May 2020

By Kaiser Health News and The Guardian, May 15, 2020 America’s health care workers are dying. In some states, medical staff account for as many as 20% of known coronavirus cases. They tend to patients in hospitals, treating them, serving them food and cleaning their rooms. Others at risk work in nursing homes or are employed as home health aides. Some of them do not survive the encounter. Many hospitals are overwhelmed and some workers lack protective equipment or suffer from underlying...

By Eli Hager, The Marshall Project, May 12, 2020 They’re locked in cramped isolation cells 23 hours a day. They eat meals by the toilet and shout to their friends under the cell door. They interact only with corrections officers. It sounds like what happens to adults behind bars, but these are the conditions now facing many of the 44,000 youth incarcerated across the country. In the age of COVID-19, juvenile detention—required by federal and state laws to rehabilitate, not to punish—has...

By Joel Edouard, Milwaukee Courier, May 15, 2020 Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are defined as multiple risks factors such as child abuse, neglect, parental substance abuse and maternal depression experienced prior to an individual turning eighteen years old. The trauma of physical abuse is one ACE which commonly leads to substance abuse. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), childhood physical abuse is defined as “any non-accidental physical injury to the...

By Latanya West, San Diego Voice, May 15, 2020 In January 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Dr. Nadine Burke Harris as California’s first-ever Surgeon General. An award-winning physician, researcher and advocate, Dr. Burke Harris’ career has been dedicated to serving vulnerable communities and combating the root causes of health disparities. Her work is equally dedicated to changing the way our society responds to one of the most serious, expensive and widespread public health crises of...

By Alison Aubrey, National Public Radio, May 10, 2020 We are social creatures. So it's no surprise that quarantine fatigue has begun to set in. "Humans are wired to come together physically," says psychologist Judith Moskowitz of Northwestern University. But, loneliness has become widespread in modern life. And, social distancing has just exacerbated the problem, Moskowitz says. Social connection is essential to our well-being, since prolonged isolation can increase the risk of depression...

By Pioneer Center, May 11, 2020, Daily Herald. Pioneer Center employees are observing Illinois Trauma Informed Awareness Day on Friday, May 15, by providing Adverse Childhood Experience training sessions to staff. The training, approximately 90 minutes, is being offered twice on a live webinar. Pioneer Center in Woodstock continues to be in the forefront by providing our employees with the most updated information and lessons on trauma informed care. ACEs are potentially traumatic...

By Kevin Maurer, May 9, 2020, Port City Daily. WILMINGTON — Most days, Audrey Hart is doing well. But on a couple of days a week, the stress of the pandemic takes its toll on Hart, director of the New Hanover Disaster Coalition. How could it not when you’re the one who gets called when a hurricane is bearing down on the coast or a virus is overwhelming the world’s hospitals? Hart is far from alone. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are stark. Rising death tolls coupled with the cratering...

By Mike Cook, April 28, 2020, Las Cruces Bulletin. Even as COVID-19 stay-at-home orders are causing unintended spikes in child abuse and domestic violence, Las Cruces and the state of New Mexico continue as national leaders in the fight against these and other adverse childhood experiences (ACES). The state office overseeing that effort is moving to New Mexico State University. ACES include experiences before age 18 like physical and sexual abuse, neglect and living in an environment of...

Excerpt: "In the end, it will not be enough that adult experts declare schools “safe”. In the final, trauma-informed analysis, each child in their own body, brainstem, limbic system and HPA axis, must feel safe. They must be part of the task force. If the children don’t feel safe, it is all for naught."

By Tracy O' Connell, MedPage Today, May 5, 2020 As someone trained in Brené Brown 's curriculum for helping professionals, vulnerability is my jam. As a physician? Not so much. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown already burned-out healthcare providers into the arena with more than just a shortage of equipment. We are now expected to risk our own lives caring for others, which was not part of the original job description. Medical providers are not Marines, nor do we work for the Secret Service;...

By Stephen M. Strakowski, Nassir Ghaemi, and Andy Keller, Medscape, May 8, 2020 Stephen M. Strakowski, MD: Hello. I'm Steve Strakowski, and I'm glad to be back with you all again here at Medscape. We are talking today about something that's obviously on everyone's mind: the COVID-19 pandemic, and particularly how it impacts mental health. I'm the vice dean for research and a professor of psychiatry at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. We, like everyone, are...

By Vernon M. Billy, Cal Matters, May 15, 2020 School trustees and educators serve our public schools because they care for children and are committed to their learning and growth. We’re eager to welcome students back to campus when we can do so in a safe and supportive environment – and not a moment sooner. We don’t want to resume school at any cost or for the wrong reasons. We cannot jeopardize the safety of students because of the adult desire for a return to normalcy. And when we reopen...