Tagged With "childhood development"
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Trauma-informed, Resilience-oriented Approaches Learning Community [thenationalcouncil.org]
By The National Council for Behavioral Health, October 2019 The National Council for Behavioral Health is pleased to announce the 2020-2021 Trauma-informed, Resilience-oriented Approaches Learning Community. Since 2011, we have worked with behavioral health, social service and community organizations to implement trauma-informed, resilience-oriented organizational change. This Learning Community will provide participating organizations, systems and communities with the tools and skills to...
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Two studies shed light on state legislators’ views on ACEs science and trauma policy
New and returning lawmakers take the oath of office on day one of Washington state's 2017 legislative session. — Jeanie Lindsay/Northwest News Network As advocates prepare to see how ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) science, trauma, and resilience play out in the 2020 state legislative sessions — many beginning in January — they are undoubtedly asking: “What does a legislator want?" It may be a stretch to play on Freud’s question: “What does a women want?", but the query captures how...
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USDA Announces Record-Breaking Funding for 2019 Farm to School Grants [USDA.gov]
By USDA, July 16, 2019 WASHINGTON, July 16, 2019 – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced today the award of more than $9 million in USDA Farm to School Program grants that will increase the amount of healthy, local f oods served in school s and c reate economic opportunities for nearby farmers. This year marks an all-time high of funding and projects in the program, with grants supporting 126 selected projects across 42 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. These...
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We Must Address the Surge in Adverse Childhood Experiences [medium.com]
From the National Head Start Association, February 19, 2020 Day in and day out, in nearly every U.S. community, the nation’s 1,600 Head Start programs tirelessly serve children from at-risk backgrounds ages birth to five and their families with a comprehensive model specifically designed to strengthen families, promote school readiness, and improve child health. Head Start programs are heralded for their outcomes by researchers, praised by families, and widely-supported in their communities.
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WEBINAR: Amplify Impact from National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation on 8/29
High-quality early childhood education (ECE) has an enormous positive impact on lifelong health, serving as a protective factor against adult disease and disability. Children who receive high-quality ECE stay in school longer and earn more income as adults, helping to close the income inequality gap. Yet parents sometimes struggle to access or pay for available programs, and only about 16% of children who were eligible for federal childcare subsidies in 2015 received them. Given the high...
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Webinar: Crossroads of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Developmental Disabilities
Physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, child life professionals, and other patient service providers are invited and encouraged to join a webinar entitled: "Crossroads of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Developmental Disabilities" Increased levels of toxic stress, which can be caused by recurrent or chronic exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), can impair neurodevelopment, behavior, and overall health of a child (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services...
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What’s Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness? [Minful Leader]
By David Treleaven A few months ago, a colleague who taught meditation in corporate settings asked for my advice. A woman in one of his programs had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, and she was now experiencing symptoms of traumatic stress. When she’d meditate, images and sensations would flood her field of consciousness, leaving her more rattled than before. “Should I keep meditating?” she’d asked him. “I want to work with my stress, but practicing seems to be making things...
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What’s Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness? [Minful Leader]
By David Treleaven A few months ago, a colleague who taught meditation in corporate settings asked for my advice. A woman in one of his programs had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, and she was now experiencing symptoms of traumatic stress. When she’d meditate, images and sensations would flood her field of consciousness, leaving her more rattled than before. “Should I keep meditating?” she’d asked him. “I want to work with my stress, but practicing seems to be making things...
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Working Sessions
Merita Irby (Managing Partner, Big Picture Approach Consulting And Co-Founder & Executive Vice President, The Forum For Youth Investment) led the interactive working sessions. Cross-sector table activities focused on identifying what “ready and resilient” look like; the skillsets and mindsets that will help children be “ready”; and how different organizations and sectors can effectively partner. The slides and workbooks that guided the activities are available here.
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YBRS survey and report from Monroe County, New York
Elizabeth Meeker, an ACEs Connection member from Monroe County, New York shared that her county schools added ACEs questions to their Youth Behavioral Risk Survey (YBRS) in 2015, which is administered to students in schools. They were kind enough to share the instrument as well as a summary report of findings (both attached here). Elizabeth has indicated that she is available to answer questions that you all may have about the implementation of the survey. Thank you Elizabeth, for sharing!
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A Guide to Executive Function [developingchild.harvard.edu]
Executive function and self-regulation skills are like an air traffic control system in the brain—they help us manage information, make decisions, and plan ahead. We need these skills at every stage of life, and while no one is born with them, we are all born with the potential to develop them. But, how do we do that? The Center on the Developing Child created this Guide to Executive Function to walk you through everything you need to know about these skills and how to develop and practice...
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ACEs Connection launches Cooperative of Communities
The ACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities launches today. We want to continue to contribute to the ACEs movement for as long as it takes to create a worldwide healing-centered culture based on ACEs science. We want that to take hold in this world in the same way electricity has — we only notice it if it isn’t there.
First, a clarification: Nothing on ACEsConnection.com changes! Membership remains free! Everything our current 300+ communities use stays free, and remains free for new ones.
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Adult Health Problems Linked to Childhood Trauma
It is possible to reduce risk for ACEs It is possible to reduce risk for ACEs while also mitigating consequences for those already affected by these experiences by creating the conditions for healthy communities and focusing on primary prevention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just released new information showing negative outcomes linked to ACEs, how we can help those who have experienced ACEs AND how we can prevent ACEs from happening in the first place! Learn what...
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Armstrong: Building a Supportive Classroom Community in Early Childhood
As an educator and researcher who specializes in early childhood and also works with older grade levels, I’ve used National Bullying Prevention Month to reflect on ways bullying progresses as children age. I’ve been wondering what can be done in early childhood to prevent bullying in later grades. I’ve reviewed the literature on bullying, including sites that provide suggestions on how to prevent and address bullying , but figuring out how to get started can be overwhelming as it involves...
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Association of Adverse Experiences and Exposure to Violence in Childhood and Adolescence With Inflammatory Burden in Young People [jamanetwork.com]
By Line J.H. Rasmussen, Terry E. Moffit, et al., JAMA Pediatrics, November 4, 2019 Question: Is exposure to adverse experiences, stress, and violence in childhood associated with an increase in blood levels of the inflammatory biomarker soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor in young people? Findings: In this cohort study of 1391 young people followed up to 18 years of age in the United Kingdom, exposure to adverse experiences, stress, and violence during childhood or adolescence...
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BABY ACES: When we consider the traumas that qualify as ACEs, babies need their own list.
Babies are obviously very different from older children developmentally, including their ability to understand and process trauma. Indeed, a baby may be completely unaware of an actual ACE— say, the incarceration of their father— which a middle schooler would be painfully aware of. Yet at the same time, the baby could be much-more-acutely impacted by the secondary effect of this same ACE: a sad, stressed, and distracted mother. Similarly, if a parent dies in a car accident when a child is in...
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Brazil’s audacious plan to fight poverty using neuroscience and parents’ love [qz.com]
Osmar Terra is a tall man with a deep voice and an easy laugh—one that disguises the scale of his ambition to transform Brazilian society. A federal representative for nearly two decades, he is the driving force behind the world’s biggest experiment to prove that teaching poor parents how to love and nurture their infants will dramatically influence what kind of adults they become, and give Brazil its best shot at changing its current trajectory of violence , inequality, and poverty. Terra,...
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Building A Trauma Informed System of Care Toolkit
We are delighted to make available the Building Strong Brains of Tennessee funded, Building A Trauma Informed System of Care toolkit. This toolkit is based upon the work of the Northeast Tennessee ACEs Connection group and it's many partners since 2015. In time, Building Strong Brains of Tennessee will also have printed copies available. In preparing this toolkit, Dr. Andi Clements and I tried to share in a very transparent fashion the steps we've taken, mistakes we've made and inspiring...
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California Is Giving Doctors Incentives To Ask Patients About Childhood Trauma [capradio.org]
By Sammy Caiola, Capital Public Radio, December 9, 2019 California health officials want children and adults on Medi-Cal to get screened for traumatic childhood events that can cause negative health effects down the line. Now the state has started giving doctors and nurses tools to do the screenings. People who experience adversity early in life have much higher chances of substance abuse, depression, or chronic diseases than their peers, according to national research. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s...
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California's First Surgeon General: Screen Every Student for Childhood Trauma [nbcnews.com]
By Patrice Gaines, NBC News, October 11, 2019 Dr. Nadine Burke Harris has an ambitious dream: screen every student for childhood trauma before entering school. "A school nurse would also get a note from a physician that says: 'Here is the care plan for this child's toxic stress. And this is how it shows up,'" said Burke Harris, who was appointed California's first surgeon general in January. "It could be it shows up in tummy aches. Or it's impulse control and behavior, and we offer a care...
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CDC announces Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Research & Evaluation Fellowship opportunity
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta has announced an Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Research & Evaluation Fellowship opportunity that resides in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) at CDC. The new fellowship position reflects a growing ACEs capacity within the CDC. The announcement states “The selected candidate will assist with research related to evaluating comprehensive community-based prevention strategies for primary...
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Childhood PTSD is a Disease of Loneliness. Here's How to Learn to Connect Again.
Trauma from childhood is, in essence, an injury to the ability connect with people. And that's why so many people who were traumatized as kids experience loneliness throughout their lives -- sometimes even when they're surrounded by people. In this post I share a 10-minute video excerpted from my online course "Healing Childhood PTSD." it's all about loneliness and disconnection, and how to reconnect again. READ THE POST AND WATCHED HERE.
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CPTSD Confusion: How to Get Clarity in All Your Relationships (Resilience Series)
One of the the most common, painful adult manifestations of Childhood PTSD is difficulty perceiving reality accurately, especially around the meaning of interactions we have with other people. We have trouble sometimes predicting that a choice is risky, or that a person we meet is unreliable, or whether our own sense of discomfort is an appropriate response. This is the sixth article and video in my resilience series, focusing on eight obstacles to healing from childhood trauma, and the...
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Educating the Whole Child: Improving School Climate to Support Student Success
Each year in the United States, 46 million children are exposed to violence, crime, abuse, homelessness, or food insecurity, as well as a range of other experiences that cause psychological trauma. These experiences create toxic stress that can affect children’s attention, learning, and behavior. Research on human development shows that the effects of such trauma can be mitigated when students learn in a positive school climate that offers long-term, secure relationships that supports...
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Employing an Adaptive Leadership Framework to Childhood Adversity Screening [pediatrics.aapublications.org]
By Susannah Stein, Arin Swerlick, and Binny Chokshi, Pediatrics, January 2020 Providers of pediatric health care have been motivated and inspired by the research on childhood adversity, which has shown that in the early stages of life, critical neurodevelopmental pathways can be disrupted through exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and resultant toxic stress.1,2 Early detection of ACEs and subsequent intervention has the potential to decrease the development of associated poor...
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Ending family trauma starts with understanding the root causes of adverse childhood experiences
Trauma, the result of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), can only be prevented if we have an understanding of the root causes of childhood adversity. We know that a quarter of our children will endure at least three ACEs, which means living in households where adults misuse substances, are threatening or violent, have untreated mental health challenges, are abusive and neglectful, are dissolving marriages or are incarcerated. (We are not even talking about the one in eight children in the...
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Five Things You Wish Your Community’s Early Childhood Programs Knew [CitiesSpeak.org]
By NLC Staff on May 10, 2019 Cities, towns, and villages are places of innovation and solution finding. If you want to improve early childhood wellbeing—local leaders are key partners. The Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) Learning Community is a program of Boston Medical Center’s Vital Village. The learning community’s goal is to support local early childhood coalitions and build their capacity to work together with the broader community to improve the wellbeing of our...
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Free play is great for kids. Now pediatricians say so (sacbee.com)
The award for best line ever in a medical report: “Play is not frivolous.” It’s not new, the idea that free play helps children develop in remarkable ways. Multiple studies have found that play builds social skills and creativity and develops the ability to solve problems and to collaborate. What is new is that a clinical report published in August by the American Academy of Pediatrics specifically calls on pediatricians and family doctors to start taking play, well, seriously – in fact to...
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From Compassion Fatigue to Healing Centered Engagement: Turning Trauma Informed Values into Action
To pave the way for a truly strengths-based approach to full healing and recovery for both service users and burned out staff, we must educate them on (1) the central role of primal body responses to trauma (past and present), and (2) the early development of adaptive thoughts and behaviors in response to
traumatic experience.
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Helping New Parents Make Room for Uncertainty
A new program for parents and infants, thanks to generous support from Mill Town Capital , is coming to Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The Hello It’s Me Project shines a spotlight on these tender new relationships, investing resources around the birth of a baby with the long-term goal of building a healthy community from the bottom up. When world-renowned child development researcher Dr. Ed Tronick spoke in the spring of 2018 for an audience of a wide variety of practitioners in Berkshire County...
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How chapters are addressing pediatric mental health crisis [aappublications.org]
Approximately one in five youths ages 13-18 experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. For children ages 8-15, the number is 13%. The AAP Arizona, California 3, Florida, New Jersey and Virginia chapters received Healthy People 2020 grants to develop programs to empower families, the media and/or communities to address the mental health crisis in children and youths. Following is an overview of each chapter’s...
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How Neuroscience Can Help Your Kid Make Good Choices (greatergood.berkeley.edu)
Self-regulation may sound like a tall order—but it’s also the best choice, according to Erin Clabough, a neuroscientist, mother of four, and author of the book Second Nature: How Parents Can Use Neuroscience to Help Kids Develop Empathy, Creativity, and Self-Control . Self-regulation is a skill that we need whenever we want to make a good choice or work toward a goal, especially when strong feelings are involved—in ourselves or others. Unfortunately, the qualities that support...
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How to Help a Child Struggling With Anxiety [npr.org]
By Cory Turner, National Public Radio, October 29, 2019 Childhood anxiety is one of the most important mental health challenges of our time. One in five children will experience some kind of clinical-level anxiety by the time they reach adolescence, according to Danny Pine, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health and one of the world's top anxiety researchers. Pine says that for most kids, these feelings of worry won't last, but for some, they will —...
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How To Prepare For A Trauma Anniversary, According To Mental Health Experts [bustle.com]
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be a challenging mental health issue to manage, especially considering it's unique to each and every individual. However, a common trigger for many people with PTSD is their “trauma anniversary,” or the date that a traumatic incident or event occurred. In fact, a trauma anniversary (and the weeks leading up to it) can be one of the most difficult times during the year for people who live with PTSD. Fortunately, mental health experts say there are ways...
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Increasing Resilience: Primary Healthcare Providers' Opportunities to Promote Protective Factors Before and After Childhood Trauma [avahealth.org]
By Machelle D. Madsen Thompson and Bart Klika, Academy on Violence and Abuse, March 2020 Lifespan research reveals that although ACEs are common, many people are able to move toward recovery and achieve reportedly good functional status. This resilience does not occur in isolation but is supported by a composite of protective factors that empower a child to return to functional status following ACEs. Resilience is observed when a child is immersed in positive influences, such as supportive...
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Inside the Adverse Childhood Experience Score: Strengths, Limitations, and Misapplications [ajpmonline.org]
By Robert F. Anda, Laura E. Porter, David W. Brown, et al., American Journal of Preventive Medicine, March 25, 2020 INTRODUCTION Despite its usefulness in research and surveillance studies, the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) score is a relatively crude measure of cumulative childhood stress exposure that can vary widely from person to person. Unlike recognized public health screening measures, such as blood pressure or lipid levels that use measurement reference standards and cut points...
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It Makes Sense
I felt inadequate and ill-prepared to speak to licensed mental health professionals about ACEs. But when I was asked to attend the 40th Annual Training Institute on Behavioral Health & Addictive Disorders in Clearwater, Florida to represent ACEs Connection, I was honored and eager. My background is in health planning, not mental or behavioral health. I review health data and look for gaps and inequities. My time is spent looking for and addressing the health needs of a community. So,...
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Join Feb. 18th webinar on addressing ACEs in public policy
Please join this ACEs Connection co-sponsored webinar "Making Meaningful Change: Addressing ACEs through Public Policy" on Feb. 18 (11:30 am-1:00 pm ET) presented by the Health Federation of Philadelphia and MARC (Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities). In this webinar, three nationally recognized experts will discuss policy and advocacy strategies on a local, state, and national level using evidence from studies they have conducted with legislators and the general public. Speakers...
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Jones: Day 2: Soda, cigarettes and trauma: How Adverse Childhood Experiences alter brain chemistry, cultivate unhealthy habits and prompt premature death
Patients would carry soda into Dr. Gerard Clancy’s office, with cigarettes tucked away for after therapy. Often victims of abuse or violent crime, they would seek soothing but risky behaviors to cope. Overweight. Chronic pain. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Type II diabetes. His former patients will die younger than they should, he said. Clancy conducted therapy sessions until he became president of the University of Tulsa in 2016. At his psychiatry clinic, he saw firsthand how a...
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Keynote Presentation – From Knowing the Need, to Setting the Vision
Sean Slade (Senior Director of Global Outreach at ASCD), talked about the factors that can influence a child’s ability to learn, thrive and succeed at home, in school and in the community. The presentation also included an overview of the ASCD’s Whole Child Tenets and how different sectors must work together to have a positive impact on whole child health.
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Maternity Group Home Program Funding Opportunity. Applications Due 07/25/2019 [Admin for Children & Families]
Funding Opportunity Application Due Date: 07/25/2019 Maternity Group Home Program *See attached pdf for more info. Description: The Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families' Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) announces the availability of funds under the Transitional Living Program’s Maternity Group Home (MGH) grant program. The purpose to provide safe, stable, and appropriate shelter only for pregnant and/or parenting youth ages 16 to...
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New Resource for Teens and the Parents/Caregivers who Love Them
In popular culture, the moody adolescent is easily recognizable. Teens are often portrayed as dangerously risk-taking, obstinate, moody and at the mercy of their growing minds and bodies. This unflattering and inaccurate portrayal begins to shape parents’ understanding of adolescence with a skewed perspective, reinforcing the unhelpful belief that this is a stage in the parenting relationship that “must be survived”. At the same time, these low expectations are subversive to the adolescent's...
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Next Family Connections TM Course to begin in Rochester NY
Next Family Connections TM Course to begin THURSDAYS Feb. 28, 2019-May 16, 2019 What is Family Connections? Family Connections is a research-based, manualized 12-week course for family members with a relative with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), or symptoms of Emotion Dysregulation. The course seeks to provide the most current information and research on BPD, teaches coping skills based on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and helps families develop a support network. The Next Course...
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Crisis in Care Report
The Greater Rochester Health Foundation convened the Commission on Children’s Behavioral Health in the Finger Lakes in spring 2015, in response to concerns from parents, child care providers, schools, pediatricians and children’s mental health clinicians. They consistently raised alarms about the shortfalls of our region’s children’s behavioral health system: the demands placed on it, its capacity, and in some cases, its quality.
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Positive Relationships Can Buffer Childhood Trauma and Toxic Stress, Researchers Say [bostonglobe.com]
By Kay Lazar, The Boston Globe, October 15, 2019 Traumatic events and toxic relationships during childhood can cast long shadows, often damaging mental health well into adulthood. But a growing body of research suggests sustained, positive relationships with caring adults can help mitigate the harmful effects of childhood trauma. And specialists say pediatricians, social workers, and others who work with kids should take steps to monitor and encourage those healthy relationships — just as...
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Preventing ACEs is a social moonshot.
We are enjoying amazing community dialogue as we launch the nation's first data-driven, cross-sector and systemic program focused on preventing adverse childhood experience, trauma and maltreatment. We are addressing the social determinants of health, increasing ten vital family-focused services to create community and home environments where children are safe and families thrive. This is a social moonshot. Join the ride. www.ResilienceLeaders.org
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Recognizing and Attending to Intergenerational Trauma
A mother brings her 8-year-old son to the pediatrician after his teacher repeatedly asks her to have him evaluated for ADHD. The trauma-informed pediatrician knows that childhood trauma exposure can resemble hyperactivity associated with ADHD. The pediatrician asks the mother to privately complete an adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) questionnaire and asks to do one with the son as well. The questionnaire reveals that the son had witnessed his mom being physically abused by her last two...
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Request for Proposals - Health Equity consultant for early childhood initiative
From American Academy of Pediatrics, March 2020 The American Academy of Pediatrics is currently soliciting proposal bids for a number of AAP early childhood projects related to the work of the National Center on Early Childhood Health and Wellness. The deadline for the RFP-01 Health Equity Consultant is April 3 rd . You can access that specific RFP here: https://downloads.aap.org/AAP/PDF/719190-RFP-01.pdf The AAP is committed to supporting the health and well-being of all children.
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Resource for Explaining ACEs and Assets in Monroe County
The Monroe County Office of Mental Health (MCOMH) and CCSI have recently partnered to create an information resource about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) that can be shared with the general public in Monroe County using local data. Our intention is to further educate our community about the prevalence of ACEs, how ACEs affect the behaviors and health of our youth and how development of protective factors can improve their lives. The data points selected and methods to communicate them...