September 2018

For anyone with a trauma history, Dr. Blasey Ford's story about what she experienced at age 15, which she alleges were perpetrated by two young men, acting with premeditation and in concert to trap her, keep her from calling for help, and then forcefully remove her clothes and rape her, is not only horrifying but also very triggering. I for one dread seeing how this will play out - and my heart is with Dr. Blasey Ford, who has managed to build a remarkable and resilient life in the face of...

On Monday evening, the U.S. Senate approved 99-1 the Opioid Crisis Response Act (OCRA) of 2018 (Senator Mike Lee, R-UT was the lone “no” vote). The rare, multi-committee, bipartisan bill includes significant provisions taken from or aligned with the goals of the Heitkamp-Durbin Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act (S. 774) , including the creation of an interagency task force to identify trauma-informed best practices and grants for trauma-informed practices in schools. The...

As the community facilitator for the Southeastern U.S., I'm excited to announce our newest ACEs Connection geographic community: Florida ACEs Connection . This community is a collaborative effort of state agencies; schools; institutes of higher learning; faith, community, and grassroots organizations; and other interested individuals. They are providing education and training on trauma informed approaches and interventions to mitigate the negative effects of stress and adversity on children...

It's common knowledge that bad experiences in childhood can cause serious problems later in life. Abuse, neglect, exposure to violence, substance abuse and other serious "adverse childhood experiences" (ACEs) impact everything from brain development, learning and mental health to migraines, cancer and autoimmune disease. But if you ask me, the worst damage from ACEs shows up in the ways we seek and create romantic relationships -- the unavailable people, the people we just met, the addicts,...

Outside looking in , you may think foster youth got it made. In California, youth in foster care are eligible for several state and federal grants aimed at helping them succeed in college. But the truth is, even state and federal scholarships, grants and loans allocated for foster youth are not enough to support success in higher education. As college students head back to campus for the start of the school year, it’s a good time to remember that government assistance may not be enough to...

Students who witness violence in school at age 13 are at later risk of psycho-social and academic impairment at age 15, according to a new longitudinal study by researchers at Université de Montréal with colleagues in Belgium and France. In the study, published today in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Michel Janosz of UdeM's School of Psycho-Education and his international team looked at a stratified cohort of nearly 4,000 Quebec high-school students. The researchers...

Just days before students came back for the new school year this August, Houston Independent School District teachers gathered at Houston Baptist University. They were there learning things like how to better track student data and prepare kids for standardized tests. Mary Young was there to talk to teachers about trauma. Young is a school behavioral-health trainer with Mental Health America of Greater Houston. “How many kids do you think have experienced any type of trauma, including...

Disorders of the mind have meant different things to different people at different times. In Plato’s “Phaedrus,” Socrates extols divinely inspired madness in mystics, lovers, poets and prophets; he describes these disturbances as gifts of the gods, rather than maladies. Premodern Europeans more commonly despised the insane, but barely distinguished them from others their society rejected; madmen were imprisoned alongside beggars, blasphemers and prostitutes. Some modern cultures have notions...

When researchers first discovered a link in the late 1990s between childhood adversity and chronic health problems later in life, the real revelation was how common those experiences were across all socioeconomic groups. But the first major study to focus on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) was limited to a single healthcare system in San Diego. Now a new study — the largest nationally representative study to date on ACEs — confirms that these experiences are universal, yet highlights...

Hope Brown can make $60 donating plasma from her blood cells twice in one week, and a little more if she sells some of her clothes at a consignment store. It’s usually just enough to cover an electric bill or a car payment. This financial juggling is now a part of her everyday life—something she never expected almost two decades ago when she earned a master’s degree in secondary education and became a high school history teacher. Brown often works from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. at her school in...

About one in 11 households receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits would lose eligibility under certain provisions of the House Farm Bill—H.R. 2, the Agriculture Improvement Act—according to a microsimulation conducted by Mathematica Policy Research. Using SNAP data from fiscal year 2015, the analysis, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, found that nearly 2 million participating households would no longer be eligible. Among these households, 34% (677,000...

While the exact number is not known because many instances of exploitation go unreported, the National Human Trafficking Hotline and BeFree Textline report that roughly 25% of the calls they receive are from minors. Because there is always hope and people that are there to help you along the journey — and no one knows this better than the survivor-leaders who've gone on to help other survivors find their strength again. One such leader is Dr. Karen Countryman-Boswurm, founder and executive...