February 2019

With dedication to innovation in trauma-informed care measurement and implementation, the Traumatic Stress Institute (TSI) will soon launch a fully-automated, online version of the widely-used ARTIC Scale. The new online platform will enable organizations and service systems to assess and monitor trauma-informed care in a manner that is user-friendly, secure and cost-effective. Its powerful features include: Online administration at mulitple time points Fully-automated data management and...

It's time: Time to act. Time to make history. Time to end childhood trauma. Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, doesn't just impact the majority of our young children in New Mexico. The trauma associated with ACEs affects students of all ages: from kindergarten through high school; even following many teens as they struggle with college. For our children, trauma results from experiences of: physical and emotional neglect; physical, emotional and sexual abuse; and living in households...

Now that we know adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can cause neurological changes, the old, mostly psychological approaches to treating CPTSD are making way for newer, brain-based treatments that hold promise for millions of survivors. In this video I talk about four discoveries that transformed our old understanding of the problem. I describe more effective strategies that support healing from the form of CPTSD thatI call Childhood PTSD, whether or not you have access to good...

Join the Illinois ACE’s Response Collaborative and Andrea Ortez of Partnership for Resilience to discuss how organizers, educators, and clinicians can utilize community partnerships to provide trauma-informed support to both teachers and students. Partnership for Resilience, originally known as the “Southland Education and Health Initiative,” works to increase the capacity of teachers, administrators, and health care professionals by establishing meaningful and impactful partnerships between...

It’s no secret childhood trauma can affect your mental health either as a child or later in life. There are many individual treatment efforts after trauma has already occurred but few resources to prevent trauma or identify which children are at a higher risk. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) wants to change this. It suggests that childhood trauma, which is much more common than many believe, should be considered a public health issue. Unlike other studies on...

Racial segregation is usually discussed in the context of where we live, and for good reason. Government policies forced people of color into poor, racially segregated neighborhoods, which were incredibly harmful to residents. And these neighborhoods ended up being the basis for how we form our social networks . But if our environments matter so much, what about the place we spend most of our lives : the workplace? [For more on this story by Alvin Chang, go to...

Dealing with homelessness is difficult under the best of circumstances, but some state laws make life even more challenging for runaway and homeless youth. Nearly 80 percent of U.S. jurisdictions have statutes allowing police to take unaccompanied minors into custody, and 16 percent consider running away a status offense that is punishable by law, according to a report that reviewed laws in all 50 states and six territories. Four states — Illinois, Michigan, North Dakota and South Dakota —...

For decades, the rate of cancer incidence and deaths from the disease among African-Americans in the United States far outpaced that of whites. But the most recent analysis of national data by the American Cancer Society suggests that "cancer gap" is shrinking: In recent years, death rates from four major cancers have declined more among blacks than among whites. The report was published online Thursday in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer...

New baby. Sick parents. Personal illness. Regardless of the circumstances, taking unpaid time off is not an option for many Americans. But some relief may be on the horizon. Leaders from both sides of the aisle have recently expressed support for some form of a paid family leave program at the federal level. (As President Trump put it in his State of the Union address last week: Nationwide paid family leave would ensure that “every new parent has the chance to bond with their newborn...

Imagine the following scenario: Your eight-year-old son is repeatedly poked with a pencil by his classmate at school. How does he respond? He might endure the pokes without complaint by using willpower, or he might stay silent, succumbing to feelings of fear or powerlessness. He could lose his self-control and act out, attacking his classmate verbally or poking him back. Or does your son “self-regulate” by considering his options and resources, taking stock of his feelings and strengths,...

Over the last year, Rebecca, a 35-year-old woman living in Washington, DC, had been losing sleep over the seemingly endless flow of apocalyptic environmental news. She fretted about the Trump administration’s loosening of emissions regulations and the United Nations’ dire predictions about climate change. In October, she sought help from a psychiatrist who put her on an antidepressant. “It sort of saps your emotional reserves,” she says, “this constant background feeling of anxiety.” Forty...

Physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, child life professionals, and other patient service providers are invited and encouraged to join a webinar entitled: "Crossroads of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Developmental Disabilities" Increased levels of toxic stress, which can be caused by recurrent or chronic exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), can impair neurodevelopment, behavior, and overall health of a child (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services...