The pandemic has had a lasting effect on youth mental health. Moved by a desire to reduce youth’s toxic stress and increase their resilience, The Dibble Institute, in partnership with a team of students and alumni from ArtCenter College of Design and author Carolyn Curtis, PhD, is releasing Me & My Emotions —a new, free adaptation of our beloved Mind Matters Curriculum. The mobile-friendly Me & My Emotions website features engaging graphics and bite-sized lessons teens can access and...

A newly developed document titled “Connecting Families to Tax Credits to Improve Child Wellbeing in California: A Brief for California Local Health Departments and Children & Family Service Providers" has just been released and can be found attached to this blog post. This document is intended to assist Local Health Departments (LHDs) and children & family service providers in their efforts to educate about how the collection of the California Earned Income Tax (CalEITC), California...

A newly developed document titled “Utilizing Data to Improve Child Wellbeing Through Community Action” has just been released and can be found attached to this blog post. The purpose of this document is to identify best practices in utilizing data to monitor and evaluate child adversity, health, development, and wellbeing in order to build community support and create policy, systems, and environmental change. This resource was created in partnership by All Children Thrive - California and...

The Essentials for Childhood Initiative would like to share a new resources titled, “Creating Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments for Children.” This new resource is intended to elevate primary prevention strategies that support creating Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments (SSNR&Es) for children and highlight 2019 data from the Awareness, Commitment, and Norms Survey provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This document was...

The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Newsletter highlighted how COVID-19 has affected maternal health: Maternal Health and COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating concerns about maternal health in the United States, which has the highest maternal mortality rate of industrialized countries and is the only nation where the rate is rising . New studies highlight the pandemic’s impact on the physical and mental health of pregnant individuals. Black Maternal Mortality...

A new suite of resources developed by Child Trends and the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality aims to help policymakers, advocates, and communities understand how different initiatives employ cross-sector partnerships to improve health equity for young children and their families. An interactive map presents information about 143 initiatives and allows users to sort these initiatives by state, health and well-being focus, service sectors, funding sources, and age groups served.

The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , ACEs Connection , and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance have co-created a newly developed resource, “Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in both English and Spanish. This material is intended for Californian families experiencing the severe economic...

Safe & Sound has developed an interactive website that details the rates of child abuse and the economic impact of abuse on California’s community, as well as the factors that both help to protect children and those that place them in greater risk. The information unveils the ongoing ills of child abuse underlying each community, and its impact on each of us. The data is viewable by county or region, downloadable, and is shareable. VIEW THE WEBSITE

A newly developed factsheet, “Trauma-Informed Nutrition: Recognizing the Relationship between Adversity, Chronic Disease, and Nutritional Health” has just been released. This factsheet is intended for Registered Dietitians (RDs) and was designed to support and describe the connection between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), the impacts of trauma and its relationship to chronic disease, and trauma-informed nutrition practices. This factsheet was developed through a collaborative...

Medi-Cal has just published new policy making family therapy a covered benefit for children and adults with mental health disorders and for children who are at risk for mental health disorders. This will be especially relevant for children with ACEs. Under the guidance of the California Department of Health Care Services, the Medi-Cal fee-for-service program aims to provide health care services to about 13 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries. The Medi-Cal fee-for-service program adjudicates both...

The California Department of Social Services is supporting Parents Anonymous in the launch of the new California Parent and Youth Helpline, which provides support and resource referrals to parent and youth during the current COVID-19 pandemic. We are requesting your assistance in promoting the helpline by sharing the below information with your contacts and placing the logo on relevant websites: The California Parent and Youth Helpline provides support and resource referrals to parent and...

An article published in Journal of Traumatic Stress (Akinsulure‐Smith, A. M., Espinosa, A., Chu, T., and Hallock, R., 2018, 202–212, (https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22279), promotes an enhanced understanding of the impact of refugee resettlement work on refugee resettlement workers by examining the prevalence rates of toxic mental health and occupational outcomes, such as secondary traumatic stress and burnout, among a sample of 210 refugee resettlement workers at six refugee resettlement...