Tagged With "Fires Take a Toll on Students"
Blog Post
8 Lessons for Building Resiliency After the California Wildfires
From City Lab: By RICHARD HEINBERG NOV 1, 2017 We need to get smarter before the next major disaster. My wife Janet and I voluntarily evacuated our house in Santa Rosa, California, at 4 a.m. on October 10. We live just outside a mandatory evacuation zone, but we opted to retreat from the wildfires raging nearby when we saw a bright orange glow on the horizon and a billowing plume of black smoke—both apparently headed our way. That morning, we bundled our four sleepy hens into the back of our...
Blog Post
8 Lessons for Building Resiliency After the California Wildfires [citylab.com]
My wife Janet and I voluntarily evacuated our house in Santa Rosa, California, at 4 a.m. on October 10. We live just outside a mandatory evacuation zone, but we opted to retreat from the wildfires raging nearby when we saw a bright orange glow on the horizon and a billowing plume of black smoke—both apparently headed our way. That morning, we bundled our four sleepy hens into the back of our car and drove to the closest evacuation shelter. We were able to return home late that same day.
Blog Post
A Forecast for a Warming World: Learn to Live With Fire [nytimes.com]
By Thomas Fuller and Kendra Pierre-Louis, The New York Times, October 24, 2019 Facing down 600 wildfires in the past three days alone, emergency workers rushed to evacuate tens of thousands of people in Southern California on Thursday as a state utility said one of its major transmission lines broke near the source of the out-of-control Kincade blaze in Northern California. The Kincade fire, the largest this week, tore through steep canyons in the wine country of northern Sonoma County,...
Blog Post
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.”
Blog Post
How Parents and Teachers Can Calm Kids' Getty Fire Anxiety [latimes.com]
By Sonali Kohli and Nina Agrawal, Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2019 During this Santa Ana wind season, 12-year-old Nicholas Ladesich tends to go to bed worrying about what might burn overnight. He often has dreams of waking up in his old house that burned down in the Woolsey fire last year. But he awakens instead in the living room of the one-bedroom guest house he shares with his brother and parents. He demands that his mom turn on the news to monitor possible fires while his 15-year-old...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
'Overwhelming and Terrifying': The Rise of Climate Anxiety [theguardian.com]
By Matthew Taylor and Jessica Murray, The Guardian, February 10, 2020 Over the past few weeks Clover Hogan has found herself crying during the day and waking up at night gripped by panic. The 20-year-old, who now lives in London, grew up in Queensland, Australia, cheekbyjowl with the country’s wildlife, fishing frogs out of the toilet and dodging snakes hanging from the ceiling. The bushfires ravaging her homeland over the past few weeks have taken their toll. “I’ve found myself bursting...
Blog Post
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 .
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
Sonoma County schools keep eye on student behavior after wildfires [Pressdemocrat.com]
As Sonoma County students settle back into the classroom routines after winter break, school officials will be watching closely for dips in academic performance and attendance, outbursts and other behavioral reactions as they continue to wrestle with the aftermath of October’s wildfires. Ed Navarro, principal of Rincon Valley Middle School and Santa Rosa Accelerated Charter School, said students showed kindness, camaraderie and support for displaced classmates immediately after the fires.
Blog Post
Suicides of nearly 60,000 Indian farmers linked to climate change, study claims [TheGuardian.com]
Climate change may have contributed to the suicides of nearly 60,000 Indian farmers and farm workers over the past three decades, according to new research that examines the toll rising temperatures are already taking on vulnerable societies. Illustrating the extreme sensitivity of the Indian agricultural industry to spikes in temperature, the study from the University of California, Berkeley, found an increase of just 1C on an average day during the growing season was associated with 67...
Blog Post
The Capital Region Climate Readiness Collaborative (CRC) first Quarterly Adaptation Exchange in 2018
The Capital Region Climate Readiness Collaborative (CRC) conducted our first Quarterly Adaptation Exchange in 2018 on how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and trauma can be a detriment to an individual’s physical, social, and mental health that has lasting effects into adulthood. Climate impacts and an individual’s and/or community’s capacity to respond to trauma with resilience is intrinsically tied to access to a support system, resources, and past traumas. The reality is with Climate...
Blog Post
The Ocean Is Suffocating, and It's Our Fault (livescience.com)
Ocean "dead zones" — regions of the sea where oxygen is severely or entirely depleted and most forms of life can't survive — are becoming more numerous, and scientists warn that they will continue to increase unless we curb the factors driving global climate change, which is fueling this alarming shift in ocean chemistry. This sobering view of the "suffocating" ocean was described in a new study, published online today (Jan. 4) in the journal Science . The study is the first to present such...
Blog Post
The silence of school leaders on climate change (hechingerreport.org)
By the time wildfires tore through his home county of Sonoma, California, Park Guthrie was already convinced that the clock on the climate catastrophe was running out. In 2015, Guthrie, a sixth-grade teacher and father of three, had approached the superintendent of the school district where he worked, hopeful she would sign a resolution endorsing action on climate change. He says he got nowhere. But after attending an advocacy event in Washington two years later, and hearing that the U.S.
Blog Post
Tomorrow's Doctors Will Diagnose the Mental Toll of Climate Change
The Daily Dose, July 22, 2019 by Carly Stern https://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/tomorrows-doctors-will-diagnose-the-mental-toll-of-climate-change/95540 First-year medical student Anna Goshua was interviewing an emergency room physician in March to learn more about the job when she heard about a patient who had come all the way from Puerto Rico to that ER in Massachusetts for health care. Hurricane Maria had wiped out all prospects of the patient seeking care at home. A surprised Goshua pored...
Blog Post
Want to Survive Climate Change? You’ll Need a Good Community [Wired.com]
In the summer of 1995, a blistering heat wave settled over Chicago for three days. It killed 739 people, making it one of the most unexpectedly lethal disasters in modern American history. No statistical models of the heat wave predicted such a high death toll. Researchers in the American Journal of Public Health reported that their analysis “failed to detect relationships between the weather and mortality that would explain what happened.” Just as mysterious as the number of fatalities was...
Blog Post
Webinar Slides and Recording: The Human Impact of Climate Change
Recorded live November 13, 2019. Find the slides attached below. Speaker: Elaine Miller-Karas, MSW, LCSW, Executive Director and Co-founder, Trauma Resource Institute. Guest: Kelly Doty, MA, Strengthening Families Program Manager, Youth for Change Host: Carey Sipp, Southeast Community Facilitator, ACEs Connection. Climate change emergencies are real and the human toll during and in the aftermath impact children, teens and adults. This webinar will hear from Kelly Doty, a survivor, who lost...
Blog Post
When It Comes To Trauma, Who Helps The Helpers? [wnpr.org]
From veterans returning from Iraq, to survivors of mass shootings, to those putting together the pieces after a hurricane--we know that the emotional and psychological scars of violence and tragedies sometimes last even longer than physical wounds. But what is the psychological toll on those who help victims of traumatic experiences? We talk with Dr. Megan Berthold, professor of social work at UConn, about the often-unrecognized "secondary" trauma that first responders, journalists, and aid...
Blog Post
Wildfire Mental Health Collaborative: Help for Those Recovering From The Devastating Fires of 2017 [sonomacountygazette.com]
By Sonoma County Gazette, October 22, 2019 As we reach the second anniversary of the 2017 wildfires, the triggers for those impacted have become more visible: reconstruction challenges, the Camp Fires in Butte County or just a windy night are a few examples. Mental health recovery and resiliency are more important than ever. Our community is really starting to see the long-term effects of wildfire trauma and PTSD on the mental health of our employees, neighbors and customers. Prolonged...
Blog Post
Climate change and mental health: risks, impacts and priority actions
This is one of the better assessments of the psychological and psychosocial impacts of climate change, though it neglects some key issues. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, October 2018, by Katie Hayes et al. Abstract Background: This article provides an overview of the current and projected climate change risks and impacts to mental health and provides recommendations for priority actions to address the mental health consequences of climate change. Discussion and conclusion:...
Blog Post
Climate Change Isn’t Just Frying the Planet—It’s Fraying Our Nerves “We kind of lose our cool.”
Rowan Walrath, Feb 18, 2019 Mother Jones Over the last year, Rebecca, a 35-year-old woman living in Washington, DC, had been losing sleep over the seemingly endless flow of apocalyptic environmental news. She fretted about the Trump administration’s loosening of emissions regulations and the United Nations’ dire predictions about climate change. In October, she sought help from a psychiatrist who put her on an antidepressant. “It sort of saps your emotional reserves,” she says, “this...
Blog Post
Droughts, floods, wildfires aren't the only negative climate-change impact, ISU study shows
Donnelle Eller , Des Moines Register Feb. 13, 2019 Increasing droughts, floods, wildfires and other climate change-induced disasters can do more than wipe out homes, businesses and crops, a new Iowa State University study says. Climate change also can make people irritable, hostile and even violent, according to a study from ISU's Craig Anderson, a psychology professor, and Andreas Miles-Novelo, a graduate student. With climate change, Iowa and the U.S. have gotten warmer over the past 30...
Blog Post
Fires Take a Toll on Students; Some Districts Rethink Suspensions (Podcast) [edsource.org]
By EdSource, November 4, 2019 From Sonoma County to Simi Valley, fires forced hundreds of thousands of Californians out of their homes in October. In this week’s podcast, reporter Sydney Johnson shares what she found at evacuation centers in Santa Rosa and Petaluma, where she spoke with college students worried about how they will make up lost time. Also, with a big decline in out-of-school suspensions for disruptive behavior, some districts are looking at ways to transform how they handle...
Blog Post
Sesame Street in Communities Provides Support for Kids Impacted by Wildfires
For resources and activities to help kids feel safe and comforted, visit: https://cdn.sesamestreet.org/sites/default/files/media_folders/Images/SupportAfterEmergency_Printable_Fire_FamilyGuide.pdf?_ga=2.91031322.1860374799.1600088181-1279904627.1598558329
Blog Post
The Recurring Trauma of California’s Wildfires [The New Yorker]
When Laurie Noble was growing up, in Fort Bragg, California, in the nineteen-fifties and sixties, her family’s home doubled as a government weather station. The house was equipped with rain and wind-speed gauges, thermometers, a barometer, and a recording barograph, and the family belonged to a network of part-time observers paid by the federal Weather Bureau, the forerunner of the National Weather Service, to fill in gaps between its professionally staffed stations. By the time Noble was a...
Blog Post
Disasters Are Driving a Mental Health Crisis (calhealthreport.org)
Emotional distress is common following natural disasters, and the psychological toll can linger for years, studies suggest. In California, where the state is in the midst of yet another highly destructive wildfire season, published research on the prevalence of mental health impacts among wildfire survivors in the state is scarce. However, a preliminary study by researchers at UC Davis found that around one in five people reported significant symptoms of anxiety and post-traumatic stress up...
Blog Post
Pandemic Sets Off Future Wave of Worsening Mental Health Issues [uh.edu]
By Laurie Fickman, University of Houston, September 28, 2020 Long after a COVID-19 vaccination is developed and years after the coronavirus death toll is tallied, the impact on mental health will linger, continuing to inflict damage if not addressed, according to new research. Michael Zvolensky, University of Houston Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and director of the Anxiety and Health Research Laboratory/Substance Use Treatment Clinic, has...
Blog Post
Even when the smoke clears, schools find student trauma can linger (Lake County Record Bee)
By Carolyn Jones, September 29, 2020, Lake County Record Bee. Schools can serve as a hub for an entire community after a disaster, experts say For some students, the fire is only the beginning. The nightmares, the grief and an all-consuming dread can persist for months or even years. That’s what teachers and school employees have observed among students in California’s fire-ravaged areas, especially Sonoma and Butte counties, where deadly wildfires have struck repeatedly in recent years.
Blog Post
A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis (zinnedproject.org)
A People’s Curriculum for the Earth is a collection of articles, role plays, simulations, stories, poems, and graphics to help breathe life into teaching about the environmental crisis. The book features some of the best articles from Rethinking Schools magazine alongside classroom-friendly readings on climate change, energy, water, food, and pollution — as well as on people who are working to make things better. At a time when it’s becoming increasingly obvious that life on Earth is at...
Blog Post
Civil engineers find link between hospitals and schools key to community resilience [sciencedaily.com]
From Colorado State University, Science Daily, February 5, 2021 New research from the Colorado State University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, published in Nature Scientific Reports , has found hospitals and schools are interdependent, suggesting their collective recovery must be considered in order to restore a community in the wake of disaster. Because hospitals and schools are so integral to a community's well-being, Associate Professor Hussam Mahmoud and Ph.D.
Member
Caroline Holmes
Member
Amy E. Stein
Member
Zoey Rogers
Member
Corrie Halladay
Member
Nikky Agboola
Member
Angela Hamilton
Blog Post
Please Read This Article: Preparing for Climate Overshoot Requires Quickly Expanding Our Mental Health System
All mental health and social service leaders are urged to read the attached article Preparing for Climate Overshoot Requires Quickly Expanding Our Mental Health System . It describes: How this decade or early next global temperatures will likely surpass the 2.7 F temperature threshold that unleashes extremely destructive and possibly irreversible impacts on the planet and society (climate scientists call this "climate overshoot") How, if we remain unprepared, the climate overshoot will...
Blog Post
How Do Children Impacted By Wildfires Recover? A Resilient Community’s Trauma-Informed Story Of Healing
Editor’s Note: Do you have a story of a local community creating programs to help their members recover from climate change disasters? Send us your story of a resilient community to editor@kindredmedia.org. We’re honored to feature Thrive , a healing initiative of the North Valley Community Foundation (NVCF), a collaboration of people, organizations and agencies in Butte County, California, whose mission is to address the impact of trauma across generations. In the wake of the devastating...
Blog Post
Climate disasters will strain our mental health system. It’s time to adapt. (Washington Post)
As the effects of climate change become severe, more people than ever may experience mental health challenges. To provide solutions, experts say the system will need to evolve. The resonances were eerie as Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 storm, broached Louisiana’s coast on Sunday, 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the same area. “It’s very painful to think about another powerful storm like Hurricane Ida making landfall on that anniversary,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D)...
Blog Post
How Heat Waves Take a Toll on Mental Health [nytimes.com]
By Hannah Seo, Illustration: María Medem, The New York Times, August 19, 2022 Tens of millions of people across the United States have been enduring heat wave after heat wave this summer, in what feels like an unrelenting succession of humid days and scorching temperatures. While there’s no denying that extreme heat and humidity can be physically uncomfortable, research suggests that such conditions can be trying on your psychological well-being, too. “We see across the whole spectrum of...