It's Time for State Prevention Services Systems

How can we extend visiting home nursing to everyone?  That is what I would like to know because any child who develops a high ACE score, has a very, very high likelihood of experiencing some psychological rejection (emotional neglect) in infancy. 

The work of anthropologist Ronald Rohner who studied the meaning and implications of rejection transculturally, demonstrated that although cultures differ in the way rejection is expressed, across all cultures, rejection is a "psychological malignancy."   Rejection is associated with whatever is defined as a negative outcome in that culture.   This concept is essential to understand neglect in terms of psychological unavailability for the infant which results in so many developmentally necessary needs just not being present thus limiting or blocking the ability for healthy development.  

(Hello Dr. Garbarino) 

Parenting is a powerful social determinant of health.  Lucky children have parents who engage in parenting behaviors and practices generally recognized as supporting their healthy development.  Unlucky children have parents who neglect and abuse them.  These children will face multiple physical and mental health challenges.  This variability in the quality of parenting is unacceptable.

One simple thing everyone can do to elevate and level the quality of parenting in communities is to put a parenting tips bumper sticker on their vehicle.  Just driving your car will teach thousands of people something important about parenting.   There are fifty-one different parenting messages to choose from and organizations can order sets of the stickers for table or counter displays.  

Visit www.advancingparenting.org.  Use a computer...our website is not optimized for phones.  Advancing Parenting is a Camarillo, CA nonprofit, but our activities are nationwide.  Please share. 🙂

Prevention begins and ends with working to improve the overall quality of parenting in communities.  Children raised by parents who engaged in parenting behaviors and practices generally recognized as supporting their healthy development rarely adopt harming behaviors.  Conversely, children raised by parents who engaged in parenting behaviors and practices generally recognized as disrupting their healthy development often adopt harming behaviors. 

This begs the question...why aren’t organizations like the Centers for Disease Control, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the National Institute of Mental Health working furiously to find ways to improve the overall quality of parenting in the U.S.?  Perhaps parenting education campaigns akin to the smoking and seatbelts campaigns of the past?  

Visit www.advancingparenting.org.  Use a computer...our website is not optimized for phones.  In our own unique way we have adopted this approach to the primary prevention of harming behaviors.   Please share. 🙂

Most, if not all, of the ten original adverse childhood experiences are associated with unsupportive and harmful parenting.  This suggests that the most important lesson from the ACE Study is that aces can be prevented with parenting education.  Not conventional parenting education, but a new kind...one that reaches everyone, everywhere, all the time.  The Centers for Disease Control, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the National Institute of Mental Health should be working furiously on this new kind of parenting education.  Perhaps parenting education campaigns akin to the smoking and seatbelts campaigns of the past?  Perhaps multi-media messaging that teaches parenting behaviors and practices generally recognized as supporting the healthy development of children.  

Visit www.advancingparenting.org. Use a computer...our website is not optimized for phones.  We are all about finding interesting and perhaps more effective ways of doing parenting education.