January 2020

2020 is starting out in a most unexpected, but an exciting way for The Relentless School Nurse. American Nurse , the official journal of the ANA has a special feature called "My Nurse Influencers," and I have been chosen as one of the monthly contributors. To say I am honored, thrilled, humbled, and a bit stunned is a huge understatement. The fact that school nurses are being recognized as the specialty practice we all know that we have been for more than 110 years, fills me with a sense of...

By Barbara Feder Ostrov, California Healthline, January 7, 2020 Starting this year, routine pediatric visits for millions of California children could involve questions about touchy family topics, such as divorce, unstable housing or a parent who struggles with alcoholism. California now will pay doctors to screen patients for traumatic events known as adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, if the patient is covered by Medi-Cal — the state’s version of Medicaid for low-income families. The...

Peter Maldonado of Newman, California will be the special guest on "Breaking the Silence with Dr. Gregory Williams" this Sunday evening from 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm Central Standard Time. Peter is a Substance Abuse Counselor and Recovery Specialist in Modesto, California where he counsels patients who struggle with opioid use disorder in the Golden Valley Health Center Medication Assisted Treatment Clinic. He will be discussing his life's journey from being sentenced to 18 years to Life in prison...

In the face of the many crtics and detractors, we salute California who will start screening for ACEs. This will serve the children and general population, as well as advance research and good statistics. #MoveHeartsWinMindsGrowSupport “The fact of screening is also an intervention,” Long said. “Being able to sit in a room with a pediatrician is not going to make those hard experiences go away, but it creates a freedom to talk about some things that are solvable. That’s therapeutic in and of...

Cissy's note: Another great interview with @Louise Godbold keeping the conversation centered on survivors, the ACEs study, healing, and change. She talks about how "trauma begets trauma.," in a way that gives a wider context and remains hopeful. I'm so grateful for Louise and her tireless work and insights, even when it means making herself vulnerable and allowing us to get beyond headlines to understand, at every step the experiences of survivors who come forward as well as organizations...

By Stephanie James, Napa Valley Register, January 2, 2020 California’s juvenile justice system has evolved as we have learned more about brain development, the effects of adverse childhood experiences and social, emotional, and mental health needs of our young people. While ensuring community safety, we have moved away from the old norms of an overly punitive system to one that follows research and science to fulfill the statutorily stated mission of juvenile justice: rehabilitation. I have...

By Emma Keith, The Norman Transcript, January 7, 2020 Jeremy Elledge thinks he can change Oklahoma. From where he sits, that’s a tall order. Elledge works in mental health services in a state that's top in the nation for childhood trauma. Oklahoma leads in female incarceration and heart disease mortality, and has high rates of child abuse and divorce, lending to the cycles of trauma that impact the state’s youngest residents, the Tulsa World reports. But Elledge wants to stop that cycle. For...

By Greg Barnes, North Carolina Health News, January 6, 2020 No one told Army veteran Carter Bryant about groundwater contamination near the Chemours Fayetteville Works plant when he bought a home there in July. Bryant said he knew almost nothing about GenX and other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — commonly known as PFAS or “forever chemicals” — before he and his family moved in. About two months later, Bryant said, he received a notice from Chemours stating that contaminants in his...

By Associated Press, The Washington Post, January 7, 2020 Maryland’s Health Department has received $3.6 million in federal funding to address opioid use among pregnant and new mothers. The department launched the initiative, called the “Maternal Opioid Model,” this month, according to a statement released by the agency on Monday. The initiative focuses on improving substance abuse treatment for pregnant and postpartum mothers on Medicaid by providing them with additional resources during...

By Perri Klass, The New York Times, January 6, 2020 In December, the American Academy of Pediatrics put out a new clinical report on autism, an extensive document with an enormous list of references, summarizing 12 years of intense research and clinical activity. During this time, the diagnostic categories changed — Asperger’s syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder, diagnostic categories that once included many children, are no longer used, and we now consider all these children (and...

Trauma and Transition

By Steve Davis and Peter Laugharn, July 29, 2019 The Seattle Times The World Health Organization just unveiled an initiative that could improve millions of children’s lives and boost the global economy by trillions of dollars. The initiative, known as the Nurturing Care Framework for Early Childhood Development , [ PDF attached ] seeks to change how we raise infants and toddlers. Children’s experiences during their first three years of life heavily influence their well-being as adults,...