February 2016

Some of us remember the bad old days when nobody wore seat belts and babies bounced on their mothers’ laps in the front seats of cars. For others, it’s the stuff of legend. Since the advent of seat belt laws in the late 1980’s, the proportion of people buckling up has skyrocketed from fewer than 15 percent to over 90 percent in many states. The laws required people to change their behavior initially and continuously until buckling up was a habit of mind and a social norm.

Our annual RWJF Culture of Health Prize honors and elevates communities across the United States that are making great strides in their journey toward better health.  A scan of the 2015 winners reveals something we’ve seen in previous years: There is no single blueprint. Even when solving common problems, these Prize communities innovate in their own ways. Each brings fresh ideas to the forefront and offers a unique perspective on how to holistically address our nation’s...

Children born to obese mothers with diabetes have more than four times the risk of developing autism spectrum disorder than children of healthy weight moms without diabetes, according to a new study at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The findings, published in the journal Pediatrics , add to the growing body of information that the risk for autism likely develops before the child is even born. [For more of this story, written by Traci Pedersen, go...

For kids in some Chicago neighborhoods, walking up and down the same street where there was a beating or a shooting or a body is just part of life — one that isn't always talked about. That's something the Urban Warriors program is trying to change. The YMCA of Metro Chicago project connects kids like Courtney-Clarks, who live in high-violence neighborhoods, with veterans who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan and who might understand what they're going through. The program is built...

A few months ago I published a blog, " A Mother's Rage". I re-accounted my rage and helplessness regarding my daughter's high school rape in Miami, FL. I ended my post with words of hope. I wrote how several years had passed since my daughter's assault. She was now engaged and pregnant with my first grandchild.  This is the rest of the story. I held my daughter's hand as she labored through the night with my grandson. I tried to comfort her fiancee who felt helpless. I rubbed her back,...

At this writing, ACEsConnection.com has more than 7,200 members. The number of members has been doubling every year since May 2012. In December, the network had just over 600,000 page views. In January, that climbed to nearly 750,000.   Not too long ago, Rosa Ana Lozada, CEO of Harmonium, Inc., in San Diego, CA, asked me: What is the philosophy behind ACEsConnection.com, and what guidelines did I use to organize it? I realize that, although I’ve told a few people, it might be...

The purpose of the Trauma-Informed Medicine E-Cases (TIMe) Initiative is to produce and implement a comprehensive set of online, interactive clinical cases for physicians and other healthcare providers. These cases focus on the prevalence, consequences, and impact of trauma, and how healthcare practitioners can provide trauma-informed care for diverse populations. The cases have been created to help providers acquire the knowledge and skills required to interact effectively with patients,...

Childhood traumas of various sorts can cause kindergartners to struggle in class as well as life, new research contends. A study of more than 1,000 urban children showed those with difficult experiences up until age 5 had math and reading difficulties and difficulty focusing in kindergarten, and were also more likely to have social problems and to be aggressive toward others. The experiences included neglect or physical, sexual or psychological abuse. They also included living in a household...

“Life cannot be lived without loss,” writes Toni Heineman in the opening of “Relational Trauma: Stories of Loss and Hope,” but “perhaps the most insidious loss for foster children is the continuity provided by a single person who keeps them in mind — the one person who can provide a bit of the certainty in a sea of change.” Founder and executive director of nonprofit therapy group A Home Within, Heineman has practiced psychotherapy with adults,...

When officials in four states were asked several years ago what tools they would need to divert youth from the juvenile justice system, a better understanding of trauma was at the top of all their lists. They wanted to help youth with behavioral conditions when they are evaluated for probation but said they couldn’t do so most effectively without understanding how traumatic experiences had affected the adolescents. A new report sets out a  framework for trauma-informed diversion...

I sent this last night. Let me know what you think! Jill Lepore’s article “Baby Doe” in the Feb. 1, 2016 issue , was a very well-written look at the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. I’m sorry to see that this system is still swinging between the same two tracks of family preservation or child removal, when the trend in helping children who are traumatized takes a very different approach. Lepore touched on that new trend with her descriptions of...

   Pediatrician Renée Boynton-Jarrett was working with young women in Trenton who had become pregnant as teenagers when she understood how poverty, food insecurity, violence, substandard housing and inadequate schools exacted a constant, toxic toll on people’s lives.    “It became profoundly evident to me that there’s a portion of humanity that experiences a chronic, insidious, daily violence and associated high levels of stress,” she said.