Tagged With "Public Health"
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12 Myths of the Science of ACEs
The two biggest myths about ACEs science are: MYTH #1 — That it’s just about the 10 ACEs in the ACE Study — the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study . It’s about sooooo much more than that. MYTH #2 — And that it’s just about ACEs…adverse childhood experiences. These two myths are intertwined. The ACE Study issued the first of its 70+ publications in 1998, and for many people it was the lightning bolt, the grand “aha” moment, the unexpected doorway into a blazing new...
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How a natural disaster led one town to do something about its ACEs, past and future
Tracy Franke, principal of Darrington Elementary School, a K-8 school with 300 students, had heard about CLEAR, and called Dr. Christopher Blodgett, who runs the program, to arrange a visit from Turner. “We were hurting,” says Franke. “Our students and staff needed some tools to get through the trauma.”
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How a story about childhood trauma in Paradise became one of community trauma [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
My project for the Center for Health Journalism’s California Fellowship was focused on childhood trauma, zeroing in on a town in Northern California. In the fall, that town — Paradise, California — burned in a harrowing wildfire. The story quickly changed to one of community loss. The story of trauma in two counties My initial project was about Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs. ACEs are one way to quantify how much childhood trauma a person has experienced before the age of 18. Through...
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How Communities Can Build Psychological Resilience to Disaster
Nicole Wetsman The Red River runs north, up along the border between North Dakota and Minnesota, before spilling into Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. Its water flows slowly through a 10,000-year-old glacial lakebed, in one of the flattest stretches of land in the United States, and because it points north, it’s sometimes blocked by ice jams—all of which makes the river prone to flooding . In March 2009, one such flood threatened the city of Fargo. Residents watched for a week as the...
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How Does Water Scarcity Affect Mental Health? [psmag.com]
A nearly two-decade drought has drained the Colorado River, leaving regulators scrambling to protect the waterway, which provides water to 40 million people across seven states. Colorado officials are treating the situation as an emergency, the Aspen Times reports . But their efforts may come too late; the Bureau of Reclamation predicts a 57 percent chance that the river's largest reservoir will be too low to give each state its agreed-upon share by 2020, according to a Colorado Public Radio...
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How Health Professionals Perceive Health Impacts of Climate Change
Health Implications of Climate Change: a Review of the Literature About the Perception of the Public and Health Professionals By Julia Hathaway & Edward W. Maibach Summary Through a systematic search of English language peer-reviewed studies, we assess how health professionals and the public, worldwide, perceive the health implications of climate change. Recent Findings Among health professionals, perception that climate change is harming health appears to be high, although selfassessed...
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How the Mental Health Community Is Bracing for the Impact of Climate Change “Eco-anxiety” and trauma from natural disasters will be on the rise along with sea levels
Rolling Stone, May 16, 2019 By Andrea Marks When San Francisco broke heat records in 2017, with 106-degree temperatures in September, psychiatrist Robin Cooper didn’t hear until after the fact that one of her patients had been feeling dizzy and feverish. One day, he’d fainted in his poorly ventilated workspace. Emergency room doctors had surmised he’d had a virus. But Cooper warned him it could actually be a drug she’d prescribed him interacting with the extreme heat. Certain antipsychotic...
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How Two Local Communities Are Fighting Back Against the Trauma of Global Climate Change
In Alertnet: February 24, 2018 By Ruben Cantu, program manager for community trauma, mental health and violence prevention at Prevention Institute , and ITRC Steering Committee Member Found at: https://www.alternet.org/environment/global-climate-change-causing-local-trauma-heres-how-two-communities- We must build resilient communities before disaster strikes. Communities around the globe are feeling the effects of climate change, from scorching heat waves and out-of-control wildfires to...
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Hurricane Florence first responders receive free trauma/resilience training
In a webinar offered this morning by Elaine Miller Karas , executive director of the Trauma Resource Institute in Claremont, CA, leaders from several North Carolina ACEs Connection communities affected by flooding and other damage by Hurricane Florence learned more about trauma response and how to better help their communities find resilience. Karas, who was delivering her Community Resiliency Model (CRM) training at Duke University in Durham, NC, offered the free training and provided...
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Hurricane Irma’s Overlooked Victims: Migrant Farm Workers Living at the Edge [insideclimatenews.org]
Hurricane Irma knocked millions of dollars worth of oranges and grapefruits to the ground. Its high winds mowed down thousands of acres of sugarcane, toppled nursery plants, and decimated the avocado crop. The damage will cost the state's agricultural industry billions, but for the migrant workers who pick these crops and work in the fields, the storm means real hardship that will test lives already on the edge. "If you listen to the news coverage about Irma, you'll hear about damage to the...
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Hurricane Michael: Children Face Stress Of Upended Lives [health.wusf.usf.edu]
When Tiffany Harris and her two children emerged from their hotel after Hurricane Michael roared past, her 3-year-old son pointed to a sea of fallen trees and shattered buildings. "It's broken. It's broken, Mommy, fix it," she recalls her little boy Amari begging. Harris, who lives with her boyfriend, two children, plus her sister and her four children near Panama City, soon learned their town house was uninhabitable. Everything was a total loss after Michael powered inland across the...
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Hurricane Michael trauma response: Free Community Response Model webinar for Florida tomorrow
Members of Florida's health, mental health, child-serving agencies, faith-based communities, law enforcement groups and others are invited to attend a free webinar tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. EST on trauma response and how to better help communities find resilience following natural disasters. You can register for the webinar now by clicking on this link . Elaine Miller Karas , executive director of the Trauma Resource Institute in Claremont, CA, will lead the webinar. It will be recorded and...
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'I don't feel real': Mental stress mounting after Michael [wjla.com]
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — Amy Cross has a hard time explaining the stress of living in a city that was splintered by Hurricane Michael . She's fearful after hearing gunshots at night, and she's confused because she no longer recognizes the place where she's spent her entire 45 years. "I just know I don't feel real, and home doesn't feel like home at all," Cross said. Health workers say they are seeing signs of mental problems in residents more than a week after Michael, and the issues could...
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ITRC Announces Fall 2019 Free Webinars on Building Transformational Resilience for Climate Traumas
To Register for Any of the Webinars Below Go to the Link on ITRC Website: http://www.theresourceinnovationgroup.org/ Introduction to Transformational Resilience for Climate Traumas Date : Thursday, October 31 from 12 noon--1 pm Pacific Time (3-4 pm Eastern Time) Although it is difficult to accept, humanity is in the midst of a civilization changing event. The more frequent and extreme disasters and toxic stresses generated by human-induced climate disruption are aggravating the existing...
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ITRC Announces Spring 2020 Free 1 Hr. Webinars
Introduction to Transformational Resilience for Climate Traumas, Toxic Stresses, and Other Emergencies Date : Thursday, April 30 from 12 noon--1 pm Pacific Time (3-4 pm Eastern Time) Click here to register for this webinar The Coronavirus pandemic is causing significant stress and disorientation. The adversities provide a glimpse of the personal mental health and collective psycho-social-spiritual problems that will emerge as the climate emergency worsens. Although it is difficult to accept,...
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ITRC calls for Universal Resilience Education and Skills Training for Climate Trauma
Sneak Preview for ITRC ACEs Connection Members! Next Tuesday, Jan. 8, the ITRC will release a major report Preparing People on the West Coast for Climate Change. The media release about the report is below (and attached). It includes a link to the webpage for the report, where people can download the full report, and find a link to the webpage with examples of resilience programs across the west coast. You can connect with the ITRC CA and PNW Facebook page:...
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ITRC Featured in New National Climate Assessment
Many thanks for this from ITRC National Steering Committee Advisory Board Member Emily York, Oregon Health Authority. I’m excited to share that the ITRC is featured in the recently released National Climate Assessment … specifically highlighted in a call out box in the Northwest chapter : Box 24.4: Healthcare Partnerships That Increase Resilience A new International Transformational Resilience Coalition (ITRC) has grown out of the Northwest and is engaging cross-sector partners in pilot...
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ITRC Asks ACEs Professionals to Sign Call To Action on Climate Change Emergency
All ACEs professionals asked to Sign the Call to Action to rapidly build psychological and psycho-social-spiritual-- or transformational--resilience to prevent widespread climate traumas! Attached is the complete Call to Action to Build Human Resilience for Climate Traumas or find it at the ITRC website: http://www.theresourceinnovationgroup.org/ Individuals wanting to sign the Call to Action to Build Human Resilience for Climate Traumas click here or paste url into browser Organizations...
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Climate change fueling disasters, disease in ‘potentially irreversible’ ways, report warns [WashingtonPost.com]
Water vapor rises from the coal-fired power plant run by the energy company LEAG in Boxberg, Germany. (Singer/Epa-Efe/Rex/Shutterstock) Climate change significantly imperils public health globally, according to a new report that chronicles the many hazards and symptoms already being seen. The authors describe its manifestations as “unequivocal and potentially irreversible.” Heat waves are striking more people, disease-carrying mosquitoes are spreading and weather disasters are becoming more...
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Last Chance to Sign the ITRC Call to Action on the Climate Change Mental Health and Psycho-Social-Spiritual Emergency
ITRC and ACEs Connection Network Members: Please sign the ITRC Call to Action! To Sign the ITRC Call to Action go here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1eMCXe-ttFjGllMiFtFwiZvJEFKix2uowzEGbVrKGCM8/edit To Read the ITRC Call to Action go here: http://www.theresourceinnovationgroup.org/ In response to the accelerating personal and collective traumas caused by climate disruption and as a follow up to the U.S. Call to Action in Climate, Health, and Equity priority 9 to build resilient...
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Life on Thin Ice: Mental health at the heart of the climate crisis [The Guardian]
Greenland’s melting has been adopted by the world as its own problem. But for the islanders grieving their dissolving world, the crisis is personal, and dangerous. By Dan MacDougall, The Guardian A thin blanket of fog curls over the block before it disappears back out to sea. Exhale. Inhale. The freezing breaths of a dormant leviathan – slumbering somewhere out in the depths. It’s 1am and judging by the flickering glow of televisions in the windows of the bleak two-storey rows facing us,...
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Lingering long after a storm, mold and mental health issues
From: The Daily Climate https://www.dailyclimate.org/lingering-long-after-a-storm-mold-and-mental-health-issues-2626706100.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2 Editor's note: This story is part of a series examining the social and health injustices resulting from increasingly intense storms and is the result of a collaboration between EHN and Scalawag Magazine , an independent nonprofit magazine that covers the American South. North Carolinians are organizing against "toxic resiliency," focused...
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Listless And Lonely In Puerto Rico, Some Older Storm Survivors Consider Suicide [khn.org]
HUMACAO, P.R. — A social worker, Lisel Vargas, recently visited Don Gregorio at his storm-damaged home in the steep hillsides of Humacao, a city on Puerto Rico’s eastern coast near where Category 4 Hurricane Maria first made landfall last September. Gregorio, a 62-year-old former carpenter who lives alone, looked haggard. He said he had stopped taking his medication for depression more than a week earlier and hadn’t slept in four days. He was feeling anxious and nervous, he said, rubbing his...
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Making the Connections Between Climate Change and Sexual and Relationship Violence
“Human relations were laid bare and the strengths and weaknesses in relationships came sharply into focus. Thus, socially isolated women became more isolated, domestic violence increased, and the core of relationships with family, friends and spouses were exposed” – written in response to a major flood in Australia (Dobson, 1994, p. 11). Racism. Sexism. Classism. Immigration status. Violence against LGBTQ communities. These are just a few of the various forms of oppression that the...
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MENTAL TOLL OF CLIMATE CHANGE HITS WOMEN 60% MORE
in OZY, By Stephen Starr July 25, 2019 https://www.ozy.com/acumen/mental-toll-of-climate-change-hits-women-60-more/94796 It’s long been argued that climate change will see our cities flooded, our forests reduced to ash and our weather turn increasingly violent and unpredictable. But research has found that the downside of living in a hotter, less-climate-stable world may not be limited only to buildings, trees and weather: A recently released report suggests climate change may actually...
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More Than 11,000 Scientists Just Officially Declared a Global Climate Emergency
NOTE TO ITRC MEMBERS : The official declaration of a climate emergency reinforces the reality that we are also in the midst of a climate change-driven mental health and psycho-social-spiritual emergency . Business-as-usual in the mental health and social service fields remains the dominant response (e.g. trauma treatment). We must make prevention the top priority and focus on building widespread capacity for Transformational Resilience. Bob Doppelt by Carly Cassella 5 NOV 2019 A massive...
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New York Life and Change in Mind Institute at the Alliance for Strong Families and Communites Partner on Grant Program to Support Communities Impacted by Disaster
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 1, 2018 – New York Life Insurance Company and the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities today announced the launch of a new grant program to support children, adults, families, and communities experiencing trauma resulting from natural disaster or community-wide tragedy. The partnership will serve as the first-ever disaster-focused grant for the New York Life Foundation, the charitable arm of the company. The program, Building Resilience in the Face of Disaster,...
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ONCE THE WATER RECEDES, THE MENTAL-HEALTH PROBLEMS EMERGE [PSMag.com]
Like the storm itself, the impact of Hurricane Harvey on Houstonians' mental health promises to linger. Although specific estimates vary widely, the results of numerous research studies suggest residents who suffered a profound personal loss due to the storm are at significantly elevated risk of post-traumatic stress disorder. "A large body of research conducted after disasters in the past decades suggests that the burden of PTSD among persons who were exposed to disasters is significant," a...
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One of the most overlooked consequences of climate change? Our mental health
Ecoanxiety. Ecoparalysis. Solastalgia. Call it what you want— when it comes to climate change and mental health, the future is now. By Lawrence A. Palinkas , the Daily Climate Hardly a day goes by where we aren't reminded that the Earth's climate is changing and that we are responsible for much if not most of that change. The findings of one study after another are punctuated by breaking news or the direct experience of wildfires, hurricanes and floods that forced thousands of people to...
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One Year after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, Challenges Remain, Particularly in Mental Health
Sent to us by Gail Kennedy, ACEs Connection staff One year after Hurricanes Irma and Maria made landfall, recovery has progressed slowly and unevenly in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The territories’ health care systems continue to face capacity, infrastructure and financial challenges even as health needs have increased, especially in mental health, according to two new reports from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The reports , drawing upon interviews with government and health...
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Oprah to talk about "revolutionary" trauma-informed care this Sunday on "60 Minutes": Be ready to respond!
This Sunday Oprah talk about her new discovery of trauma-informed care on CBS's "60 Minutes" saying: "This story is so important to me and I believe to our culture that if I could dance on the tabletops right now to get people to pay attention to it, I would," Winfrey says. Here are promos: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oprah-winfrey-childhood-trauma-ptsd-60-minutes-report/ https://www.cbsnews.com/video/oprah-explores-life-changing-question-in-treating-childhood-trauma/ TIC is VITAL to help...
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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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Our Hearts and Mind Are With The People Impacted by Hurricane Florence
Hurricane Florence is just one of the latest reminders of the more intense disasters a warming planet creates that can produce significant adverse psychological and psycho-social-spiritual impacts. The ITRC sends its deepest sympathies to all the people impacted by the storm. You are all in our thoughts. We also send our great thanks to the many individuals and organizations that are helping others deal with the distressing events-- including first responders, public health, mental health,...
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Please Post Only Climate Trauma and Resilience-Focused Articles
Please limit posts on this ITRC site to articles and stories directly related to: 1. The mental health and psycho-social-spiritual impacts of climate change, and 2. Methods for building individual psychological and collective psycho-social-spiritual resilience. Please do not post articles related to other dimensions of climate change as many sites exist elsewhere where they can be posted. Thanks! Bob Doppelt
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Post from Carl Anthony and Paloma Pavel about Oakland/SF Bay Area Resilience Efforts
Hello Bob, A few things. We are interested in participating in both initiatives (the statewide steering committee and the statewide policy group), if we can balance them with our other work demands. In the meantime, we want to share some information on other activities in which we are involved (Paloma mentioned these during the conference call today). Could you post these to the forum? Thanks so much! 1.There is a free showing of Demain (Tomorrow) and a panel discussion (with Carl Anthony,...
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Post Traumatic Growth after Natural Disasters - Communication and Connections Help [sciencedaily.com]
A recent study from researchers at the University of Missouri found more communication among family, friends and neighbors who experienced the devastating and deadly 2011 Joplin Tornado was related to more post-traumatic growth. The 2011 tornado in Joplin, Missouri, was one of the most destructive in U.S. history -- killing 161 people, injuring 1,150 and destroying approximately one-third of the city's homes. Individuals who experience such disasters can exhibit a range of mental health...
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Post-wildfire report on nonprofit services: mental health a critical need, services to most vulnerable citizens impacted
At the end of 2017, Community Foundation of Sonoma County and Napa Valley Community Foundation enlisted the Center for Effective Philanthropy to conduct a survey of local nonprofit organizations about the impacts of the wildfires on the people they serve and on their organizational capacity to provide services in response. While reading CEP Advisory Services " 2018 Wildfire Response Survey " report through an ACEs and trauma-informed lens, the following findings jumped out at me: 1. Mental...
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Predicting community resilience and recovery after a disaster [Blogs.CDC.gov]
After 9/11, I was asked by the Baltimore City Health Commissioner to help prepare the city for a radiation terrorism event, because my entire career up until that point had been in radiation-based medical imaging. I didn’t know anything about public health preparedness at the time, but I found it very fulfilling to work with the city health department and other first responders, especially fire and police. Public health preparedness science and research is more than multi-disciplinary, it’s...
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Preparing People for Climate Change in California: Sonoma County Listens and Shares
Last summer Bob Doppelt asked me to join a planning committee for a conference on climate change . I was surprised to be asked as my recent professional expertise is tied to addressing childhood adversity. Bob changed my perspective on the relevance by saying, "Adversity and trauma are the social side effects of climate-related disasters. Imagine the social-emotional impacts on Katrina survivors." The connection was a glimmer in my mind, but I agreed to support a California conference .
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Psychologists from 40 countries pledged to use their jobs to address climate change
By Zoë Schlanger November 15, 2019 Quartz The leaders of psychological associations from more than 40 countries signed a proclamation this week at a conference on psychology and global health in Lisbon, pledging to use their expertise as psychologists to “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.” Already, psychologists have recognized that climate change is a threat to psychological health. But with this move, psychological associations from around the world are signaling...
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Public Health Matters Blog Posts: Using trauma-informed care to guide emergency preparedness and response
"Exposure to a traumatic event or set of circumstances can negatively affect a person’s mental, physical, social, emotional or spiritual well-being for a long time after the initial incident. We know that not all individuals respond to trauma in the same way and we know that individuals with a history of trauma, especially childhood trauma, are more likely to experience psychological distress and are at increased risk for the development of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with future...
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Put down the self-help books. Resilience is not a DIY endeavour (theglobeandmail.com)
The science of resilience is clear: The social, political and natural environments in which we live are far more important to our health, fitness, finances and time management than our individual thoughts, feelings or behaviors. When it comes to maintaining well-being and finding success, environments matter.
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Recommendations for preventing & healing pandemic generated mental health and psychosocial problems
Attached is a set of ITRC recommendations for swiftly organizing community-based initiatives to prevent and heal pandemic-generated mental health and psychosocial problems. If you find the recommendations helpful, please initiate the creation of a resilience coordinating council in your community or region. Please also pass the document on to other organizations and individuals that might find it useful. Thanks--and stay healthy during this stressful time, Bob Doppelt
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Register now: Free ACEs Connection Webinar on the Human Impact of Climate Change
A year after 85 people died in the wildfire that swept through Paradise, CA, and nearby towns, one of the town’s survivors will talk about how she and others are using resilience practices in their recovery from the trauma. On Wednesday, Nov. 13, Paradise resident Kelly Doty will have a conversation with Elaine Miller-Karas, who developed the Community Resiliency Model (CRM). Doty, who lost her home in the fire, and Miller-Karas will discuss resilience education skills designed to help...
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Resources on Some Mental Health Organization Responses to Climate Change
After a recent ITRC Steering committee meeting, member Dr. David Pollack sent the following resources ITRC members might be interested in: Climate Psychiatry Alliance (CPA) website, recently launched and which will hopefully be updated regularly with lots of useful information about climate and mental health issues, including the slide presentations we have been putting on at various meetings, brief summaries of key issues, etc. www.climatepsychiatry. org Medical Society Consortium on...
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Rising from the Ashes: How Trauma-Informed Care Nurtures Healing in Rural America [The Rural Monitor]
By Jenn Lukens April 17, 2019 It was late July 2018 when the Mendocino Complex wildfire broke out in rural Lake County, California. It burned more than 450,000 acres and destroyed 280 structures before it was contained. Ana Santana managed to fill some storage bins with sentimental items – her kids’ blankets, pictures, and art projects – before fleeing her home. Santana is the facilitator of the Lake County Children’s Council and Program Director for Healthy Start Youth and Family Services ,...
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Sonoma County Resiliency Collaborative A Practical Approach to Post-Wildlife Resilience and Wellbeing
The traumatic events of the North Bay wildfires affect our emotional and physical health, social functioning, and overall well-being, both as individuals and as a community. Unresolved, they can damage our health and limit our potential to rebuild a strong community. Join diverse Sonoma County leaders and representatives to participate in dynamic workshop where you will practice tools for effectively addressing personal and team stress after the fires, network with peers, and learn about an...
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Sonoma’s Hanna Institute awarded $650k grant [SonomaNews.com]
Consultant Robert K. Macy, Hanna Institute Assistant Director Nick Dalton, and Hanna Institute Interim Director Brian Farragher inside Hanna Boys Center in Sonoma, CA. ______________________ After the October fires, the Community Foundation of Sonoma County co-sponsored a survey of local nonprofit organizations to gauge the effect that the disaster had on the people they serve and their organizational capacity to provide services in response. Throughout the “2018 Wildfire Response Survey,”...
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Study: Pennsylvanians who live near fracking are more likely to be depressed
The Dailey Climate by Kristina Marusic Jul y27, 2018 Stress and depression are higher among those living closest to more and bigger wells. People who live near unconventional natural gas operations such as fracking are more likely to experience depression, according to a new study. For the study, which is the first of its kind and published today in Scientific Reports, researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University looked at rates of depression in...
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Texas Children’s Treating More Affected Children Two Years After Hurricane Harvey [hellowoodlands.com]
By Jenn Jacome, Hello Woodlands, August 12, 2019 Nearly two years after the historic rainfall and flooding of Hurricane Harvey, Texas Children’s Harvey Resiliency and Recovery Program is assessing and treating more children than it did in the six to eight months immediately following the storm. “Currently, we’re seeing about 250 kids per month in our Trauma and Grief Center overall when you look at new assessments and those coming in for return appointments, and many of these children were...