March 2017

Research shows physical changes happen in a child's brain once they experience trauma. It's now believed those changes lay the foundation for other issues later in life that could lead those children to juvenile court. "If you are traumatized emotionally, physiologically, or in other ways, it's a little harder to tell that that's happened," Dr. Althea Stewart said. Stewart is the director of the Center for Health in Justice Involved Youth. Children often internalize the traumatic life...

Anthony Alvarado paces the gym floor at Nature Hill Intermediate School in Oconomowoc. His gaze alternates between the floor and the students in front of him. The handheld microphone sends his voice over the gym's PA system. “Our job is not to change every single one of your lives," Alvarado tells the hundreds of students gathered on bleachers. "Our goal is to change just one.” [For more of this story, written by Nathan Phelps and Alison Dirr, go to ...

As he left the courthouse on his final day serving as head of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago, Zachary Fardon handed reporters an open letter . He was one of 46 U.S. Attorneys sacked by President Donald Trump , in part because he didn’t fit within the White House’s (and U.S. Justice Department’s) new criminal justice scheme. In the five-page document, he offered his prescription for saving the youth of Chicago , now perhaps the most embattled city in the United States . Brick and...

SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ‘GET OUT’ “When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it.” —Carter G. Woodson The Mis-Education of the Negro Get out for your safety. Get out of this neighborhood. Get out of Black minds. There’s so much symbolism to unpack in Jordan Peele’s film Get Out. The psychological thriller is about how a black...

Separate from its new California School Dashboard, the California Department of Education has prepared another online resource that some school officials say may be more useful than the dashboard itself. It consists of color grids showing a breakdown of how every school in a district did on each performance indicator, with links to each school’s dashboard report. The California Model Five-by-Five Placement Reports & Data , as the site is called, is a one-stop school comparison tool that...

I strongly believe that those of us who do understand at least a little bit about ACEs are as carriers of the trauma solutions -- like someone might be a carrier of a disease.

"Medicine should join our community organizations and agencies and experts to work towards creating healthier families and children."- Dr. Robert Shapiro, Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center The Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center spearheads the Building Community Resilience (BCR) initiative that now spans over 40 organizations and sectors in the greater Cincinnati region. The Mayerson Center, the child abuse...

You’re invited to join U.S. Senator Dick Durbin and U.S. Representative Danny Davis at a news conference announcing the introduction of the Trauma Informed Care for Children and Families Act which addresses the lack of identification, referral, and immediate support for children who experience trauma in the Chicago metropolitan area and throughout the nation. The bill aims to provide the tools parents, teachers, doctors, service providers, and first responders need to identify and understand...

Suicide in Ireland is intrinsically linked with men. According to figures from the Office for Suicide Prevention (HSE), of the 451 suicides in 2015, 375 were male and 76 were female. Figures were similar in 2014, with 399 male suicides to 87 female. However, although over four times more men take their own lives than women, Ireland has the highest rate for child suicide of girls in Europe. The shocking statistic was highlighted at the World Congress on Women's Health held recently in Dublin...

The challenge of educating urban students within the context of poverty, trauma, abuse and other socio-economic factors that contribute to students’ lives can be overwhelming and seemingly impossible for urban educators. Research from the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) studies demonstrates, however, that urban students are at significantly higher risks for negative health factors as adults because they lack resiliency fostered in safe, loving environments. Eric Jensen, author of...

Climate change is not only an environmental issue, but a major threat to public health, according to 11 U.S. medical societies. It's an issue that many people do not know exists, even though it may already affect them, the groups warned in a new report. "We want to get the message out that climate change is affecting people's health right now," said Dr. Mona Sarfaty. She's director of the group collective the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health. More frequent and more intense...

GettinG Started. the San Francisco Department of public health (SFDph)’s “trauma-informed Systems” (tiS) initiative began in 2012 with a workgroup commissioned by the Department’s Director, Barbara garcia, and chaired by Dr. Ken Epstein, Director of Children, Youth and Families. SFDph recognized trauma and toxic stress as a critical health concerns, with detrimental effects on agencies, people served, and across generations. [For more go to ...