Tagged With "Health"

We all know that walking is great exercise, but what if a walking group could build resiliency in communities and in individuals? I believe it can, if done correctly. This is what my final project focused on. Walking is beneficial in that it allows people to perform non-strenuous activities while still getting in shape. Groups are important in building friendships in communities, which we know in turn builds resiliency. And the walking group was born.. 1. I first began my project with a...

By Andrea Schneider, PsychCentral, February 7, 2020 Did you know that the second leading cause of death in people ages 15-22 is suicide (ACHA, 2020)? Those are some sobering statistics. After a recent move from S CA to N Ca, I am currently serving in a new role in which I am the Lead Counselor on a college campus for this age range. Unfortunately, those statistics don’t lie. I am deeply involved in creating new programs, strategies, and direct clinical support for the students my campus...

Hello All! Gender is a complex, social construct that can be damaging to adolescents when gender stereotypes are perpetuated. I wanted to begin a health communication campaign that begins a community conversation about gender and the gender stereotypes present in our everyday lives. I chose to promote this campaign with three items. 1. An infographic that is targeted towards adolescents to help them understand how how gender stereotypes can harm us personally and others around us. This...

New Study Examines State Lawmaker Perspectives on Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences Released by Children's Trust of South Carolina

By Maria Godoy and Daniel Wood, National Public Radio, May 30, 2020 In April, New Orleans health officials realized their drive-through testing strategy for the coronavirus wasn't working. The reason? Census tract data revealed hot spots for the virus were located in predominantly low-income African-American neighborhoods where many residents lacked cars. In response, officials have changed their strategy, sending mobile testing vans to some of those areas, says Thomas LaVeist , dean of...

By Tia Taylor Williams, American Public Health Association, May 2020 Alarming disparities within the COVID-19 pandemic — such as higher hospitalizations and death rates among African Americans — are sadly predictable and highlight the urgent need to address the root causes of health inequities. APHA is hosting this four-part webinar series to give an in-depth look at racism as a driving force of the social determinants of health and equity. The series will explore efforts to address systems,...

By KQED Science, KQED, June 14, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic and the recent killing of George Floyd have brought longstanding racial inequities into sharp focus. One of those disparities concerns the high rate of coronavirus transmission among people of color. To talk about the intersection of race and health, KQED's Brian Watt spoke last week with California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, who is known for her pioneering work on the role that childhood stress and trauma play on...

By Tatiana Sanchez, San Francisco Chronicle, August 24, 2020 Elaine Shelly has lived with multiple sclerosis for 30 years. But she said she still panics whenever she has to see a new neurologist because of racial discrimination she’s experienced in the past. Even getting a proper diagnosis for her illness was a battle. “I’d go to these neurologists who would tell me that Black people don’t get M.S. and that I must be mentally ill,” said Shelly, 63, of San Leandro. A former print journalist,...

Systematic racism is at the core of mental health disparities and social determinants of mental health (SDoMH).Upstream factors obstruct patient access to needed and appropriate assessment, timely intervention, with treatment for these populations often reflecting poorer quality, and ending prior to completion of treatment. COVID-19 and the recent pandemic have only amplified meso and micro-level gaps in care. considered, provided, and reimbursed.

This grant proposal addresses the population of children with an incarcerated parent. The U.S. leads internationally in the imprisonment of its citizens and incarceration per 100,000 residents from 1970-2015 has increased by > 400% in 15 to 64 year-olds. 1 The staggering disparities between non-white and white incarceration rates of U.S. citizens are multifactorial. Children of the incarcerated have a higher number of Adverse Childhood Experiences than the general population and carry an...

ACEs are a major public health concern and are associated with an increased risk of poor health outcomes. Nearly 25% of children are exposed to a traumatic event and 1 in 6 adults reported that they experienced four or more types of ACEs (Adverse Childhood, 2020; Razza et al., 2019). This grant proposal is to implement a mindfulness education curriculum in schools to address this problem. In research studies conducted on trauma-exposed adults and children, mindfulness interventions have...

Hello everyone, as part of my graduate coursework, I've written a grant proposal that proposes a trauma-informed public health intervention for providing culturally appropriate mental health services for the Southeast Asian American community in Long Beach, California. Below, I give an overview of my grant and discuss applicable trauma-informed principles, levels of the social-ecological model, and public health framework. Overview Southeast Asian American (SEAA) communities in the United...

By, Felicia Nelson, Christina Velez, and Mark Egan 7/19/21 A pioneer in the field of internal medicine, Dr. Vincent J. Felitti has over 50 years of experience with extensive knowledge in the areas of childhood trauma, the genetic disease Hemochromatosis, and obesity. Here at The Relationship Foundation, Dr. Vincent Felitti is our mentor and an inspiration to us all. He has spent a greater part of his life, serving as a co-principal for the ACEs Study. ACE stands for “Adverse Childhood...

Mental health is a serious problem among the inmates in our country. According to the Vera Institute of Justice, a premier criminal justice research and advocacy non-profit, mental illness is one of the most significant problems facing women in prison today (Subramanian, 2016). In 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice found that 31% of incarcerated women have a serious mental illness, while only 15% of men report the same (James, 2006).

One of the most critical public health issues to date is the mental health crisis that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated amongst people of color in the United States. Through our trauma-informed facility, RISE Creative Lab, our mission is to tend to the mental health needs of people of color in the vibrant NYC community. RISE Creative Lab stands for resilience-based, integrated social arts education. It is a trauma-informed educational arts lab that aims to bridge boundaries between...

The dose-response relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and mental illness is a public health concern. Findings from literature have illustrated the importance of early interventions in order to alleviate the effects of ACEs and improve children’s development (Felitti et al., 1998). The proposed grant seeks to explore ACEs in children aged 12-17 years old in Leon County, Florida. The provision of mental and physical resources at various levels of the social ecological...

Summary Adverse childhood experiences (ACE’s) have been identified as being avoidable, costly, and the largest threat to population health at the global level (Bellis et al., 2019). Identifying, mitigating, and even preventing ACE’s from happening, is a current task at hand for public health officials. Trauma-informed approaches have been identified as useful strategies in dealing with ACE’s. This grant proposal focuses on mitigating and preventing ACE’s by tackling them at the level of...

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...

Successful health equity strategies must be inclusive, and focus on all marginalized and minoritized persons and their communities. Any lesser view will continue to yield a faulty health equity equation.

Christina Bethell, Ph.D, MBA, MPH, founder of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI), principal author of the groundbreaking study on positive childhood experiences, and creator of the free Well Visit Planner, among other innovations. Two internationally-respected leaders and innovators in complementary aspects of early relational health and childhood and maternal health equity recently launched a partnership they believe will benefit everyone from newborn babies and...