On August 8, President Trump spoke to the opioid crisis in this country and declined to declare a national emergency as recommended by the “President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.” Instead, the President emphasized the law and order aspects of the problem and the importance of preventing drug use in the first place since addiction is so hard to overcome. The Commission will make a final report in the fall. The recently released interim report makes eight...

Legislation to replace the 14 year-old No Child Left Behind law—The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) signed by President Obama on Dec. 10—was widely praised by the administration, legislators of both parties in the House and Senate, and the organizations concerned about education policy from the NEA to the Education Trust. The consensus is that the bill is not perfect but provides a needed recalibration of federal authority over the states in education policy while protecting...

Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto and Chief Resilience Officer Grant Ervin celebrated an important milestone: the release of ONEPGH , Pittsburgh’s first-ever City Resilience Strategy. Pittsburgh’s story is a familiar one for post-industrial cities across the United States – and around the world. This city lost 40 percent of its population between 1970 and 2006, and faces a range of day-to-day stresses and potential shocks as it recovers from its past and experiences the known and unknown...

Key provisions that are closely aligned with sections the Heitkamp-Durbin “Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act (S. 774)” are included in opioid legislation that is advancing in the U.S. Senate. A draft bill, “The Opioid Crisis Response Act,” is the subject of a hearing on Wednesday, April 11 in the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) Committee and a mark-up of the legislation is expected over the next several weeks. Senator Heitkamp’s office highlighted three...

A new policy brief (attached) issued this week by the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) forcefully develops the case for trauma-informed approaches to address the opioid crisis—to prevent and treat addiction—based on strong evidence that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are at the root of the crisis. CTIPP is a national organization that advocates for trauma-informed prevention and treatment programs at the federal, state and local levels. Successful strategies to...

[This is a media release from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.] New national data show that at least 38 percent of children in every state have had at least one Adverse Childhood Experience or ACE, such as the death or incarceration of a parent, witnessing or being a victim of violence, or living with someone who has been suicidal or had a drug or alcohol problem. In 16 states, at least 25 percent of children have had two or more ACEs. Findings come from data in the 2016 National Survey...

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...

In the final weeks of the 114 th Congress, Senators Heitkamp, Durbin, and Franken introduced The Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act (S. 3519)—a wide ranging bill that proposes new strategies to expand trauma-informed best practices and models, train clinicians, law enforcement officials, teachers and health care providers in trauma-informed approaches, and improve the understanding of trauma’s impact and prevalence. Despite the lack of fanfare around the bill’s introduction,...

NOVEMBER 2015 A Healthy Early Childhood Action Plan: Policies for a Lifetime of Well-being highlights more than 40 policy target areas that are key to achieving national goals of reducing toxic stress and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)...

A bi-partisan resolution “Recognizing the importance and effectiveness of trauma-informed care” ( H. Res. 443 ) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on July 13 by Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and co-sponsor Danny K. Davis (D-IL). The impetus for the resolution resides with the First Lady of Wisconsin, Tonette Tonette Walker Walker, who has taken a strong leadership role in advancing trauma-informed policy and practice statewide through Fostering Futures and of late with the new...

In the late afternoon on Feb. 26, the House of Representatives unanimously passed H. Res. 443 , a resolution recognizing the importance and effectiveness of trauma-informed care and calling for a national trauma awareness month and trauma-informed awareness day. The impetus for the resolution resides with the First Lady of Wisconsin, Tonette Walker, who has taken a strong leadership role in advancing trauma-informed policy and practice statewide through Fostering Futures , and has elevated...

By Ted Roelofs, Bridge, December 13, 2019 By now, the medical evidence is clear: Childhood trauma can have profound effects on physical and mental health. Even so, Michigan physicians like Timothy Kval remain all too rare. Working out of a Muskegon clinic, Kval evaluates more than a patient’s symptoms, blood pressure readings and cholesterol scores. He also screens adult patients for past traumatic events like physical abuse, neglect, domestic violence in the home or the loss of a parent...

Senators Heidi Heitkamp and Dick Durbin at the Dec. 1, 2016 Congressional Briefing on addressing childhood trauma ________________________________________________________ The “Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act” ( S. 774 , H.R. 1757 ) was introduced on March 29 in the Senate by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) with co-sponsors Dick Durbin (D-IL), Al Franken (D-MN), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) and, for the first time in the House of Representatives by Chicago Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-IL7).

The following is a press release issued by the office of U.S. Senator Durbin (D-IL) on Monday, June 10, announcing the introduction of bipartisan bicameral legislation that builds on last year’s opioid legislation SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act and recommendations from a recent GAO report. A link to the bill and other information will be provided as soon as possible. In the meantime, an earlier draft of the bill and a section by section are attached to this post. For Immediate...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just launched a three-year, four-state, $6-million project, “Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences: Data to Action (PACE-D2A)” with the potential to energize an already blossoming movement of statewide community-based initiatives to address ACEs. The CDC awards of $500,000 annually for three years, announced on August 25 , were given to the Department of Public Health in Georgia and Massachusetts, the Office of Early Childhood in...

“There is no way that Delaware would have built the connections and gained the understanding that we have without participating in the National Governors Association (NGA) Addressing ACEs Learning Collaborative ,” says Alonna Berry. Berry, Delaware’s statewide trauma-informed care coordinator, said that the impact (of the Collaborative) was “really immeasurable to the progress being made in Delaware.” The 12-page NGA report , released December 9, captures the essence of a variety of...