Tagged With "mental health"
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Treat Historic Trauma to Rehabilitate Prisoners, Psychologists Say [belfasttelegraph.co.uk]
By Tess de la Mare, Belfast Telegraph Digital, January 2, 2020 The traumatic histories of offenders stuck in the prison system should be treated as a public health issue to break cycles of offending, psychologists working with inmates have said. But despite the often complex histories of violent offenders, in the UK’s squeezed prison system there are limited resources available for rehabilitation. Forensic psychologist Dr Naomi Murphy runs a five-year intensive psychotherapy programme for...
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Turning Gold into Lead: Understanding the Role of ACEs to Our Work as Judges
Dr. Vincent Felitti studied the connection between ACEs and health. Unexpectedly, he uncovered for the courts and our community partners a path past our litigants’ “past.” By applying science to what we do every day and responding appropriately to ACEs, we have a chance to change the trajectory of each life we touch. We have an opportunity to change the world if we see it through a trauma lens.
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Two Years After End Of Indefinite Solitary In CA, CDCR Violating Terms Of Settlement, And Inmates Experiencing Lasting Psychological Effects, Says Center For Constitutional Rights (witnessla.com)
In 2015, California settled Ashker v. Governor , a historic class-action lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of a group of Pelican Bay State prison inmates who had each spent at least a decade in isolation. The settlement resulted in an end to the use of indefinite solitary confinement in CA prisons. On Monday, CCR filed a motion accusing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of violating the rights of inmates freed from indefinite...
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We Need to Understand How to Provide Trauma-Informed Care [JJIE.org]
The philosophy of trauma-informed care is becoming more and more embedded in the philosophies and practices of child-serving agencies. When a child experiences a single traumatic event and is fortunate enough to be surrounded by supportive and nurturing adults, that trauma can generally be assessed and usually treated effectively with the help of parental support. When a traumatized child responds with internalized distress such as sadness, depression or anxiety, our systems appear to...
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Why Jails Are Booming (citylab.com)
A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative shows that the populations of local jails are swelling for reasons that have little to do with crime. State prison rates have come down modestly overall, reports the Sentencing Project , and some states can boast double-digit decreases since the turn of the century. City and county jails, meanwhile, have been bloating. Roughly two-thirds of states have seen jail populations at least double since 1983 a dozen have seen jail populations triple.
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Young Adult Court: Ending Mass Incarceration with Trauma Informed Criminal Justice
The last two decades have given rise to a body of research establishing that young adults are fundamentally different from both juveniles and older adults in how they process information and make decisions. The prefrontal cortex of the brain — responsible for our cognitive processing and impulse control — does not fully develop until the early to mid-20s. At the same time that young adults are going through this critical developmental phase, many find themselves facing adulthood without...
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Re: Trauma Informed Education in Juvenile Justice
Here is the powerpoint I delivered. The presentation when well. Lots of interest. I am working with a professional development organization called PESI. They are a non-profit corporation that delivers a lot of professional development. I have my original course on supporting and educating traumatized students submitted to them and it should be available in less than two weeks
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Re: Trauma Informed Education in Juvenile Justice
Jennifer Thank you for your interest in our work Hi Robert, I'd like to hear more about this effort -- specifically, when you say 'educators' do you mean staff who teach within the detention facility? Most of the individuals who took the training are direct teaching staff. Many counselors and administrators took the training as well. And, were any of the detention staff trained in TI as well? What do you mean by TI? No no detention staff were trained. The focus was on improving teacher...
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Re: 7.25+
HI Zachary- thank you for the post and sharing the video. SO POWERFUL and hopeful. We need to change the systems that incarcerate rather than, as you say address what happened to them (and moving upstream, be asking kids this BEFORE they get into the system. (Note, this is the third time today that someone shared this video!)
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Re: 7.25+
Zachary, Thank you for sharing your work, this numbers you offer are critical for understanding the connection. You were on target in sharing the powerful video that we can pass along.
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Re: 7.25+
Thank you Zachary, Yes, I too saw this video posted on facebook last week. As a substitute teacher (nowhere near retired), I see my ability to use trauma informed practices is directly enhanced by my learning to address White Supremacy Culture. I'm happy my state education association recently publicly named that. I'm learning that all the many people who've been directly impacted by incarceration have so many practical solutions! Those of us nearer the decision-making (traditionally-- with...
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Re: Without access to credit, ex-cons may return to lives of crime [thehill.com]
I too am an ex-offender and when I got out of prison...I cleaned up my credit, bought a home, started a non-profit, finished school, received a Masters and 2 State of WA, Dept of Health licenses to provide Therapist guidance in Mental Health & Addiction. I also started this journey after I swallowed a 1/4 ounce of crack cocaine and called on God to save me, after 9 days out of Prison. Here is a Link to the story they wrote about me: https://www.seattlepi.com/loca...n-s-list-1206233.php I...
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Re: Without access to credit, ex-cons may return to lives of crime [thehill.com]
Alfred, thank you for sharing a glimpse into your life. You have so much to teach all of us! Please consider sharing parts of your story on our home page. Our hope is that members of ACEs Connection feel safe and supported enough to share how the adverse childhood experiences they experienced impacts or impacted their life. Your road to recovery is a riveting story just waiting to be shared! No pressure at all, just a nudge. Karen
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Re: Signed Out Of Prison But Not Signed Up For Health Insurance [NPR.org]
Not sure where the authors of this article got their information from. In MN, the vast majority of those who are released from our state prisons have had an informational class on applying for healthcare, along with filling out the form and a process to get the healthcare application to the appropriate county 30 days prior to release. Those with severe CD or mental health issues also have a release planner who not only facilitates the application of healthcare but makes sure that outpatient...
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Will the Coronavirus Make Us Rethink Mass Incarceration? (newyorker.com)
For decades, community groups have pointed out the social costs of mass incarceration: its failure to address the root causes of addiction and violence; its steep fiscal price tag; its deepening of racial inequalities. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed another danger of the system: its public-health risks. In April, the American Civil Liberties Union worked with epidemiologists and statisticians to show that, without protective measures in jails and prisons, including rapid reductions in...
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The Mental Toll On Us All (yesmagazine.org)
As the coronavirus upends lives, another public health crisis arises. New research shows eight times more people are under serious mental distress now When the novel coronavirus roared into the U.S., mental health took a back seat to physical health. The number one priority was making sure hospitals wouldn’t be overwhelmed and that as many lives as possible could be saved. Schools closed, remote work became the norm, restaurants shuttered and getting together with friends was no longer...
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Of interest: Spend June 5 with members of the new National Academies report: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth
Of interest: Spend June 5 with members of the new National Academies report: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth Announcement in ACES Connection calendar : June 5 Calendar Announcement https://www.acesconnection.com/event/realizing-opportunity-for-all-youth-discussion-the-new-national-academies-report or at Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, University of Virginia (ILPPP) https://ilppp.virginia.edu/OREM/JuvenilePrograms/Course/144 Working with the National Academies of Sciences,...
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ACEs Connection launches Cooperative of Communities
The ACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities launches today. We want to continue to contribute to the ACEs movement for as long as it takes to create a worldwide healing-centered culture based on ACEs science. We want that to take hold in this world in the same way electricity has — we only notice it if it isn’t there.
First, a clarification: Nothing on ACEsConnection.com changes! Membership remains free! Everything our current 300+ communities use stays free, and remains free for new ones.
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Stepping Up: A National Initiative to Reduce the Number of People with Mental Illnesses in Jails
The Stepping Up initiative recently celebrated 500 counties joining the national movement to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jails. Four years ago, The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center , the National Association of Counties (NACo), and the American Psychiatric Association Foundation (APA Foundation) launche d Stepping Up in response to a public health crisis: the disproportionate number of people in jail who have mental illnesses. The human toll of this...
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California reaches milestone with ACEs initiatives pulsing in all 58 counties. Next: All CA cities.
Karen Clemmer, the Northwest community facilitator with ACEs Connection, was already deeply interested in the CDC/Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study when she and a colleague from the Child Parent Institute were invited to lunch by ACEs Connection founder and publisher Jane Stevens in 2012. But that lunch meeting changed everything. Karen Clemmer “Jane helped us see a bigger world,” says Clemmer. “She came with a much wider lens. She didn’t look only at Sonoma County, she...
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A year without visits: COVID-19’s impact on children with incarcerated parents (North Carolina Health News)
By Hannah Critchfield, July 16, 2020, NC Health News. Correctional facilities throughout the state have shut down in-person visitations to help quell the spread of COVID-19, creating one more roadblock for kids trying to navigate the criminal justice system to stay connected with a parent. In any other year, on Father’s Day, 11-year-old Marley Bennett and her grandmother would pack up their pre-made lunches and drive to Orange Correctional Center for a visit with Marley’s father. They’d sit...
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Police Reform Should Include Implementing ACEs Science
When I first learned about ACEs science, I was working for the local police department as the Director of a crime prevention program. This program was aimed at reducing drug related and violent crime by strengthening community partnerships. Our efforts yielded 19 crime prevention programs implemented by 35 community agencies. Together we reduced crime by 40% in one neighborhood, and pioneered a first probation program of its kind in Tennessee to reduce recidivism. At the end of the grant in...
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Kindness in court: a novel approach [royalgazette.com]
By Victoria Greening, The Royal Gazette, August 14, 2020 I would like to consider a counterintuitive method of achieving crime reduction and disruption to the cycle of offending behaviour in Bermuda. This is as a follow-up to recent concerns raised in The Royal Gazette between August 4 and 7 when the lack of resources available to vulnerable and mentally unwell members of the community who end up caught up in the criminal justice system was addressed. There has been a recent upsurge in...
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Mental Health Needs of Law Enforcement: Being Proactive in a Reactive Career
How Do You Help Police Officers Address Trauma? Officer mental health is an often overlooked component of safety and wellness. Good mental health is just as essential as good physical health for law enforcement to be effective in keeping our country and our communities safe from crime and violence. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), between 7 to 19 percent of police officers have symptoms of PTSD and 1 in 4 police officers have thoughts of suicide at some point in...
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New Resource: Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic One-Pager (English & Spanish!)
English: The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , ACEs Connection , and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance have co-created a newly developed resource, “Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in both English and Spanish. This material is intended for Californian families experiencing the severe...
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'For Many Years I Didn't Believe I Was Human' [jjie.org]
By Z, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, November 9, 2020 In 2000, I was 14 years old, in Los Angeles’ Skid Row. You wouldn’t believe such a Third World slum existed within history’s richest country; oh, but it did. It does. A section of one of the world’s most glamorous cities set aside to hide thousands of homeless people, to hide America’s unwillingness to deal with poverty, mental health, drug addiction and homelessness. It’s all swept under the rug, or under the shadow of downtown’s...
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Re: FREE Event: Trauma-Informed Correctional Design with Boston Architectural College!
I had trouble accessing the registration. Is there a problem with the link? Thanks! Pam Howard Administrator Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities/Early Intervention Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services P.O. Box 311 Norristown, PA 19404-0311 610-278-3625 phoward@montcopa.org<mailto:phoward@montcopa.org> www.montcopa.org < http://www.montcopa.org/ > [cid:image003.jpg@01D3F9C4.438BFBB0] Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments,...
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Re: Trauma-Informed Prisons: Dr. Stephanie Covington and CPP's Fritzi Horstman
Fritzi, I just love your heart. You are indeed my sister! When I feel defeated and discouraged, I always seem to seek you out somewhere so just know your love and compassion for our incarcerated beloveds is contagious and we are grateful for all of us that are leaning in and pressing in hard for change. There's something about God's beautiful beloveds who have a score of seven on the ACE test (you and I are a lot alike; seven is perfection!). We're extra special because we understand our own...
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Self-Care for Criminal Justice Professionals Across the Sequential Intercept Model: Considerations for Intercepts 3-5 January 28, 2021, 2:00–3:30 p.m. ET
Self-care is a critical component of wellness for professionals across all intercepts of the criminal justice and behavioral health systems. Within Intercepts 3-5 of the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM), court, reentry, and community corrections personnel may experience stressors related to providing services and ensuring the safety of individuals experiencing crisis, mental or substance use disorders, or withdrawal symptoms. Many staff members face an increased exposure to stressors as they...
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Adverse Childhood Experiences and Justice System Contact: A Systematic Review [pediatrics.aappublications.org]
By Gloria Huei-Jong Graf, Stanford Chihuri, Melanie Blow, and Guohua Li, Pediatrics, January 2021 CONTEXT: Given the wide-ranging health impacts of justice system involvement, we examined evidence for the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and justice system contact in the United States. OBJECTIVE: To synthesize epidemiological evidence for the association between ACEs and justice system contact. DATA SOURCES: We searched 5 databases for studies conducted through...
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Oregon law to decriminalize all drugs goes into effect, offering addicts rehab instead of prison (msn.com)
In prison six years later, Gullickson was contemplating joining an intensive recovery program when a “striking, magnetic gorgeous Black woman walked in the room, held up a mug shot and started talking about being in the very chairs where we were sitting,” Gullickson remembers. There was life on the other side of addiction and prison, the woman said. But you have to fight for it. Gullickson believed her. “I remember thinking, I may not be able to do all that, be what she was, but maybe I...
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An Open Letter to Police Chiefs: The Need for Trauma-informed Policing
Recently, I was provided a form letter addressed to a local police chief and friend of mine who knew of my interest in trauma-informed policing and who thought I should read the letter. The letter claimed that trauma-informed policing, specifically as it related to domestic violence and sexual violence allegations, was everything from “junk science” to “prejudicial against men.” Needless to say, I found the letter uninformed and unpersuasive.
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Abolitionist Politics: The Case for a World without Prisons (nonprofitquarterly.org)
What is often called police and prison reform does not and has never worked for Black people. Measures to stem police violence and other acts of harm toward Black people, like hiring more Black police officers, community policing, modernized surveillance techniques, placing police outposts in under-serviced and marginalized neighborhoods, and starting sports camps run by police, among other programs, fail by their very nature because each is meant to further cement the position policing...
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The pandemic is changing how we think about domestic violence, new survey shows (centerforhealthjournalism.org)
Amid a pandemic that shined a harsh light on domestic violence , Californians are increasingly viewing these abuses as a pressing social issue, according to a new survey of nearly 2,000 adults. Two-thirds of Californians consider domestic violence a public issue rather than private family matter, and 91% of participants said domestic violence is a serious societal issue, the survey found. “This info has given some validation to things folks have been talking about for a long time...
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Mississippi judiciary trains on the power of hope, inspiring Youth Courts judges and staff
Dr. Chan Hellman, leading researcher in the power of hope to improve lives of impoverished children and families who have experienced abuse and neglect, Justice Dawn Beam, and Christopher Freeze, co-chair of Mississippi ACEs Connection , on day three of presentations by Hellman to judges and staff members of Mississippi's Youth Courts. “Hope is a better predictor of college success than the ACT or the SAT score” was one of the startling comments made by Chan Hellman, Ph.D., in the first of...
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Best Practices, Internationally Respected Experts Featured at ACEs Central Florida Conference. Registration Closes Monday!
Donna Jackson Nakazawa ( photo by Marshall Clarke ), award winning science journalist and author of Angel and the Assassin , will join Dr. Mimi Graham , director of Florida State University's Center for Prevention and Early Intervention Policy , Andrea Darr , creator of Handle With Care, Captain Lovetta Quinn-Henry , from the Orlando Police Department and many more featured at the conference. Help your community move the needle toward a trauma-informed, resilient community by learning from...
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Co-responding model takes shape as a new alternative for crisis response [newschannel5.com]
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Metro Nashville Police officers will soon share a squad car with mental health professionals, as they co-respond to the scene of a mental health crisis. Sixteen officers between the North and Hermitage precincts volunteered for this new training. That includes six clinicians from the Mental Health Cooperative. Inspector David Imhof of Metro Nashville’s Office of Alternative Policing Strategies joined Chief John Drake to explain how these teams will work in tandem. [...
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Eugene, OR's Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Street Program
Eugene, OR: CAHOOTS 32 years ago the City of Eugene, Oregon developed an innovative community-based public safety system to provide mental health first response for crises involving mental illness, homelessness, and addiction. White Bird Clinic started CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) as a community policing initiative in 1989 (White Bird Clinic).* The CAHOOTS model has been in the spotlight recently as the USA struggles to reimagine public safety. From the CAHOOTS...
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Supporting Mental Well-Being through Child Care Settings - 9/30, 1:30-3:00 ET
A webinar offered by the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) Thursday, September 30, 1:30 - 3:00 pm EDT Register today . Addressing the mental health needs of child care providers and children in care is vital in the face of the pandemic, a population-level traumatic event. CTIPP is offering a "plug and play" framework to ease the process of developing a continuum of training, reflective coaching, and consultation to build the capacity for supporting relational health...
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Traumatic Incident Reduction Facilitator Online Training / 4-day Workshop
ONLINE 4-DAY WORKSHOP November 6th, 7th, & 13th, 14th 10 a.m.- 6:00 p.m. PST, includes lunch break Workshop Objectives Understand theory of the traumatic network and consequences of traumatic incidents Understand the theory + practice of TIR Assess a client’s readiness for TIR Apply TIR techniques successfully Understand how triggering affects clients everyday lives Increase rapport with clients Outline : Day 1: Intro to TIR, theory, research, application Day 2: Learning and practicing...
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Prison And Jail Reentry And Health (HealthAffairs.org)
People reentering communities after incarceration are sicker than the general population and face barriers to accessing health care and other supports. Along with criminal justice reform, policy makers must work to improve evidence-based reentry programming that supports healthy people and communities. Key Points: Mass incarceration in the United States is a public health crisis that disproportionately affects Black and Brown people and their communities. Incarceration can exacerbate health...
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Meditations on Enough: 5 meditations on what “enough” means, from food to rest to diversity. (yesmagazine.org)
“Enough food” is each person having daily access to an average of 2,353 calories of culturally appropriate, locally available, affordable, unrefined, and delectable nourishment. The good news is that we already grow enough food to feed 10 billion people . The challenges are that the food is not fairly distributed, a lot of it is thrown away, and the process of growing it industrially is trashing the planet. Contrary to conventional mythology, smallholder farms and regenerative agriculture...
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The Violence at Home Signal for Help (Canadian Women's Foundation)
“Signal for Help” is a simple one-handed sign someone can use on a video call. It can help a person silently show they need help and want someone to check in with them in a safe way. There’s ample evidence that disaster situations can lead to a surge in gender-based violence. Public health directives on home isolation might increase danger and risk for people in abusive relationships. The Signal for Help is a tool that may help some people, some of the time. Some people do not have the...
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Oregon's Drug Decriminalization Initiative Has Created $300 Million In Funding For Treatment And Services [marijuanamoment.net]
By Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, November 9, 2021 In the year since Oregon decriminalized possession of all state-banned drugs , hundreds of millions of tax dollars have been redirected to funding community treatment and harm reduction services. Measure 110 ended arrests and jail time for possession of small amounts, replacing those penalties with a civil fine. The fine is waived if the person attends a substance use disorder assessment. “A year ago, Oregonians voted yes on Measure 110 to...
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Gentle Men: The Healing Power of Vulnerability (mindful.org)
Growing up, I was taught that traditional male attributes are things like toughness, emotional reserve, strength, power, and staunch individualism. This image of a “traditional man” feeds into once-clear-cut roles like winner and provider . Edward M. Adams and Ed Frauenheim suggest that this version of masculinity is confined : both limited and limiting. In their 2020 book, Reinventing Masculinity , Adams and Frauenheim write, “Confined masculinity focuses more on a man’s sense of...
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Historical Trauma Specialist Certification Level-1
HEAL HISTORICAL TRAUMA & Iya Affo PRESENT: The Historical Trauma Specialist Certification- Level 1 is a comprehensive understanding of Historical Trauma from a multicultural lens. The training is designed for participants serving, leading, advocating and working with people of color. It is the perfect training for people in a variety of disciplines as well as multicultural families and for anyone with the desire to understand the impact of slavery, genocide and colonization. The course...
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*Time-Sensitive* grant opportunity to support violence reduction (CalVIP RFP)
This year, the California legislature approved $209 million for competitive 3-year grants to cities disproportionately impacted by violence to improve safety and promote healing in communities. 53 California cities are eligible to apply for this grant, more than ever before! In San Diego County, community-based organizations (CBOs) that serve the residents of the cities of San Diego, Chula Vista, or El Cajon are also eligible to apply. You are receiving this email either because your...
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Back by Popular Demand! Trauma Informed Care Live Webinar!
Intro to Trauma Informed Care is for YOU! Designed to help you implement a trauma-informed approach throughout your organization, this live webinar provides an introductory understanding, and will equip you with tools you can use right away.
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Staff Shortages In Prisons And Jails Highlight Opportunities For Decarceration [healthaffairs.org]
By Katherine LeMasters , Morgan Maner , Meghan Peterson , Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein , Health Affairs, January 21. 2021 Across the United States, prisons and jails are struggling to maintain staffing levels . Staffing shortages are not a new phenomenon in carceral facilities . The incarcerated population has increased by 500 percent over the past 40 years nationwide , resulting in the expansion of the carceral workforce. The carceral workforce experiences high staff turnover with most having...
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As COVID spread in federal prisons, many at-risk inmates tried and failed to get out (npr.org)
As of early March, officials at the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) say 287 federal inmates have died from COVID-19, a count that does not include deaths in privately managed prisons. Bureau officials have been saying since the beginning of the pandemic that they have a plan to keep the situation under control, but an NPR analysis of federal prison death records suggests a far different story. The federal prison system has seen a significant rise in deaths during the pandemic years. In 2020,...