Tagged With "Vermont high school students"
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In Six Years the Number of Homeless Children in New York City Public Schools Jumped Nearly 50 Percent (motherjones.com)
Almost 100,000 students in New York City's public schools were homeless during the 2015-16 school year, according to a report released Wednesday by the Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness (ICPH). This number represents a 20 percent increase from the previous school year, and a 49 percent increase in student homelessness since the 2010-11 school year. If this trend doesn't change, more than 1 out of 7 of New York City's public school students will experience homelessness by the...
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Interim report of the President’s opioid commission says its final report will address early intervention strategies for children with ACEs
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...
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Introducing myself, Morgan Vien & NEW Practicing Resilience Community
Hello! I’m a Community Manager for the Practicing Resilience for Self-Care & Healing community. This is an introduction to me and this new community. I graduated with a B.S. in Public Health from Santa Clara University June 2017. And I’m interested in preventing chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, at the community and population level by addressing biological, psychological, and social factors that affect chronic disease outcomes. As the...
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Introducing the International Journal for Bullying Prevention (ibpaworld.org)
As a cyberbullying scholar, I engage in research related to its identification, prevention, and response and seek to get them published in academic journals so that other scholars and practitioners (e.g., educators and mental health professionals) can become equipped with the knowledge they need to make a difference among the populations they serve. Justin and I have been doing this for almost fifteen years now, and through the process have learned that research on bullying and cyberbullying...
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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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Join us for a March 14 Webinar “Strategic Advocacy: Winning Policy Change without Crossing the Lobbying Line”
Please join ACEs Connection and the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) for a free webinar to learn how to drive public-policy change without violating the restrictions on non-profit organizations or the requirements of funders. It will beheld on Thursday, March 14 (9:00-10:30 am PT/noon-1:30 pm ET). The featured speaker of the webinar, “Strategic Advocacy: Winning Policy Change without Crossing the Lobbying Line,” is attorney Allen Mattison, an expert at helping...
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KPJR Films Virtual Showcase Registration Including Live Twitter Townhall [kpjrfilms.co]
TRAUMA-INFORMED IN THE AGE OF CORONAVIRUS A virtual discussion featuring Alice Forrester, PhD, CEO of Clifford Beers from RESILIENCE, Jim Sporleder, Trauma Informed Consultant and former Principal of Lincoln High School shown in PAPER TIGERS, and James Redford, Director of both RESILIENCE & PAPER TIGERS. During this time of social isolation, KPJR Films is reaching out to share our documentary films and trauma-informed tools with communities nationwide. KPJR Films will launch KPJR...
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Lawmaker Pushing Mental Health Reform: It's 'More Needed Than Ever' [khn.org]
By Samantha Young, Kaiser Health News, April 28, 2020 During the first week of school closures in San Jose, state Sen. Jim Beall’s office received more than a dozen phone calls from distressed parents and caregivers. The problem: They couldn’t get free lunches because school district rules required children be present to receive a meal. A grandmother caring for at least seven children couldn’t fit them all in her car. One parent had a sick child who needed to stay at home, and another was...
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Mental illness, violence and Asian Americans (latimes.com)
How we form perceptions that mentally ill people are violent Sixty-three percent of Americans believe mass shootings are a mental health issue, according to a 2015 poll . Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that news stories linking mental illness and violence are on the rise. Between 1994 and 2005, 1% of front-pages stories linked violence with mental illness. That percentage rose to 18% between 2005 and 2014. A 2013 Gallup poll found that 48% of...
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Mining the “lessons learned” from trauma legislation successes
L to R: Afomeia Tesfai, Rep. Geran Tarr, Jeff Hild _____________________________________________________________________ The planned agenda for the “Learning Series: Policy Approaches to Childhood Adversity” workshop at the 2018 ACEs Conference: Action to Access went out the window when an unexpected guest— California Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, MD —was invited to open the session and join the other participants in lively exchanges about their advocacy experiences and perspectives on...
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National Crittenton Signs on to PUSHOUT ACT [nationalcrittenton.org]
By Natalia Orozco, National Crittenton, December 5, 2019 National Crittenton is a 136-year-old national advocacy organization with a singular focus on the needs, potential, and power of girls and young people across the gender spectrum, centering those of color. The public education system has always been our best chance at having an early warning system that recognizes the complex context of students’ lives – ideally offering safety, support and opportunities for students to heal, learn and...
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New Elementary and Secondary Education Law Includes Specific “Trauma-Informed Practices” Provisions
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...
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New toolkit from FrameWorks Institute for communicating about youth justice
Shifting Gears on Juvenile Justice Communications New MessageMemo and Toolkit Help Advocates Make Stronger Case for Reform Advocates are gaining momentum in reforming the nation's juvenile justice system so that it is fairer and more just, takes a more age-appropriate approach to juvenile crime, and puts a greater emphasis on prevention, rehabilitation, and alternatives to detention. But youth justice involves two complex, abstract systems--- youth development and criminal justice--- and the...
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North Dakota Trauma Initiative Sparked at August 16th U.S. Senate Field Hearing and Roundtable in Bismarck
Dr. Tami DeCoteau, holds the sign-up sheet for a North Dakota trauma initiative, flanked by Dr. Zach Kaminsky, (left), Dr. Mary Cwik, (right) of the Center for American Indian Health, Johns Hopkins University, and Megan DesCamps, health policy advisor for U.S. Senator Heitkamp ________________________ There is often a distinct event that leaders in the trauma movement mention when asked about how it all got started in their community. Many times it is when one of the authors of the ACE...
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Northeast and Mid-Atlantic trauma leaders share successes to make big change at May 1 convening
Leaders in ACEs/trauma/resilience movement from nine states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic and the District of Columbia gathered for a networking call on May 1 to learn about flexible funding opportunities for states under the CARES Act, ways to get involved in advocacy, and share their successes and challenges in building statewide coalitions. The meeting of leaders was organized by ACEs Connection and the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) in response to COVID-19...
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Obesity Rates: WIC Participants Ages 2-4 [stateofchildhoodobesity.org]
By State of Childhood Obesity, January 2020 The rate of obesity has declined among 2- to 4-year-olds enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). From 2010 to 2016, the national rate of obesity dropped from 15.9% to 13.9%. The decline was statistically significant among all racial and ethnic groups studied: American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, black, Hispanic, and white. The map below highlights the most recent state-level...
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On Reforming Suspensions: A Teacher’s Plea to California’s Lawmakers [edsource.org]
By Jason Sanchez, EdSource, August 24, 2019 Before you make any law that affects public education, please talk to teachers — teachers from rural and urban areas as well as poorer and wealthier areas. Students, parents and teachers represent the largest proportion of the population that is directly affected by laws impacting public education. Please spend most of your time talking with them to understand how they will be affected. Then talk to school and district administrators, lobbyists and...
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Opioid legislation with significant trauma provisions clears the Congress, awaits President Trump’s signature
On October 3, the U.S. Senate voted 98-1 (only Sen. Mike Lee, R-UT voted nay) to approve The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act (H.R. 6 or previously titled the Opioid Crisis Response Act) , a final step before the President’s signature. The House approved the measure by a vote of 393-8 on September 28. The Senate approved an earlier version of this legislation on September 17 and as reported on ACEs Connection , it includes significant provisions taken from or aligned with the goals...
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Oregon bill takes preventive approach to psycho-social-spiritual impacts of climate change
A hearing will be held on April 3 on a recently introduced bill ( SB 1037 ) to create a task force to determine how to make resilience training available to all Oregonians in response to climate change. Under the bill, an 18-member task force would be created to study aspects of psychological, emotional, and psychosocial resilience education and skills training. The Oregon members of the International Transformation Resilience Coalition (ITRC), including ITRC coordinator, Bob Doppelt, have...
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Oregon psychiatrist testifies before Senate Finance Committee on the impact of childhood adversity and toxic stress on adult health
Appearing before the powerful Senate Finance Committee in Washington, DC, recently, Dr. Maggie Bennington-Davis, psychiatrist and chief medical officer of Health Share Oregon, devoted a significant portion of her testimony to the role of adversity and toxic stress during childhood on adult health, both physical and emotional. She explained how Health Share Oregon—that state’s largest Medicaid coordinated care organization—examined the people with the costliest health bills and found them to...
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Pelosi, Speier talk gun control at a San Francisco town hall [San Francisco Chronicle]
(From left to right) State Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris, Rep. Jackie Speier, and Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, participate in a town hall meeting on gun violence at Lincoln High School in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, August 27 Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle Editor's note: In her role as state surgeon general, Dr. Harris addressed gun violence as preventable and important to treat as a public health issue. She said that in 2017, there were...
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Personal stories from witnesses, U.S. representatives provided an emotional wallop to House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on childhood trauma
Room erupts in applause for the grandmother of witness William Kellibrew during July 11 House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing. The power of personal stories from witnesses and committee members fueled the July 11 hearing on childhood trauma in the House Oversight and Reform Committee* throughout the nearly four hours of often emotional and searing testimony and member questions and statements (Click here for 3:47 hour video). The hearing was organized into a two panels—testimony from...
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Personal stories the set tone of hearing in U.S. Senate HELP Committee on Opioid Crisis Response Act
Jennifer Donahue, Delaware Office of the Child Advocate, testifies before the HELP Committee (Jennifer Perry to her right) ____________________________________________________________ Some seasoned advocates say legislators are influenced by stories while their staffs are swayed by data. There was some of both at the April 11 hearing on the draft Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018 of the U.S. Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor & Pensions) Committee but it was the personal stories that...
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Physiological Benefits May Be Experienced By Veterans With PTSD Who Use Service Dogs (scienceblog.com)
A new study shows how veterans with PTSD may benefit physiologically from using service dogs. This study, led by the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, is the first published research to use a physiological marker to define the biobehavioral effects of service dogs on veterans with PTSD. The findings were published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology , and they may be significant as scientific evidence of potential mental health benefits experienced by veterans with PTSD...
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Pittsburgh's Resilience City Strategy (100resilientcities.org)
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...
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Power of Networks Tapped for National Trauma Campaign
In a mid-April conference call led by the Campaign for Trauma Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP), participants from around the country—many of them active in ACEs, trauma and resilience networks—discussed the wave of trauma that is certain to slam communities in the wake of COVID-19. They also cheered a bit of hopeful news: the announcement of $3 billion in federal funding, the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, a portion of the CARES Act. The funds are flexible block grants for...
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Preventable trauma in childhood costs north America and Europe US$ 1.3 trillion a year [WHO]
By World Health Organization (photo by WHO/Malin Bring) The findings of a new study on the life-course health consequences and associated annual costs of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) show that preventable trauma in childhood costs north America and the European Region US$ 1.3 trillion a year. The article, published in the Lancet and co-authored by Dinesh Sethi and Jonathon Passmore, Programme Manager, Violence and Injury Prevention, WHO/Europe, looks at the legacy of ACEs and their...
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Rebuilding Lives while Building Homes: Tony McGuire's Resilience-Building Carpentry Class
Tony McGuire is a great carpenter. He ran his own construction business for years. Then he wanted to get into teaching. He became a Tenured Faculty member at a local community college, and landed in the state penitentiary as a Basic Skills Carpentry instructor. So how could that be connected to saving lives with a 20 buck investment? Tony got touched by CRI’s trauma-informed training. He saw himself past and present and knew somehow that, “with this information comes the responsibility to...
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Rural Areas Have The Highest Suicide Rates And Fewest Mental Health Workers (huffingtonpost.com)
There is a severe shortage of mental health workers across the U.S., but the problem is most pronounced in rural areas. There isn’t a single psychiatrist in 65 percent of nonmetropolitan counties , and almost half of those counties don’t have a psychologist, according to a report from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine released this month. But even when a rural area does have some mental health workers, they alone usually can’t address the entire population’s needs. Many residents...
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Senate confirms new mental health chief [Politico]
08/03/2017 By Brianna Ehley The Senate today confirmed Elinore McCance-Katz to be the first HHS assistant secretary for mental health and substance abuse — a position created under mental health reform legislation enacted last year. A clinical psychiatrist who served as the first chief medical officer for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. McCance-Katz resigned in 2015 amid disagreements with SAMHSA leadership and has been publicly critical of their work, which...
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Senate HELP Committee approves opioid bill with major trauma-related provisions
The Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee unanimously approved The Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018 Act on April 24. Significant provisions were included from the Heitkamp-Durbin Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act (S. 774), including creation of a task force on trauma, and grants for trauma-informed schools.
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Senate HELP Committee schedules hearing on April 11 on draft opioid bill with key provisions addressing trauma and seeks stakeholder comments
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...
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September 2017 Special Issue of Academic Pediatrics: Child Well-Being and Adverse Childhood Experiences in the US
The United States is on the threshold of advancing much needed improvements in child and population well-being by addressing the epidemic of adverse childhood experiences and finding ways to come together, use what we know, and heal and catalyze a new epidemic of child and family flourishing. A special issue of Academic Pediatrics highlights new national research with inspiring commentaries across a wide range of leaders, each of whom calls out the critical importance of an immediate, strong...
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Significant trauma provisions included in committee reports accompanying spending bill
The House voted overwhelmingly (361-61) to approve the FY (Fiscal Year) 2019 Labor/HHS/Education and Department of Defense Appropriations on September 26, following the Senate’s approval by a vote of 93-7 on September 18. By combining funding for often-controversial domestic programs with funding for defense, appropriators created a must-pass package and made a government shutdown less likely as the looming October 1 deadline approaches. President Trump said he will sign the bill. The...
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Stanford’s Chief Wellness Officer Aims To Prevent Physician Burnout (californiahealthline.org)
Stanford Medicine hired Dr. Tait Shanafelt as chief wellness officer last year, not so much for the well-being of the patients — but of the physicians. An oncologist and hematologist by training, Shanafelt, 46, has become a national leader in the movement to end physician “burnout” — the cumulative effect of years of stress that can compromise patient care and cause doctors to leave medicine. After 12 years at the Mayo Clinic, Shanafelt now heads up Stanford’s WellMD Center , dedicated to...
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State Policy Guide on Preventing and Healing Childhood Trauma
There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children. --Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa Every child needs access to the opportunities that prepare him or her to compete in the changing economies and realities of the 21st century. Unfortunately, for too many children, exposure to violence and traumatic events in the home, school, or community can affect them throughout their entire lives . We are thrilled to release this brand new...
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“Strategic Advocacy: Winning Policy Change without Crossing the Lobbying Line”: Webinar summary & links
(l to r) Kelly Hardy, Allen Mattison, Jeff Hild _____________________________________________________ The stakes in today's public policy debates are as high as they've ever been. So, how does a nonprofit organization separate legitimate and perceived barriers to find the sweet spot for maximum engagement and not cross the lobbying line? The three panelists on the “Strategic Advocacy: Winning Policy Change without Crossing the Lobbying Line ” webinar held March 14, 2019, covered the fine...
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Strategies to combat trauma addressed in second of three congressional briefings
U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) (above) delivered a strong and passionate call to address childhood adversity to reap a “huge payback” in combating addiction, family violence, and poor education -- the “challenges that confront American families.” [For a video of the briefing, click here . It begins at 17:13 minutes with the first presentation by Andrea Blanch. The sound improves at 23:11 minutes when Sen. Heitkamp's remarks begin.] The July 14th event was the second of three...
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Study: Community Trauma from Gun Violence Results in Negative Health and Behavioral Outcomes (Violence Policy Center)
Research on trauma is frequently featured in mainstream news outlets, pointing to its connection to a range of behavioral and health outcomes. While trauma can have multiple interpretations, for the purposes of this report, it is the result of experiencing or witnessing chronic and sustained violence, or specific events that can have lasting effects on individuals. Researchers have identified 13 distinct types of trauma, including community violence. Community violence is an umbrella term...
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Suicides in Teen Girls Hit 40-Year High (nbcnews.com)
The suicide rate among teenage girls continues to rise and hit a 40-year high in 2015, according to a new analysis released Thursday. Suicide rates doubled among girls and rose by more than 30 percent among teen boys and young men between 2007 and 2015, the updated breakdown from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds. It's all part of a growing national trend for more suicides, said CDC suicide expert Thomas Simon. Simon said suicide is preventable and parents, friends, teachers...
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The ACEs movement in the time of Trump
As with any remarkable change, the 2016 presidential election, a swirl of intense acrimony that foreshadowed current events, actually produced a couple of major opportunities for the ACEs movement. It stripped away the ragged bandage covering a deep, festering wound of classicism, racism, and economic inequality. This wound burst painfully, but it’s now open to the air and sunlight, the first step toward real healing. The second opportunity is how the election and its aftermath are engaging...
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The effect chronic stress has on children at school - and why policymakers should care [washingtonpost.com]
One of the most frustrating aspects of many school reforms efforts of the past several decades is the intense focus on test scores with far less attention, if any, on the personal experiences that students bring to the classroom and how those who have suffered chronic stress are affected. The rise of social-emotional learning in recent years has been seen as a move toward embracing the idea of dealing with the whole child in school, but many SEL programs don’t use trauma-informed...
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The Gun Violence Epidemic Is Getting Worse And We Need To Talk About It (Planned Parenthood)
Gun violence claims 96 lives every day in the United States. No other developed nation experiences gun violence of this magnitude. More than five years ago, 20 children and six adults were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Since then, at least 1,846 people have been killed in mass shootings. From an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando to a church in Charleston, from a concert in Las Vegas to a high school in Parkland — gun violence is an epidemic. For every day that...
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The Interplay of Community Trauma, Diet, and Physical Activity: Solutions for Public Health
By Howard Pinderhughes, PhD, University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing August 7, 2017 DISCUSSION PAPER Perspectives | Expert Voices in Health & Health Care Diet- and activity-related illnesses—such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, and type 2 diabetes—can shorten life spans and adversely impact quality of life. Over the past 15 years, the public health field has made important progress in addressing these illnesses by shifting the focus from individual behavior to the...
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The Michigan ACEs Initiative: Building Resilience, Healing Communities
The Michigan ACEs initiative hosted the largest convening of ACEs professionals in the state of Michigan. Dr. Robert Anda, Co-Principal Investigator of the original ACEs study, Co-Founder ACE Interface and also featured in RESILIENCE , opened the conference and introduced keynote speaker, Christina Bethell, PhD, MBA, MPH, Professor, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University and Director, Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative in Baltimore, MD, to an audience of...
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The myth, misconception and misdirection of motive in mass shootings
But if we want to prevent shootings, asking about motive will just get you a useless answer to the wrong question. If you use the lens of the science of adverse childhood experiences, the answer reveals itself, and usually pretty quickly.
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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's ACEs/trauma-informed/resilience-building projects
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF) Adverse Childhood Experiences page collects the latest news and perspectives about ACEs, " The Truth About ACEs " (a graphic describing ACEs), and videos. RWJF supports many projects that...
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This App Maps Opioid Overdoses in Real Time (wired.com)
The opioid epidemic is ripping through America like a fire untamed. Blame big pharma , if you want. Blame cheap pain pills and cheaper heroin. Blame the mesolimbic reward system. Just don't wallow in it - the blame. Wallowing takes time, and with opioid abuse killing close to 100 Americans a day , time is in exceedingly short supply. "The number one question is, how do we get a better sense of what's going on in our communities in real-time," says Jeff Beeson, deputy director of the...
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This powerful, history-making photo is pure fire, and people can't get enough of it. (upworthy.com)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared a photo of the beautifully fierce new face of politics. Ocasio -Cortez shared a photo taken by Martin Schoeller for Vanity Fair on her Instagram and Twitter accounts, and people can't get enough of it. Six new Congresswomen, each making history in her own way, standing in the Capitol building, ready to take on those hallowed halls with their heads held high. Ocasio-Cortez takes her place not only as a Latina, but as the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.
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Top Trends in State Criminal Justice Reform, 2019 [sentencingproject.org]
From The Sentencing Project, January 2020 The United States is a world leader in incarceration and keeps nearly 7 million persons under criminal justice supervision. More than 2.2 million are in prison or jail, while 4.6 million are monitored in the community on probation or parole. More punitive sentencing laws and policies, not increases in crime rates, have produced this high rate of incarceration. Ending mass incarceration will require changing sentencing policies and practices, scaling...