Blog

Experiencing foster care is associated with poor outcomes including homelessness, unemployment, criminal justice system involvement, poor health, and enduring mental health/substance use problems (Courtney & Dworsky, 2006). As such, building resilience among youth in foster care is important for prevention and intervention efforts. To mitigate the likelihood of such outcomes, this grant proposes a mentorship program between youth in foster care and an adult mentor to strengthen youth...

This project seeks to address historical legacies of trauma towards indigenous Peruvians that persist, despite policies to address this, in Peru’s current education system (Rousseau & Dargent, 2019). Traumatic school environments—which may include corporal punishment or shaming towards children using indigenous languages (Sumida Huaman, 2014)—actively undermine the well-being and resilience of indigenous children. Through this project, school environments will change from being traumatic...

This proposed intervention in Gainesville, FL aims to build upon the lived experience of individuals that have experienced child sexual abuse, community members that have reported child sexual abuse, and professionals within the child welfare field to create a trauma-informed training program for use with individuals in the mesosystem of Bronfenbrenner’s Social Ecological Model (SEM) (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). The intervention design will use trauma-informed principles and community-based...

Fentanyl is an extremely dangerous synthetic opioid that acts like morphine but is 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin (CDC, 2022). In Chicago, Illinois overdose deaths increased by 533% from 2015 to 2017 (Chicago Department of Public Health, 2018). Additionally, in Cook County fentanyl use is associated with about 90% of fatal overdoses (CDPH, 2018). Trauma and Advanced Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can be contributing risk factors in opioid use. Utilizing a...

Pediatric medical traumatic stress (PMTS) is defined as “a set of psychological and physiological responses of children and their families to pain, injury, serious illness, medical procedures, and invasive or frightening treatment experiences” (The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2018). Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with chronic illness are particulary susceptible to PMTS due to their increased likelihood of experiencing potentially traumatic medical events and the...

The proposed project aims to improve food access for autistic adults in Alachua County, FL, who are at a heightened risk of poor health outcomes due to an Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) score of at least one (Felitti et al., 1998). The project will be implemented using a trauma-informed approach, incorporating SAMHSA's Six Principles of Trauma-Informed Organizations (2014), at both individual and community levels of McLeroy's Social Ecological Model (1988). The public health framework...

Anxiety, depression, and substance abuse are just three issues that children aged 11 through 18 are enduring as a result of adverse childhood experiences. In Calhoun County, Florida, the rate of children who skip school out of concern for their safety, felt hopeless, and experienced over 4 ACEs was drastically higher than all other counties in the state. To address these risk behaviors and predecessors to chronic health conditions or even dropping out of school, our program aims to utilize a...

Food insecurity is a significant stressor in family households and a driving force to devastating health consequences in many populations globally; it is associated with health outcomes including obesity, depression, adverse mental health outcomes as well as poor sleep outcomes (Royer et al., 2022; Nagata et al., 2019). A trauma-informed intervention to reduce food insecurity in Los Angeles County would involve a trauma-trained and multidisciplinary team that provides three important...

Childhood exposure to toxic stressors and traumatic events negatively impact the development of the child’s brain and increases the risk of poor coping skills and cognitive impairments (Daly, 2015). Adverse Childhood Experiences study found that exposure to one or more ACE’s highly affects children overall physical and mental well-being (CDC, 2021). Although 9 in 10 children receive regular medical care focused on physical concerns, only 1 in 3 pediatric professionals report having...

Inequalities woven into social structures have historically put minorities at disadvantage, impacting their health outcomes (Trent et al., 2019). Social determinants of health including racism have a deep negative effect on health and well-being, despite the progress made toward racial equalities (Trent et al., 2019). Black and Hispanic children have the highest risk for experiencing ACEs, as 61% of Black children and 52% of Hispanic children in the U.S. reported exposure to at least one ACE...

In 2008-09, the National Maternal and Child Health Survey surveyed women in Guatemala, and more than half of them reported experiencing some type of violence in the last 12 months. Guatemala has a long standing history of a patriarchal society that devalues women, even despite women’s rights advancements. The trauma these women endure each day take a toll on their health and their families, especially mental health. Our program aims to fill in these gaps by identifying women at risk,...

First responders play a crucial role in the care of individuals affected by natural and man-made disasters. Research has shown that trauma-related disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (22%) and depression (26%) (Fullerton, 2006), are well-documented in human first responders and behavioral health issues, such as suicidal thoughts and poor interpersonal relationships, can affect up to 51% of veterinary emergency responders following a disaster (Vroegindewey, 2021). In the...