Tagged With "Mental Health"
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Wondering Wednesday - Could Your Children Study Here?
Hello everyone! Welcome to "Wondering Wednesday" where we share insights and experiments from across the globe and inquire how they might work in the Caribbean. For many of our territories, there have been waves of the Coronavirus and those have led to periodic imposition and relaxation of various public health restrictions. At present, Trinidad and Tobago is under a 3-week period of restrictions where beaches and rivers are off-limits following the Easter holiday weekend and a spike in...
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Secret Service Study on Children Who Kill Finds Link to ACEs.
Hello Community. It's Friday again! To kick off the weekend, we want to examine some research from the USA conducted by the Secret Service that has found a link to Adverse Childhood Experiences in youth who plotted or executed mass murders or shootings at school. According to the study, most of the perpetrators were "motivated by grievances against them, usually peers and bullying. Many were suicidal or had depression." Eight had a desire for fame or notoriety. "More than half had been...
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Florida Study Reveals Link Between ACEs and Sex Trafficking of Minors
Hi everyone! We trust you are doing well and enjoying the Community and benefiting from the resources being shared by our members. It is the 25th day of the month and you know what that means - we are looking at the issue of ACEs in the context of human trafficking. Today we have another resource to show the link between childhood adversity and the vulnerability of persons with high ACE scores to human trafficking. In this 2016 study, " Human Trafficking of Minors and Childhood Adversity in...
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Wondering Wednesday - Could California's Roadmap to Resilience Help the Caribbean?
Hello everyone and welcome to another Wondering Wednesday. This is where we examine what is working or has been introduced in other parts of the world and explore the value of adapting those ideas and concepts to the Caribbean. Today we are examining some of the components of a report published in December 2020 by the State of California in the USA. Titled "Roadmap for Resilience: The California Surgeon General’s Report on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Toxic Stress, and Health", it is...
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Technology to the Rescue in Saint Vincent
Good morning, beautiful Caribbean people.😀 With various parts of the main island of Saint Vincent still under the periodic onslaught of the La Soufriere volcano, thousands of people have been relocated to shelters or are seeking refuge on other islands. There is undeniable fear, stress and anxiety affecting many of them from having to flee for their lives from this active volcano. Natural disasters such as these can wreak havoc on people's mental health due to the ongoing Trauma. Therefore,...
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Maria Salcedo
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ANDREA HUGH SAM
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Resources - Racism and Discrimination as Risk Factors for Toxic Stress
Hi everyone, we hope you are all doing well and keeping safe and healthy. On April 28, 2021 there was a very informative online discussion hosted by Aces Aware of California, USA on the topic of Racism and Discrimination as Risk Factors for Toxic Stress. "Featuring opening remarks by California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, this is the first in a series of webinars that will explore research demonstrating how racism and other forms of discrimination can serve as risk factors to...
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Free Symposium on May 10: Early Life Stress and Mental Health
Good morning, everyone. 😀 On Monday 10th May, there will be a full-day symposium (9am to 3pm) on "Early Life Stress and Mental Health" by the Picower Institute at MIT. Speakers include Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris, California's Surgeon General and a renowned advocate for ACEs science, and the amazing, Bryan Stevenson, founder of Equal Justice Initiative (pictured above). Here's an extract from the promo: "In what ways are health and other outcomes affected by early life difficulty? What can...
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Action on ACEs Conference 2021: From ACEs to Resilience (June 10)
Hi ACEs learners. We're trying to ensure you have access to credible information and training on ACEs by sharing links to such events. Today is no exception. The organisation, Action On ACEs, based in Gloucestershire, UK is hosting a free virtual conference on Thursday 10th June 2021 from 9:30 am to 3:30pm UK time. The conference, ‘From ACEs to Resilience’ will focus on "resilience, how to build it in children and young people and how we can support adults who have experienced ACEs. It will...
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It's Happening Today! Symposium on Early Life Stress and Mental Health
Good Monday morning, dear friends. We hope you are healthy and had a pleasant Mother's Day yesterday. Well, the day we told you about last week is finally here. It's the free symposium from the Picower Institute at MIT on Early Life Stress and Mental Health. Speakers will include Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris, Mr. Bryan Stevenson and a mix of 'neuroscientists, policy experts, physicians, educators and activists'. They will discuss 'how our experiences and biology work together to affect how our...
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Bryan Stevenson Nailed It!
Hi everyone. If you missed the Feature Address of Picower Institute's symposium on Early Life Stress and Mental Health, you missed a treat. Bryan Stevenson blew everyone away with his flawless talk on racial injustice and how this has shaped the American judicial system to the devastation of persons, many of whom have suffered childhood and generational trauma. It was one of the most powerful opening talks of any conference I have ever heard! We shared excerpts of his talk using Twitter...
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Upcoming "YouTube Live" - ACEs & The Boy Child (May 16 @ 2pm EST).
In observance of Mental Health Awareness Month and World Day of the Boy Child (WDBC) on May 16, 2021, ACEs Caribbean Community will be hosting its first "Live" online chat on the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences in the Caribbean. In a virtual discussion titled " ACEs & The Boy Child ", we will speak with the founder of World Day of the Boy Child, Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh, and explore Mental Health and the effect of Adverse Childhood Experiences on boys with consulting psychologist,...
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We Did It!
Good Monday morning everyone. In case you missed it, ACEs Caribbean Community had our inaugural online event yesterday (16th May 2021) in honour of both Mental Health Awarenesses Month and World Day of the Boy Child with a discussion on "ACEs & The Boy Child". Despite technical challenges, we persevered and those who logged in for the livestream received wisdom from our experienced team of speakers. The discussion included our two ACEs Caribbean Community Managers, Adrian Alexander and...
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Re: We Did It!
Good morning. Thank you for your kind comments and your encouragement and support on all social media platforms, @Elizabeth Perry .
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Re: We Did It!
This is such an important conversation. Thanks for hosting. Thanks for recording. Thanks for sharing. If we don't change how we're raising our boys, we're not going to transform humanity. I can't thank you enough for working to address this. Elizabeth Perry Canadian ACEs and TI Network Manager on PACEs Connection @ACEsCanada2020 @PACEsCanada1
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Wellness Wednesday - Weighty Matters
Happy Wellness Wednesday, everyone! For some people who have experienced childhood adversity, coping with the horrors of what happened to them can take them into using food for comfort. As such, some develop certain lifestyles and gain an unhealthy amount of weight such that their health is comprised. This was evident from the original Kaiser Permanente study in 1998. It is also revealed in a recent study involving 1,647 adults aged 27-33 . “A history of any childhood maltreatment was...
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North Carolina Looks at Feasibility of Having Trauma-Informed Courts.
Hello ACEs Caribbean Community! Do you think that Trauma-Informed Courts will work well in the Caribbean? Before you say, "No", remember that some of the region's justice systems already have examples of problem solving courts. Last week, PACEs Connection staff member, Ms Carey Sipp posted that "p lans to integrate practices and policies based on the science of adverse childhood experiences in North Carolina’s 6,500-person,100-county statewide judiciary were announced... by Chief Justice...
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Adverse Babyhood Experiences (ABEs): 10 New Categories of Adversity Before a Child's 3rd Birthday (Free Downloadable Journal Article) | PACEsConnection article
Hi ACEs Caribbean Community! We know some of you receive the email updates from PACEs Connection but sometimes a riveting article may slip through the cracks. So, just in case you missed it, we are happy to share the article from Dr Veronique Mead on Adverse Babyhood Experiences (ABEs). Here is an excerpt: "Adverse babyhood experiences (ABEs) are a new construct derived from large bodies of evidence that identify a different group of risk factors from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
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Intergenerational transmission and prevention of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) [Science Direct]
Hi everybody. It's Friday and we want to share some ACEs research wirh you that you can digest over the weekend. 📖 This is a heads-up on a recently published study from the USA on intergenerational trauma and ACEs and how it is transmitted and can be prevented. Angela J. Narayan, Ph.D., L.P. and her colleagues published it in April 2021. Here is an excerpt from the abstract. "In recent years, research and practice on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have shifted from delineating effects...
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Wellness Wednesday - Examining the Mental Wounds of Covid-19
Good day and welcome to this week's Wellness Wednesday! We are sharing this article from The Atlantic titled, 'What Happens When Americans Can Finally Exhale. The pandemic’s mental wounds are still wide open.' It's been discussed a bit in recent times especially as the USA (and other nations) see the light at the end of the tunnel out of Covid-19. As some Caribbean territories are experiencing severe spikes in cases of Covid-19 infections and deaths, we long for the time when this is...
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PACEs Connection: Not just another social network
At last week’s fabulous HOPE Summit, one person told me that they didn’t realize all the things that PACEs Connection does.
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How can student progress in public schools be improved?
Good Monday morning everyone. It is a public holiday here in Trinidad and Tobago for the Arrival Day observance on Sunday but this article just cannot wait. Kudos to our ACEs Caribbean Community member, Mark Nicoll, whose article on ACEs and their impact on children's education was published last week in the Cayman Islands newspaper, Cayman Current. At the time, Mark was commenting on the Education Data Report 2020 that highlighted the poor performance of public schools as compared with...
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Criticizing ACEs in Peer Reviewed Professional Journals Impairs Child Abuse Treatment
Criticizing ACEs in Peer Reviewed Professional Journals Impairs Child Abuse Treatment Jeoffry B. Gordon, MD, MPH May 23, 2021 As a family doc practicing in San Diego I was privileged to hear Dr. Vincent Felitti talk about his inspired development of the ACEs questionnaire and its association with many adult mental and physical diseases directly from him only a few years after his original insight. Yet, although I had a lively clinic and learned how to manage a vast array of medical...
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Webinar on Trauma and Prostitution
Hi everyone. There's an upcoming free webinar on Sunday 6th June 2021 (9am to 10:30am EST) on Trauma and Prostitution. Some of the questions it will answer include: "Does prostitution have a negative impact on mental health? What about physical health? What is the role of dissociation? Is trauma in a woman’s childhood connected with her entry into prostitution? " To register please visit the link below. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/trauma-and-prostitution-tickets-152860332369
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Courage and Vulnerability
So the field of sports - specifically tennis - is experiencing some of what the UK royals, singers, TV stars, entertainers and others have seen in recent times. We're not referring to opening up after the Covid-19 lockdowns, but transparency in the discussion around mental health. Top seeded Naomi Osaka has withdrawn from the French Open after expressing feelings of vulnerability and anxiety. Last year, she was vocal and wore face masks to highlight a range of social issues especially around...
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Barbados Research into Childhood Malnutrition and Maltreatment.
Happy Friday everybody! As you know, with that comes some weekend reading for you. Today, we are sharing a report from research conducted in Barbados that links childhood malnutrition and maltreatment to personality disorders which persist into adulthood. It is the work of Rebecca S. Hock and her colleagues using data from the 47 year longitudinal Barbados Nutrition Study. Published in Psychiatry Research (Volume 269, November 2018, Pages 301-308), the work, " Childhood malnutrition and...
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Can a Flavonoids-Rich Diet Buffer the Effects of ACEs on Depression?
Happy 4th of July Weekend to all our US based Community members! For the rest of us it's a regular Friday where we can research and expand our knowledge. Today the focus is on diet and how it can play a role in buffering the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences on depression. It is the work of Alison Tan and her colleagues, published under the title " Adverse childhood experiences and depressive symptoms: Protective effects of dietary flavonoids " in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research...
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The Pain of "215"
Hi everyone. We hope you're taking care of your spiritual, physical and mental health, wherever you are in the world. This has been a sombre week with the news of the discovery of the bodies of 215 precious children on the grounds of a residential school in Canada. Words cannot express the incredible pain those families must have felt for years, knowing nothing of the whereabouts of their babies. To have the revelation come at this time, during all that the world is experiencing and with the...
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Mental Health and School Reopening for the Caribbean
Good Monday morning everyone. We hope the weekend was refreshing. So across the world there continue to be diverse reports on the way countries are coping with Covid-19. In the Caribbean, there has been a sense of relief after the USA indicated that it will donate millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines to the region and Latin America. As a consequence, there have been hopeful statements that schools may reopen in September 2021, after having been shuttered since February and March 2020 in...
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Five Years On - 5 Ways to Boost Your Resilience at Work
Hello. It's Wellness Wednesday everyone and we're bringing you a Harvard Business Review article from 5 years ago. Don't worry, it's relevant for today even more than the author could have imagined at the time. The author, Mr. Rich Fernandez, was a director of learning and organization development at Google, eBay and J.P. Morgan Chase. Rich began by writing, "Many of us now work in constantly connected, always-on, highly demanding work cultures where stress and the risk of burnout are...
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ACEs Screening and Precision Medicine
In news from California, USA, funds have been provided for a new initiative that will study 300 mother-child pairs to screen for Adverse Childhood Experiences as part of a precision medicine multi-disciplinary approach. "Currently, the only screening method for ACEs involves questionnaires for parents and caregivers. But screening rates are generally low in pediatric practices, and the questionnaires are not able to identify which babies and children are having a toxic stress response. The...
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Do Higher ACEs Score Cause Worse Covid-19 Effects?
Hi and a good Therapeutic Tuesday morning to you all. As the world sees a light at the end of the tunnel to the nightmare of Covid-19, more and more research is being published to reveal who may have been more severely affected by it and why. During the initial surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at Mount Holyoke College and Virginia Commonwealth University examined a sample of 236 people in the U.S. to assess the impact of the pandemic on mental health, well-being and substance use.
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Profiles and behavioral consequences of child abuse among adolescent girls and boys from Barbados and Grenada
Hi everyone. Can you believe that we are at the end of July this weekend? Time is flying! For this Food for Thought Friday we have a study titled " Profiles and behavioral consequences of child abuse among adolescent girls and boys from Barbados and Grenada " by Agata Debowska, Daniel Boduszek, Nicole Sherretts, Dominic Willmott, and Adele D. Jones of the University of Sheffield and University of Huddersfield. It is published in Child Abuse & Neglect, (Volume 79, May 2018, Pages 245-258)...
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ADHD in first- and second-generation immigrant children: A nationwide cohort study in Sweden
Hi everyone, it's Food For Thought Friday again and we are excited to bring to you this study from Europe on ADHD prevalence in children and adolescents. The reason is that some of the respondents in this study are of Caribbean heritage! With the paucity of Caribbean research in this area, we are always on the hunt for global research that includes respondents from or in the Caribbean. Ahem, in case you missed it, that was a subtle ask for you to share whatever research you may come across...
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Promoting positive parenting for families in poverty: New directions for improved reach and engagement
Good Friday morning everyone. How was your week? I am sure we are all looking forward to the weekend. As we set things up for this week's "Food For Thought Friday", we want to examine an area which was excluded from the original ACE study of 1998 - that is, the consideration of poverty. It has been an area of criticism of the original study especially where researchers desiring to replicate it want to address the needs of persons living in cramped urban conditions. There is a 2017 study done...
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Resilience and Children in Residential Care - What the Data Shows
Hi everyone. The recent discovery of the bodies of 215 children at a residential school in Canada has led to an explosion of discussion online and many calls for the federal government of Canada to implement a series of recommendations from a previous national commission to investigate similar issues. Also arising are discussions on the state of residential care for children as a whole and the degree to which such institutions are properly addressing the inherent needs of the children under...
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Mental health of jail inmates within the prison of Ducos, Martinique – a cross-sectional descriptive study
Happy Food for Thought Friday, everyone! As we approach the weekend, we want to share with you some research from the Caribbean island of Martinique. Martinique is a French overseas administrative district in the Caribbean, with a population of about 400,000 inhabitants. Its only prison is located in the city of Ducos. The study was done by R. Arnal et al and published in Revue d'Épidémiologie et de Santé Publique (Volume 66, Issue 3, May 2018, Pages 201-207)...
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Wellness Wednesday - The steps that can help adults heal from childhood trauma
Hi everyone! This Wellness Wednesday we are looking at an article written by Shanta R. Dube, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, Georgia State University. In writing in 2107, she focused on the fact that ACEs can be a cycle that is hard to break if we only deal with it from the perspective of the child. "Prevention is the mantra of modern medicine and public health. Benjamin Franklin said it himself: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Unfortunately, childhood...
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What Do We Do Once We Realize the Prevalence of Adversities?
When people hear about the mental and physical health risks of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress, one of the first questions is, “What do we do about this?” Awareness of the prevalence of adversity and the impact of stress on the brain and body leads to the possibility for prevention and response. Whether you are acting within a family, agency, organization, business or community, the next steps should be taken knowing that we will all work together to bring about change.
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California PACEs Connection initiatives spark new connections in regional meeting
Among PACEs Connection initiatives around the country, it’s well known that our social network is something like a bustling, giant town square where people share ideas, resources and any number of conversations about how to prevent childhood adversity and promote positive childhood experiences. On May 14, PACEs Connection assembled a virtual town square gathering of PACEs initiatives in California, where we have 58 initiatives sparking action all across the state. Speakers at the gathering,...
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Research into Effects of Child Maltreatment on Males
Hi everyone. We hope your weekend was restful and you were able to view "Wrestling Ghosts" after we shared this Watch Party opportunity last week. Since we wanted you to have the chance to catch the documentary, we deferred our usual " Food for Thought Friday " post (based on a research article to review) to today, Monday While it is USA-based, this paper looks at how child maltreatment, especially child sexual abuse impacts males into adulthood. This is a very under-served area of study...
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Wrestling Ghosts Watch Weekend on PACEs Connection (June 11-13th) & Zoom Discussion with Director Ana Joanes on June 15th at 7p.m. EST.
Wrestling Ghosts is the fourth and final film in the Transform Trauma with ACEs Science Film Festival series. The film can be watched, free of charge, on PACEs Connection from Friday, June 11th through Sunday, June 13th where it will be streamed all weekend. The streaming will be followed by a Zoom discussion with Wrestling Ghosts Director, Ana Joanes, and the co-sponsors of the Transform Trauma with ACEs Science Film Festival (CTIPP, PACEs Connection, & the Relentless School Nurse) on...
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Upcoming Livestream on Father's Day - ACEs & The Father Wound
Many men and women around the world are nursing a Father Wound and it is negatively impacting their health, eroding their self-confidence and crippling their ability to form healthy relationships, among other things. For such persons, the word "father" does not represent the definitions outlined in the title image. Rather, it brings to mind memories of hurt and pain, or thoughts of abandonment and neglect, or simply a void. So, on Father's Day, at 2pm Eastern Standard Time we want to address...
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Wellness Wednesday - A Self-Care Resilience Resource
Hi everyone. On this Wellness Wednesday, we are pleased to share with you a resource from the USA to help implement self-care towards building resilience. The American Academy of Pediatrics, California Chapter 3 has developed a visual resource adapted from the ACEs Aware Self-Care tool . The handout is print-ready and available in English , Spanish , Amharic , Arabic , Chinese , Farsi and Vietnamese . Please see the attachment to this article for the English version. We will add it to the...
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ACEs Handouts - ACC.pdf
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