Child poverty and education The National Education Union (NEU) has published a report looking at the extent to which poverty is damaging the educational opportunities for children from poor families. Findings from a snapshot survey of 908 NEU members including heads, teachers and school support staff working in England, Wales and Northern Ireland finds that: 87% of respondents said that poverty is having a significant impact on the learning of their pupils and students; and 60% believe that...

The Health and Social Care Committee said the first 1,000 days were critical, but not enough was done. It warned cuts to children's centres, health visiting and services to support parents had left families vulnerable. Nearly a third of children are not "school ready" by the time they reach five, because they have not developed the necessary skills and behaviours. The cross-party group wants the government to pay for extra contact with health visitors beyond the age of two-and-a-half. The...

https://soundcloud.com/jane-mulcahy/firkin-crane-event-towards-an-ace-aware-trauma-responsive-ireland This event was an open discussion with survivors of childhood trauma and professionals working in the Early Years sector, education, health, addiction and homeless services about the desirability of raising public and political awareness of the prevalence and impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in Ireland and the need for a collaborative cross sector trauma-responsive approach for...

Domestic and sexual violence and abuse action plan – Northern Ireland The Department of Health and Department of Justice in Northern Ireland have published their 2018/2019 action plan under the Stopping domestic and sexual violence and abuse strategy. This third action plan identifies new initiatives including: considering how relationships and sexuality education resources can support teachers in addressing domestic and sexual violence and abuse; and linking with the work of the...

The Health and Social Care Committee hears from senior officials in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland about how policy and practice in other parts of the UK can help inform England's approach to the first 1000 days. The Committee will also hear from Public Health England about their role in giving children the best start in life. https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/health-and-social-care-committee/news/first-1000-days-evidence-17-191/

Thank you for adding me. I'm looking forward to your exchanges, especially as Ireland is a lonely place when it comes to ACEs and all-things Children. I will endeavour to not lower the tone too much with never-ending news and stories from my side. Suffice to say that a momentous report was released only a week ago, and for the first time it seems, the tone of the Rapporteur is 'angry' and speaks about a < societal change is required > and not just at the level of the groups and...

FREE Online ARTIC webinar for Ireland and UK Thursday, May 28, 2020, 3:00-4:00 pm BST Register today at this link The Traumatic Stress Institute (TSI) is hosting a FREE webinar for leaders in health, trauma, and trauma-informed care (TIC) to preview the new Online ARTIC, a cutting-edge online tool for measuring TIC. The Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC) Scale is one of the only validated measures of TIC. It measures professional and para-professional attitudes toward TIC, has...

FREE Online ARTIC webinar for Ireland and UK Thursday, May 28, 2020, 3:00-4:00 pm BST Register today at this link The Traumatic Stress Institute (TSI) is hosting a FREE webinar for leaders in health, trauma, and trauma-informed care (TIC) to preview the new Online ARTIC, a cutting-edge online tool for measuring TIC. The Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC) Scale is one of the only validated measures of TIC. It measures professional and para-professional attitudes toward TIC, has...

By Background Sexual minority adolescents are more likely to have mental health problems, adverse social environments, and negative health outcomes compared with their heterosexual counterparts. There is a paucity of up-to-date population-level estimates of the extent of risk across these domains in the UK. We analysed outcomes across mental health, social environment, and health-related domains in sexual minority adolescents compared with their heterosexual counterparts in a large,...

By Derry Journal, September 8, 2019 Oakgrove Integrated College last week became the first school in Northern Ireland to take part in the innovative ‘Trauma Informed Compassionate Schools Initiative’ – a programme designed to help educators better understand how and why Adverse Childhood Experiences can impact a child’s development. Held in the school’s assembly hall on Wednesday last, the event saw over 100 members of staff take part in the programme delivered by a team from Ulster...

Andrew thanks for your interesting contribution to the debate around ACEs. As a survivor of early trauma, having been sent to an English boarding school at the age of 6 in the late 1950s, I have followed the development of the ACEs movement closely in Britain and Ireland and in the USA. After careful consideration I am an advocate of an ACEs, trauma-informed approach to ameliorating trauma consequences [it makes a whole lot more sense than the orthodox psychoanalysis I was subjected to over...

Thank you for this. I shared over at Parenting with ACEs!

By Elizabeth Newcomb, University of Southern California, November 9, 2020 A new three-nation project will examine how social, economic, psychological, environmental and behavioral circumstances in childhood influence gene expression and affect health and aging later in life. The cooperation brings together large longitudinal studies in the US, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. This unique international collaboration will examine social, economic, health and epigenetic data from the...

Credit: MSUK To read MaryLou Costa's article, please click here. Recognizing that “m en will talk shoulder to shoulder, but not necessarily face to face,” Men’s Sheds give guys a space to tinker while they open up — and heal. “While you’re doing this, you’ve got to concentrate on what you’re doing. And it takes your mind off other issues, and for those couple of hours, you kind of relax. Once you start feeling better, it’s like dropping a pebble in the water, and those ripples come back out,...