the BRIDGES clinic, a multidisciplinary team committed to a holistic and community-supported approach to wellness among recently immigrated children and their families. In Oakland he works for La Clinica de la Raza's school-based health centers. He developed guidelines for intentional and thoughtful healthcare for immigrant students within the school-based clinic setting. A native of the South Texas border town of Brownsville, he developed an early interest in immigrant health, particularly of the Latino experience. He has always found inspiration in his abuela's journey and strength as an immigrant woman. He graduated from the University of Michigan School of Medicine and did his training in pediatric medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He also serves as an executive committee member on the council of community pediatrics with the American Academy of Pediatrics and is on the steering committee for the Immigrant Health Special Interest Group.

Dr. Nick Nelson graduated from St. George’s Hospital Medical School in London in 2008, and completed internship, residency, and chief residency in Internal Medicine at Highland Hospital in Oakland, California. Nelson serves as associate program director for the Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency at Highland, and as medical director of Highland’s Human Rights Clinic and as a member of the Advisory Board for Partnerships in Trauma Recovery. His clinical and academic interests include primary care internal medicine for underserved populations, bedside diagnosis, healthcare for newly arrived immigrants, forensic medical and psychological evaluation of asylum seekers, and the medical and psychological care of torture survivors.

Suggested reading:

• Applying Child Development Research to Immigration Policy
• Doctor’s Mental Health & Resiliency Training for Immigrant Kids─in School!
• Marin Community Clinics in California screen babies for ACEs, provide support in effort to prevent trauma
• Addressing the health and mental health needs of unaccompanied immigrant youth through an innovative school-based health center model: Successes and challenges
• Medical Clinics That Treat Refugees Help Determine The Case For Asylum

Laurie Udesky, ACEs Connection staff reporter and community manager of ACEs Connection’s ACEs in Pediatrics community is moderating the webinar.