Trauma Informed Mental Health Recovery for Adults in Residential Care
A non-clinical, boots-on-the-ground approach to offering restorative services to individuals seeking sustainable change in their lives.
October 2020
ACEs, Trauma, Heroes and Hydras. (I can explain.)
Remember those scenes in Hercules movies where the hero battles the multi-headed dragon called a hydra. You cut off one head and more appear. It took every ounce of creativity and strength for Hercules to defeat all those twisting heads. That pretty much describes life in the US today. It's just one crisis after another. Heroic people battle what we call three-headed hydras, people guided only by apathy, envy and fear. They are the so-called leaders that have allowed a pandemic to grow. We...
National Press Foundation Webinar and Dr. Shonkoff
The following is a letter I sent to Dr. Jack Shonkoff of Harvard University. Dr. Shonkoff, My name is David Dooley. Wednesday during the National Press Foundation webinar you answered a question I submitted. The question was… ”In an effort to prevent the aces associated with unsupportive and harmful parenting, should public health organizations be developing a new kind of parenting education...one that reaches everyone, everywhere, all the time. Perhaps parenting education campaigns akin to...
‘A Battle for the Souls of Black Girls’ [NYTimes]
Discipline disparities between Black and white boys have driven reform efforts for years. But Black girls are arguably the most at-risk student group in the United States. BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Zulayka McKinstry’s once silly, sociable daughter has stopped seeing friends, talking to siblings and trusting anyone — changes Ms. McKinstry dates to the day in January 2019 when her daughter’s school principal decided that “hyper and giddy” were suspicious behaviors in a 12-year-old girl. Ms.
Immigrant Legal Resource Center Report Catalogues 100+ Policy Changes That Have Devastated Immigrants [ilrc.org]
From Immigrant Legal Resource Center, October 1, 2020 A new report, a collaboration between the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) and the University of San Francisco School of Law Immigration & Deportation Defense Clinic, has catalogued 100+ policies that have detrimentally affected countless immigrants. The report divides the policies into six categories: preventing entry; denying status; taking away status; destroying due process; detaining, deporting and terrorizing; and,...
The Healing Place Podcast: Fritzi Horstman - Defining Justice; Forgiveness; Impact of Untreated ACEs; & the Compassion Prison Project
Fritzi Horstman is the Founder and Executive Director of the Compassion Prison Project an organization dedicated to bringing compassion, childhood trauma awareness and creative inspiration to all men and women living behind bars. She directed “Step Inside the Circle,” after working with 30 incarcerated men living at Kern Valley State Prison for over a year and learning about the extent of their childhood trauma.
ACEs Aware Virtual Professional Learning Collaborative for School-Based Health Center Medi-Cal Providers
With funding from the ACEs Aware Initiative, Education Training and Research (ETR), the California School-Based Health Alliance (CSHA), and consultants, Drs. Naomi Schapiro and Victoria Keeton, are partnering to host a 6-session, virtual professional learning collaborative with a cohort of 8 licensed Medi-Cal Providers from School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs) across California operated by community health centers and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Please see the attached...
We Can Reduce Childhood Toxic Stress without ACEs Screening
ACEs research has highlighted the significant public health challenges that childhood adversity and toxic stress create. Surgeon General Harris is right to give priority to addressing those challenges, but public health officials have better alternatives than universal ACE screening to respond to them.
Starting New Trauma Division of American Counseling Association
The American Counseling Association (ACA) is the flagship for Professional Counselors across the United States. A handful of dedicated members are preparing an application for Organizational Affiliate (OA) -- the stepping stone organization to full Division -- in ACA focused exclusively on counseling for traumatic stress, resilience, and post-traumatic growth. Why this? Great question! Because trauma counseling differs sufficiently from the broader field of mental health counseling to...
New Laws Keep Pandemic-Weary California at the Forefront of Health Policy Innovation [khn.org]
By Samantha Young and Angela Hart, Kaiser Health News, October 1, 2020 Though COVID-19 forced California leaders to scale back their ambitious health care agenda, they still managed to enact significant new laws intended to lower consumer health care spending and expand access to health coverage. When Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom concluded the chaotic legislative year Wednesday — his deadline to sign or veto bills — what emerged wasn’t the sweeping platform he and state lawmakers had...
Outdoor classes and 'forest school' gain new prominence amid distance learning struggles [edsource.org]
By Karen D'Souza, EdSource, October 1, 2020 Stomping through puddles, scrambling over fallen logs and digging in the dirt with sticks may not sound like traditional educational activities, but they are core parts of the curriculum in “forest schools.” Learning amid the leaves is the hallmark of a forest school, an immersive outdoor education model devoted to the exploration of nature. Forest schools, which have their roots in Scandinavian educational tradition, generally focus on preschool...
Embedding Legal Support in Preventive Health Care [chapinhall.org]
By Angeline Spain, Angela (Sander) Garza, Julie McCrae, et al., Chapin Hall, October 2020 Health care systems are increasingly recognizing the value of legal expertise as a tool for addressing some of the social and material needs that can impact healthy child development and family well-being. Medical–legal partnerships, a model for integrating legal services and expertise into healthcare settings, have expanded rapidly in the past decade. These partnerships can amplify the ability of...
Committee members hear about impact of racism on kids [southernminn.com]
By Jonathan Mohr, Owatonna People's Press, September 30, 2020 Adverse childhood experiences and adverse community environments are often the underlying problems that derail healthy growth and development in children. And although this “pair of ACEs” can impact kids everywhere, when combined with systemic racism, they create inequities that children in some communities may eventually spend their whole lives struggling to overcome. The House Select Committee on Racial Justice learned more...
New Resource in Trauma-Informed Design!
Interested in Trauma-Informed Design concepts, but don't know where to begin? Check out this new website! www.https://traumainformeddesign.org/ Trauma informed design used to be a nicety, now it is a necessity. Businesses now have to deal with the wellbeing of its employees like never before. Seeing a need for a unified location to showcase the amazing work of designers, psychologists, educators, architects, and other professionals in the trauma-informed design world, the website was...
Mental health bills signed by Governor—but new data shows much more is needed to address crisis!
In recent days Governor Newsom signed into law three bills that take important steps to improve access to mental health care in California: AB 2112 establishes a state office of suicide prevention SB 803 will certify and train Peer Support Specialists that can bill Medi-Cal SB 855 increases mental health parity requirements commercial health plans Together these bills acknowledge our racialized crisis of despair (AB 2112), launch the formal integration and honoring of lived experience in our...