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Good afternoon everyone, California is facing a crisis: we rank near the bottom of states when it comes to our kids. And, education is where California is furthest behind other states. Our K-12 schools have larger class sizes, fewer counselors and nurses, stripped-down course offerings, and fewer support services than almost every other state. Additionally, early learning has never been sufficiently prioritized. And, even with higher education, California, once heralded for its historic...

Louise Godbold is the Executive Director of Echo. Before joining Echo in 2010, she worked for over 15 years in the nonprofit field, both in nonprofit management and as a consultant. Louise is the developer and lead trainer for Echo’s curricula on trauma and resilience. She is a trauma survivor and #MeToo silence breaker.

Have you ever had the experience where you know you should do something -- like go to work on time, or get ready for an important meeting, or just brush your teeth before bed -- but you just couldn't do it? Everybody procrastinates sometimes, but for people who experienced abuse and neglect in childhood, procrastinating can morph into a kind of paralysis. I’ve had this happen; I’ve spent whole seasons in this place before. And it's so demoralizing when it’s happening to know that you’re here...

By Eleanor Feldman Barbera, McKnight's Long-Term Care News, November, 19 , 2019 With trauma-related F-tags beginning in less than two weeks, many providers have spent months training their staff and feel quite prepared to manage this sensitive aspect of resident mental health care. For those who might not be completely ready for the Nov. 28 start date, I offer below some basics on trauma-informed care practices. While none of us know exactly how the survey process will play out, these...

By Ashley Lyles, MedPage Today, November 19, 2019 Patient: I'd gotten pregnant again and I was using through my whole pregnancy, and I didn't receive prenatal care. He was born and he's fine and everything. The [Department of Social Services] let me bring him home. Then a week after I had him, I relapsed really, really bad. Then, I got really messed up and they took my kid. Reporter: The opioid epidemic has taken a toll in rural areas, especially on pregnant women. Doctors and healthcare...

By Bob Erlenbusch and Drew Factor, California Health Report, November 20, 2019 “Adverse childhood experiences are the single greatest unaddressed public health threat facing our nation today,” Dr. Robert Block, former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has been widely quoted as saying. According to the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, conducted in the 1990’s by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and Kaiser Permanente, adverse childhood experiences are common,...

By Manny Fernandez and Tamir Kalifa, The New York Times, November 20, 2019 Luis Calvillo has an angel on his shoulder. The tattoo covers his left arm, the archangel Michael wielding a sword over howling demons. But Mr. Calvillo, 33, believes it was an angel he could not see who kept him alive that day in August. It was a Saturday morning outside a Walmart in El Paso, and the soccer team he leads was selling snacks to raise money for an out-of-state tournament. One moment he was chatting with...

Have you ever had the experience where you know you should do something -- like go to work on time, or get ready for an important meeting, or just brush your teeth before bed -- but you just couldn't do it? Everybody procrastinates sometimes, but for people who experienced abuse and neglect in childhood, procrastinating can morph into a kind of paralysis. I’ve had this happen; I’ve spent whole seasons in this place before. And it's so demoralizing when it’s happening to know that you’re here...

Click here for the Change Package : Fostering Resilience and Recovery: A Change Package for Advancing Trauma – Informed Primary Care Earlier this year, to help primary care address the impacts of trauma, the National Council for Behavioral Health, with the support of Kaiser Permanente, launched a three-year initiative, Trauma-Informed Primary Care: Fostering Resilience and Recovery . “Trauma work is not new to the National Council. With effects across the lifespan, we’ve spent the last...

By ChangeLab Solutions and Merced County Public Health Department (CA), November 20, 2019 How can communities use school spaces during vacation times? Schools are more than just places of learning for children. They serve as centers of connection for families from surrounding neighborhoods and have many facilities and resources that can benefit the wider community. Opening school spaces during times when students are not on campus can significantly improve health and equity for those who...

I never believed that a man who abuses anyone physically, emotionally or verbally is simply a monster.That's too simple.There is a reason why men do what they do, and don't do and in order to help men and women to not be hurtful to themselves or others we must as I said in my last post ”help them heal.” We must advocate for a world in which we don't punish, we transform. I have always believed this on many issues, from domestic violence to drug addiction to other acts of criminality. We...

By Jennifer Smith Richards, Jodi S. Cohen, and Lakeidra Chavis, ProPublica Illinois, November 19, 2019 THE SPACES have gentle names: The reflection room. The cool-down room. The calming room. The quiet room. But shut inside them, in public schools across the state, children as young as 5 wail for their parents, scream in anger and beg to be let out. The students, most of them with disabilities, scratch the windows or tear at the padded walls. They throw their bodies against locked doors.