The Lancet EDITORIAL| VOLUME 396, ISSUE 10263 , P1607, NOVEMBER 21, 2020 Excerpts The prospect of preventing illness and death, and avoiding the harm and misery of extended restrictions, is a cause for optimism. But although it is right to be hopeful and encouraged, we are far from ending COVID-19 as a public health issue. Pfizer and Moderna together project that there will be enough vaccine for 35 million individuals in 2020, and perhaps up to 1 billion in 2021. As a result, many millions...

Policy changes can be key to both transforming health in a community and helping to eliminate inequities. But when policies aren’t created or enforced with equity in mind, they may perpetuate these disparities – or even amplify them.

By Phillip Hughes and Tabitha L. Ostrout, HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine, November 1, 2020 Background: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been shown to contribute to a litany of mental and physical health problems, including several chronic diseases and death, via a model known as the ACE pyramid. Many of the results of ACEs in the ACE pyramid are known contributors to poor perceived health, which has significant health implications. Despite these results, a possible link between...

Join us on Friday November 6, 2020 from noon to 1:00 PST as we come together and join Satya Chandragiri MD, Bonnie O’Hern RN, Denise PNP, & Michael Polacek RN for a discussion around the tender issue of suicide. Together we will discuss ways people and providers can support each other and encourage communities to take action to support one another around suicide prevention, crisis intervention, and the layers of culture and structural barriers to care. A special emphasis will be on...

By Dr Rebecca Lacey, October 29, 2019, ACAMH. Rebecca Lacey is a Senior Research Fellow in life course social epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London. Her research interests lie in the long-term health effects of early life adversities and effects of social relationships on health using longitudinal population datasets. When bad things happen to children, they can potentially have long lasting consequences throughout their lives – they...

An important report challenges California policy makers to move well beyond ACEs screening in order to achieve the state's "bold goal" of reducing exposure to childhood trauma. The report employs a broad social science framework to examine the sources of adversity in systemic racism, economic inequality, environmental hazards, and inadequate community resources to support community resilience.

In a conversational style, join physician Drew Factor who will speak with Dr. Tracy Gaudet, Liza Guroff and An é Watts in a discussion entitled "Reimagining Health Care". Dr. Gaudet will speak about her experience engaging in transformational change at the Veterans Administration and how this has shaped the development of her own Functional Medicine Institute , while Ms. Guroff and Ms. Watts will speak about their knowledge of a Trauma-Informed Approach both at a systems (National Council...

This post argues for the application of the social determinants frameworks to the problems of mental health. What this post misses or underemphasizes are the opportunities to change through social policy some of the social circumstances that help shape the likelihood of mental health challenges.

This blog post connects you to an important social science research report on the frequency of use in the media, state laws and regulations, and scientific research and writing of concepts such as childhood adversity, trauma-informed practice, toxic stress and ACEs. It also analyzes the impact of audiences of choosing one or another of these and other terms. It is well worth reading!

2018 NVDRS Restricted Access Database Now Available CDC has recently updated its Restricted Access Database (RAD) to include 2018 data from the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). The NVDRS RAD consists of data from 38 states, 21 California counties, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The NVDRS RAD is a de-identified, multi-state, case-level dataset comprised of hundreds of unique variables. The data set is available to researchers who meet specific criteria. The RAD...

By Samantha Hogan, October 14, 2020, The Maine Monitor. Gov. Janet Mills publicly called for a bipartisan effort to reform Maine’s defense system for poor people accused of crimes in response to an investigation by The Maine Monitor and ProPublica. Gov. Janet Mills of Maine publicly called for a bipartisan effort during the next legislative session to reform the state’s system for defending poor people accused of crimes in response to an investigation published by The Maine Monitor and...

Don't miss tomorrow's discussion on how to build equity into your network Networks are a way for people and organizations to come together to find solutions to complex problems. How can you create intentional partnerships that uphold the values, practices, and systems that support equity? Join our webinar tomorrow, October 20, to learn from Abby Charles, the program director for our partners at the Institute for Public Health Innovation, who will talk about the networked way of working and...