February 2020

From National Interoperability Collaborative, February 28, 2020 Daniel Heimpel, Publisher of The Chronicle of Social Change, will discuss major child welfare developments relating to: implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act; new federal funds to pay for legal representation of children in juvenile dependency proceedings; and the system’s increased reliance on relative caregivers. Adam Pertman, President of the National Center on Adoption and Permanency and author of the...

What is the economic toll of ACEs in the State of California? $112.5 billion , said California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris to attendees of a webinar on February 26. That cost, she said, was one clear reason that she and other early adopters of screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences are urging their fellow health care providers in California to join the ACEs Aware Initiative that launched at the beginning of the year. In January, the State of California put screening...

By Julie Uchitel, Errol Alden, Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, et al., Pediatrics, December 2019 Millions of children are subjected to abuse, neglect, and displacement, and millions more are at risk for not achieving their developmental potential. Although there is a global movement to change this, driven by children’s rights, progress is slow and impeded by political considerations. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a global comprehensive commitment to children’s rights ratified...

From Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities, February 21, 2020 On February 18, 2020, nationally recognized experts discussed policy and advocacy strategies on local, state, and national levels using evidence from studies they have conducted with legislators and the general public. Speakers shared advocacy and messaging "how to’s" including communicating the effects of structural racism as an ACE, fostering equity as an essential component of resilience, and leveraging the power of...

By Vivek Sankaran, The Chronicle of Social Change, February 17, 2020 Last week , NBC ran a troubling story involving Wisconsin doctor John Cox, who lost custody of his daughter after he accidentally fell asleep on top of her. He feared he broke her collarbone so he immediately called his wife, also a doctor. While the baby appeared to be fine, his wife suggested he take her to the hospital. But in Cox’s words, “[T]aking her to our own hospital was the single most harmful decision that we...

This collection of reports, shared with edited highlights, is posted in hopes of raising awareness of the consequences of race-based traumatic stress and ways to help heal and prevent race-based trauma. 1. Crossing the Racial Rubicon Noted mental health practitioner, Dr. Alan Siskind says: “It is critically important to recognize race-based traumatic stress and not ignore its psychological and emotional impact even though there are numerous pressures to deny or under-estimate the impact of...

Understanding our Place in a Complex World We live in a complex world where we can be easily manipulated if we do not understand how social media, visual arts, fear, and charismatic speakers affect us. Our lifestyles lead many of us to accept the status quo, even when others suffer social injustice. The following courses at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) can help you analyze the past and present of the world around us, uncover social injustice occurring in your community, and give...

By Jonice Webb PhD Last updated: 8 Dec 2019 The official definition of the word Numb is, “Deprived of the power of sensation; without feeling.” The official definition of the word Empty is, “Containing nothing; not filled or occupied.” Of course, the word “numb” is used to describe a physical sensation, for example, “My leg is numb from cold.” And the word “empty” commonly applies to physical objects, such as, “This basket is empty.” But these two words also have meanings far beyond the...

Are you struggling to help a child who has been through hard times? Does the child seem unreachable, unmanageable, and unwilling to try? Are you at your at the end of your rope with explosive behavior? If so, I have a concept to share with you that might help the two of you connect and increase positive interactions within your family or classroom. I want to start by saying that it can be incredibly frustrating and anxiety-provoking to witness a child who is suffering emotionally without the...

In Pakistan, seven hundred thousand children’s are addicted to drugs. Seven hundred children die of drug addiction in the country. That number is higher than the people who have been killed by terrorism. Over ten hundred thousand children’s are between the age of 16 to 18 regularly using heroin. Another three hundred thousand children are addicted to cannabis or marijuana. Pakistan has a high number of children suffering with cannabis and marijuana due to low price and easy access to drugs.

The Traumatic Stress Institute (TSI) is hosting a FREE webinar for leaders in health, trauma, and trauma-informed care (TIC) to preview the new Online ARTIC , a cutting-edge online tool for measuring TIC. Register today here . The Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC) Scale is one of the only validated measures of TIC. It measures professional and para-professional attitudes toward TIC, has been used globally by over 200 entities, and administered to 25,000 respondents. First...

By Xenia Shih Bihon, California Health Care Foundation, February 24, 2020 Recent polling shows that health care continues to be top of mind for most Americans. A survey conducted by Politico and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (PDF) found that the vast majority of Americans rank lowering health care costs and prescription drug prices as their top domestic priorities for President Donald Trump and Congress. And, in a recent Gallup poll, Americans ranked health care as an...