April 2021

https://www.acesconnection.com/blog/514737199940474238

Thank you to everyone who was able to join this month's CTIPP CAN call, and a special thank you to Dan Jurman, Dave Ellis, Commissioner Christine Beyer, and Angela Medrano Sanchez for their wonderful and informative presentations about the work in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We learned about strategies that have proven effective for launching statewide trauma-informed initiatives. If you were unable to join, would like to watch again, or want to share with others, you can find the call...

By Sharon Roerty, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, April 15, 2021 Earth Day will be 51 years young this April 22 nd —and I have been a witness to every one of them. The environmental activism that it launched and inspired has shaped me as an individual, shaped culture in the U.S. and beyond, and shaped the planet we all share. And it continues to evolve, as evident by the present-day focus on environmental justice and disproportionate health impacts felt by low-income communities and...

By Richard E. Besser and Julie Morita, USA TODAY, April 19, 2021 Americans face a challenge of our own making on the path to herd immunity: our failure to properly consider the needs of children. While we can celebrate the fact that more than 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the U.S., few of them, outside of clinical trials, have gone into the arms of children younger than 16. That’s why we need to recalibrate our expectations — and redouble our efforts — so...

By Kara Odom Walker, Josh Rising, Daniella Gratale, HealthAffairs, April 21, 2021 The long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and youth will not be known for many years. Although these age groups are remarkably resilient, they have experienced wide-scale adverse childhood events related to the increase in poverty, mental, and emotional stressors and the learning loss that has occurred. The December 2020 COVID-19 relief law ( Public Law 116-260 ) and the March 2021 American...

By Jenalee Doom, Psychology Today, April 21, 2021 Several national and state-level organizations have led efforts to increase awareness about the negative impacts of adverse childhood experiences on mental and physical health from childhood through adulthood. These adverse childhood experiences are profoundly negative experiences children can have that include childhood abuse, neglect, witnessing domestic violence , or having a caregiver with severe mental illness or who is in prison, for...

Thursday, May 13, 2021 | 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm (PT) Our multidisciplinary team has developed a training program to help health care trainees learn how to better address the sequelae of childhood trauma in their adult patients. We will describe the history of this program and our experiences from over 800 simulated patient encounters. ○ Describe development of an ACEs training program for health trainees caring for adult patients ○ Describe the components of the Professional ACEs Informed...

There are many theories about childhood trauma and how it affects the bodies and minds of children and how these experiences shape adults. One of the most interesting of all of them is what is called the polyvagal theory. First described in 1994 by Stephen W. Porges, a distinguished university scientist, the polyvagal theory has caught the attention of millions including therapists and theorists of all types. This is the first of a series on the polyvagal theory and this piece will focus on...

By Jennifer Hays-Grudo and Amanda Sheffield Morris, The Good Men Project, April 19, 2021 Adversity, such as abuse, neglect, and poverty, damages children. But protective experiences can build resilience against adversity and promote positive development. We identified 10 relationships and resources proven to counter the impact of adverse experiences. They have hidden magic that can transform an otherwise miserable childhood. Perhaps a child has been abused and has an alcoholic or depressed...

By Treva Lind, The Spokesman-Reveiw, April 19, 2021 Lessons learned in the garden can grow immeasurably for children as a portal into the natural world. Take it from a Spokane gardener who has helped kids harvest plant-based knowledge for 15 years. Sue Malm, a WSU Master Gardener since 2006, leads the program’s youth committee. She’s visited many school gardens, science fairs and classrooms, gaining tips on how to lead children toward a love of gardening. And she’s witnessed much learning...

By Alison Giovanelli and Arthur J. Reynolds, Preventive Medicine, July 2021 Abstract Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been definitively linked with cross-domain life course well-being. While scales measuring the ten “Conventional” ACEs (ACEs-C; intrafamilial experiences of abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction) are parsimonious, use of such scales alone may fail to capture crucial information about adversity, particularly in youth growing up in underresourced areas. Patterns and...

By Bethany Ao, The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 13, 2021 As a student at Central High School, Andre Pak felt like it wasn’t possible to talk honestly about his feelings and emotions with his peers in a supportive environment. So during his senior year, he joined Creative Resilient Youth (CRY), a collective of 10 teens who use art to address the gaps in mental health dialogues at schools in the Philadelphia area. Last year, Pak, now a 20-year-old sophomore at Drexel University, completed a...