TIC in the News

The trauma specialists working in Butte County schools knew they'd start seeing kids act out around six months after the deadly Camp Fire, since anniversaries are known to trigger survivors into reliving moments of the traumatic event. But there aren't enough counselors to help all of the students, teachers and staff dealing with this second wave of trauma. “We have six schools that have requested help, and we can't bring help to them,” said Roy Applegate, who helps coordinate Recovery...

Imagine identifying a toxin so potent it could rewire a child’s brain and erode his immune system. A substance that, in high doses, tripled the risk of heart disease and lung cancer and reduced life expectancy by 20 years. And then realizing that tens of millions of American children had been exposed. Dr. @Nadine Burke Harris, California’s newly appointed surgeon general, will tell you this is not a hypothetical scenario. She is a leading voice in a movement trying to transform our...

California is trying to support young children by providing more mental health assistance to their teachers SAN JOSE, Calif. — Chally Grundwag, a mental health consultant, faced three teachers gathered around a pint-size preschool table. “What kind of kids really push your buttons?” she asked the group. The teachers at Kidango’s Dorsa Center in San Jose thought for a moment. “Crying ones,” one responded. “I want to say, ‘Stop crying; you’re going to be OK!’ But I can’t.” A crying toddler may...

Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the appointment of Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, a national leader in pediatric medicine, to serve as California’s first-ever surgeon general. There is overwhelming consensus in the scientific community around early warning signs and childhood determinants of serious health outcomes. As surgeon general, Dr. Burke Harris will urge policymakers at every level of government and leaders across the state to consider the social determinants of health, especially...

My project for the Center for Health Journalism’s California Fellowship was focused on childhood trauma, zeroing in on a town in Northern California. In the fall, that town — Paradise, California — burned in a harrowing wildfire. The story quickly changed to one of community loss. The story of trauma in two counties My initial project was about Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs. ACEs are one way to quantify how much childhood trauma a person has experienced before the age of 18. Through...

Thanks — for nothing, Mr. Reiner. When I started my reporting on the 20th anniversary of California’s Proposition 10 — now known as First 5 — I fully expected to have filmmaker Rob Reiner’s quotations and retrospective as a central piece of the package . After all, he was the sponsor of the ballot measure that created the tobacco tax-funded system for programs serving young children from birth to age 5. And, he welcomed me into his Beverly Hills office for an interview when the measure was...

Editor's note: The National Pediatric Practice Community on Adverse Childhood Experiences , part of the Center for Youth Wellness, included the following information in its newsletter that may impact your patients access to health care: "Make Your Voice Heard & Comment re: Proposed Limits to Food, Housing The Department of Homeland Security proposed new definitions of public charge , which marks a significant departure from its current policy. The changes pose risks to immigrant families...

www.nosmallmatter.com The feature documentary NO SMALL MATTER confronts America's most pressing problems with an unlikely but powerful weapon: babies and young children. From home to childcare to preschool, high-quality early care and education has far-reaching impacts, and groundbreaking science to back it up. With a healthy dose of humor and a surprising edge, NO SMALL MATTER reveals the tragic cost of getting this wrong, and the huge payoff—for our kids, our families, and our country—of...

Young children and their families can be tremendously affected by trauma, with significant implications for well-being well into the future. And while young children can be very expressive, they often do not have the skills or ability to use words to express how they are feeling. Adults may notice a variety of unexpected, atypical behaviors, and may need help understanding and nurturing infants and toddlers who have been affected. Fortunately, there are infant and early childhood mental...

Many people have experienced some kind of trauma in their childhood, such as loss of a caregiver, substance abuse in the home, homelessness or abuse. There are ten types of “Adverse Childhood Experiences” that were identified in a study conducted in the 1990s. The total number of childhood traumas someone has experienced determines their ACE score . About 2/3s of the people in the groundbreaking study had at least one ACE, but the researchers also found higher rates of adult physical and...

photo/ CCO Children, in what should be the safety of their homes, experience trauma, and it is ruining lives -- and perhaps entire ethnic groups. Childhood trauma actually alters the structure of the brain – a result of consistent toxic stress, which is why it’s so difficult to heal an individual and help them attain a healthy life. Dr. Anthony Pico The science that was the springboard for making those linkages began with a now famous Adverse Childhood Experiences study of over 17,000...

A Guatemalan mother falls to her knees as her seven-year-old daughter walks through the door. They've been separated for 55 days, and the mother is completely overcome with emotion. She embraces her child, rocking her and rubbing her back, openly weeping and speaking to her daughter in Spanish. When she pulls back, the child's face appears somewhat frozen, but she clearly has tears in her eyes; her mother wipes her face with the tissue she has been clutching. This video from CNN is just one...