July 2021

By Natalia Rodriguez Medina and Tom Kisken, Democrat & Chronicle, July 12, 2021 Through 27 years of marriage, Amalia and Félix Santiago have taken care of each other. The devotion, in their eyes, is a duty. It is what they vowed. When Félix Santiago, 84, started showing signs of dementia two years ago, his wife took notice. He could not remember the names of movies a half-hour after watching them. He forgot his address and his phone number. "When you see the person you love going through...

I know the Echo parenting course is life-changing — not least because as a parent I've experienced the benefits myself— but we at Echo don’t always get to hear the individual stories of the families we serve. However, at the onset of the pandemic, we were making a lot of calls to help parents transition from in-person to online classes. As a result, I got to talk to two parents—Kenia and Lilian—who were so generous in their appreciation of the parenting course and so clear about how this...

Childhood PTSD is, in its essence, an injury to our ability to connect with other people. You may have sensed the injury, but you likely considered it a personal failing. You saw other people easily connecting, and you thought your difficulties were because you were doing something wrong. We now know that abuse and neglect in childhood can literally change your brain and restrict the normal cognitive processes that enable you to seek out and connect with good, appropriate people to bring...

Leaders of PACEs science initiatives in four North Carolina counties are eager to begin measuring the impact of their work to solve the most intractable problems in their respective communities. Tommy Taylor “Each of these broad-based, cross-sector task forces is about preventing childhood trauma and its negative effects on long-term health. We want to heal trauma and create and build on positive childhood experiences in our communities so individuals, families, and communities themselves...

Research publications this month include a focus on ACEs and childhood obesity, on racial inequities in ACEs in teens, the prevalence of ACEs in women undergoing treatment for opioid use, and separate papers about the links between ACEs and cancer, ACEs and heart disease, and ACEs and asthma.

PACEs Connection is excited to announce that Mendocino ACEs Community Resilience Team has joined the Cooperative of Communities! Mendocino County elicits visions of the rugged Northern California coastline, rolling hills studded with oaks and pear trees, and redwood forests. The rural, vast county, with 3,870 square miles, is nearly the same size as Delaware and Rhode Island combined. As advocates for children and savvy strategists, Sheryn Hildebrand and Patrice Mascolo are changing the...

By Zara Abrams, American Psychological Association, July 1, 2021 James* was born to a mother who suffered from chronic depression and a substance use disorder. She never physically abused him, but she could not provide consistent care. As a result, he faced poverty, homelessness, and severe neglect throughout his childhood. At one point, James was temporarily removed from his mother’s care and placed in a foster home, where he witnessed family violence and experienced emotional abuse. When...

From National Alliance on Mental Illness, July 7, 2021 The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) announced today that it is closing its national office for a week to provide employees paid time off for a mental health break from what has been a tumultuous year and a half of virtual work caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The NAMI HelpLine will remain operational from 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. ET Monday-Friday. NAMI’s national office will close Aug. 1-Aug. 8. NAMI is encouraging its employees to...

By Ashley Robinson, Regina Leader-Post, July 8, 2021 Trauma is at the nature of addiction, according to Dr. Gabor Mate. “Addiction is only a symptom, it’s not the fundamental problem. The fundamental problem is trauma,” said Mate. Mate was in Regina on Wednesday to speak at the sixth International Training Symposium on Innovative Approaches to Justice: Where Justice and Treatment Meet. The conference started Tuesday and runs until Friday at the Hotel Saskatchewan. Judges, lawyers,...

When presented strategically, data can help tell an important story about childhood trauma. Here are a few tips for presenting numbers in ways that advance efforts to reduce adversity, promote resilience, and improve health outcomes.

Please welcome these six new communities to the PACEsConnection.com network! Louisiana First Foundation PACEs Connection PACEs in East Africa and the Horn PACEs Thailand PACEs & Trauma Informed Community Malaysia Project PACEs at PSS (NJ) Trauma Informed Health Care Education and Research (TIHCER) Collaborative Details about each of them are below as is information about starting and growing your community initiatives and joining the Cooperative of Communities . Louisiana First...

Over the past year since leaving an administrative position in healthcare as a Trauma Informed Administrator to launch as a full time consultant and advocate, I've been educating professionals around the science of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Positive Childhood Experiences, and in using a Trauma Informed Approach to service delivery. In my journey, I've encountered two wonderful surprises. Along with the joys of training professionals such as childcare leaders in two states; police...