Tagged With "Born Even Within a Country Still Matters"
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From Treatment to Healing: Inquiry and Response to Recent and Past Trauma in Adult Health Care [Institute of Women's Health]
Abstract: In 2015, a national working group developed and published a conceptual framework for trauma-informed primary care (Machtinger, Cuca, Khanna, Dawson-Rose, & Kimberg, 2015). Since that publication, there has been increasing recognition that childhood and adult trauma underlie and perpetuate many physical and behavioral health conditions seen in health care settings and that addressing trauma could fundamentally improve the experience and efficacy of care for both patients and...
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Helping New Parents Make Room for Uncertainty
A new program for parents and infants, thanks to generous support from Mill Town Capital , is coming to Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The Hello It’s Me Project shines a spotlight on these tender new relationships, investing resources around the birth of a baby with the long-term goal of building a healthy community from the bottom up. When world-renowned child development researcher Dr. Ed Tronick spoke in the spring of 2018 for an audience of a wide variety of practitioners in Berkshire County...
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ACE-Aha Moments & Parenting: Meet Aprel Phelps Downey
Aprel Phelps Downey What was your ACEs Aha moment? When did you first hear about ACEs and what impact did/does it have on you? How do ACEs impact you as a parent? How is your parenting impacted by past trauma? What’s been most helpful to you as a parent parenting with ACEs? What’s been most challenging for you as a parent parenting with ACEs? What has parenting taught you? What have you learned? How do you manage complex family relationships? What inspires/encourages and helps you? I know...
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ACEs Community Spotlight Series: Dr. Richard Honigman, Central Nassau Pediatrics
For our second community spotlight interview, I spoke with Dr. Richard Honigman, a pediatrician at Central Nassau Pediatrics in Levittown and infant mental health advocate. We discussed the importance of addressing childhood adversity and the relevant work he is doing both inside and outside his practice. Please note that responses have been adjusted for length and clarity. Dr. Honigman is also the first recipient of the 2019 Ed Tronick Award for Distinguished Contribution to Infant-Parent...
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ACEs Connection, our Cooperative of Communities, and....Pando!
Last month, we officially launched the ACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities. We are SO excited about this! And the communities that are part of the handful of ACEs initiatives that are piloting the Cooperative are, too! Before describing the Cooperative, I want to reassure our 40,000+ members and 277 ACEs initiatives (plus another 100 in development) that have communities on ACEs Connection that nothing on ACEsConnection.com changes! Membership is and remains free ! And it will remain...
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Re: Opioid exposed Newborns - are we missing the mark and forgetting about MOM?
Hi Rick - Thanks so much for reading and commenting! I am in awe of your resilience. You have survived a lot. The maternal infant dyad as a concept is very common in public health and those of us who specialize in Maternal Child & Adolescent Health (MCAH). There are organizations at the federal level who focus on this population as an opportunity for prevention and early intervention! Check out ACMHP and Maternal Child Health Bureau. Science, particularly research in epigenetics is...
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Re: I Thought My Kids Were Too Old for Me to Have Postpartum Depression. But I Couldn't Deny the Awful Reality (Time Magazine)
We love Kimmy Gibbler (and Andrea!). The headline in this Time Article is a great hook and a bit misleading in clinical terms. Andrea wasn't experiencing depression but anxiety, and also the postpartum period is clinically defined as one year post birth. We would call what Andrea went through severe maternal anxiety and want mothers (and providers for that matter) to know there is a range of maternal mental health disorders. We have heard from Andrea's publicist and Andrea may be joining the...
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Re: I Thought My Kids Were Too Old for Me to Have Postpartum Depression. But I Couldn't Deny the Awful Reality (Time Magazine)
Thank you for the clarifications, Joy! Please feel free to share, clarify, or in any other way make more information available. Thank you for all you do to support moms and families! Karen
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Cracked Up, The Evolving Conversation: Generational Trauma - Breaking the Cycle [crackedupmovie.com]
CRACKED UP THE EVOLVING CONVERSATION Episode 4: Generational Trauma - Breaking the Cycle with Darrell Hammond, Comedian, actor, SNL Legend Michelle Esrick, Filmmaker, activist Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Author of The Body Keeps the Score Jane Stevens, Founder of ACES Connection and special guest Jane Fonda Academy Award-winning actor, producer, author and activist Thursday June 25th at 1pm PDT / 2p MT / 3p CT / 4pm EDT Hosted by ACEs Connection THE PRICE OF THIS LIVE EVENT IS $12.50 We have...
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For Decades, She Blamed Herself for the Abuse. Writing Her Story Was an Act of Survival. Publishing It Was an Act of Rebellion. (Pro Publica)
By Adriana Gallardo, June 27, 2020, Pro Publica. She was still small enough to climb on her mother’s back, too little to step from the family boat without help, when the violations began. “Touching games” led by older men with big smiles at her family’s fish camp, across the water from Kotzebue, a regional hub of 3,000 people known as the “gateway to the Arctic.” From those early years into her adulthood in distant Anchorage, Tia Wakolee, 46, says she was molested, raped or stalked nearly 30...
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Re: Unbecoming an Armadillo: Recovering from Trauma with EMDR
Thank you Victoria for sharing your experience of EMDR and for vulnerably sharing some of your childhood and residual experiences. I can relate on many levels. The more we actually articulate our experiences, the more opportunity we give others to realize we're not alone, and the more we actually provide examples of how so many of us learn lies about ourselves as a result of our parent child interactions. You're not alone. You have many allies on this journey to autonomy and empowerment.
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Why the dean of early childhood experts wants to get beyond the brain [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
By Ryan White, Center for Health Journalism, July 23, 2020 Harvard’s Jack Shonkoff, a luminary in the field of early childhood, has spent years showing that events in the earliest years of life have profound implications for how budding brains develop, and in turn, shape a child’s later potential at school and work. Now, Shonkoff says it’s time to connect the brain to the rest of the body. “The message now is to say that there is a revolution going on in molecular biology and genomics and in...
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Freedom From Trauma – Powerful & Profound Practices To Heal Trauma & Consciously Create The Body, Mind, Spirit You Truly Desire
We are living in complicated and stressful times. What needs to be healed seems more palpable than ever. It feels like the call to release what no longer serves has never been louder and we are feeling that tug at our core. While the founder of The League of Extraordinary People, Alfred White, has been gaining more clarity everyday on this, he was invited to be part of an event, more like a movement, to help others find freedom from what has been holding them back. It is a free, online...
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Upcoming Webinar: Learn How to Start an ACEs Initiative in Your Community
Are you curious about starting an ACEs Initiative in your community? Join one of these upcoming webinars to learn how to start an initiative. I'm Alison Cebulla, the Community Facilitator (CF) for the Northeast USA, Mid-Atlantic USA, and Canada for ACEs Connection. You are welcome to attend these webinars no matter which region you are interested in starting. After the webinar, I will put you in touch with the CF in your region who will help you get started if you choose to move forward. All...
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Children Missing Out On Developmental Services Because Of Labyrinth System [calhealthreport.org]
By Claudia Boyd-Barrett • Sep 29, 2020 As Karla Garcia of San Francisco watched her third child grow, she had a feeling something was different. At 4 months old, Brianna still couldn’t keep her head steady or lift it up when she was on her stomach, a milestone babies typically reach by 2 months old. She also didn’t hold her mother’s gaze or look intently at other familiar faces. That’s something babies normally do within their first month of life. But when Garcia raised her concerns with...
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Report on WIC Role in Reducing Maternal Mortality (California WIC Association)
CWA Flash Newsletter - October 13, 2020 (Blue text=hyperlinks) Report on WIC Role in Reducing Maternal Mortality The National WIC Association released a report titled " The Role of WIC in Reducing Maternal Mortality ." NWA’s Maternal Mortality Task Force created the report to consider ways in which maternal mortality is addressed and discussed with program participants throughout the WIC appointment, as well as explore opportunities for additional focus on the topic. The report highlights...
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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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Upcoming Webinars: How to Start an ACEs Initiative in Your Community + Intro to Organizing Your Initiative
Are you curious about starting an ACEs Initiative in your community? Are you wanting to learn the fundamentals of organizing an initiative or coalition? Join one of these upcoming webinars to learn how to start and organize an initiative! 1. How To Start an ACEs Initiative in Your Community These webinars will be held monthly on the second Monday of the month by Alison Cebulla, the Community Facilitator (CF) for the Northeast USA, Mid-Atlantic USA, and Canada for ACEs Connection. You are...
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8 Categories of Adversity That Shape Health: Adverse Babyhood Experiences (ABEs), ACEs, and More
When I assisted women and families during pregnancy, labor and birth as a family doctor, I often felt concern that the interventions commonly used, while potentially life saving, influenced outcomes in ways that could be negative. I've since learned about a vast body of evidence that helps identify risk and offers tools to help recognize potential risk and effects so we can improve prevention and treatment. "ABEs" are one of 7 categories of adversity I add to ACEs that I wish I'd known about.
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Adverse Babyhood Experiences (ABEs): 10 New Categories of Adversity Before a Child's 3rd Birthday (Download Journal Article)
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). ABEs occur before a child’s 3rd birthday and influence infant as well as maternal morbidity and mortality. ABEs are also risk factors for chronic illnesses and other chronic conditions in the child , symptoms such as postpartum depression and PTSD in parents and offer opportunities for prevention and repair.
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Sensory and Emotional Experience: Linked from Birth (Claudia M. Gold, MD)
Katie and Jason came to me at their wits’ end over four-year-old Mabel’s frequent meltdowns. “She’s been like this from birth,” Katie explained at our first visit. She described needing to nurse Mabel as an infant in a dark, quiet room because she was so easily distracted by sights and sounds. When I asked them to tell me about a recent specific moment of disruption, they described a visit to a county fair. Mabel was clearly so hungry that she was falling apart, yet despite the abundance of...
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Why the conversation on early childhood development needs to start before birth [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
By Giles Bruce, Center for Health Journalism, August 19, 2021 For some time now, early childhood experts have acknowledged that the first few years of a child’s life are critical for neurological development, and that growing up in a stressful environment can actually change the structure of the budding brain . Now researchers are increasingly finding that the human brain is shaped — quite literally, in some instances — by external forces while it is still in utero. “We really need to...
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Cash Aid to Poor Mothers Increases Brain Activity in Babies, Study Finds [nytimes.com]
By Jason DeParle, Photo: Olga Koric/Alamy, The New York Times, January 24, 2022 A study that provided poor mothers with cash stipends for the first year of their children’s lives appears to have changed the babies’ brain activity in ways associated with stronger cognitive development, a finding with potential implications for safety net policy. The differences were modest — researchers likened them in statistical magnitude to moving to the 75th position in a line of 100 from the 81st — and...
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The Dismal State of Maternal Wholistic Health for Women of Color
Change is long overdue for this massive maternal health chasm of wholistic health disparities, transcending physical, behavioral, and psychosocial health, and particularly for women of color (WOC)
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I’m a Motherhood Expert. My Ambivalence Is Normal. [nytimes.com]
By Pooja Lakshmin, M.D., The New York Times, May 7, 2022 I’m not someone who dreamed of motherhood as a girl. Quite the opposite. In my early 30s, I had a recurring nightmare in which I was unknowingly pregnant and the fetus felt like a parasite invading my body. Growing up in South Asian culture, which valorizes women’s childbearing and mothering responsibilities above all else, was one reason for my fear. I also got divorced in my late 20s. Becoming a mom didn’t seem like it was in the...
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How to Help Survivors of Extreme Climate Events (psychologytoday.com)
By Elaine Miller-Karas MSW, LCSW Building Resiliency to Trauma Psychology Today, September 30, 2022 Mental health can suffer after extreme climate events. KEY POINTS Mental health conditions exacerbated by natural disasters include post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. After a disaster, the number of people needing assistance from the mental health systems strains or exceeds community capacity. There are simple strategies helpers can use to help survivors restore...
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MEDICAL and ACADEMIC NARROWMINDEDNESS BLOCK PROGRESS
As a clinician, researcher and policy specialist devoted to the prevention and treatment of the ill effects of child abuse and neglect (CAN) I read “Recommendations for Population-Based Applications of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study: Position Statement by the American College of Preventive Medicine” (Sherin KM, Stillerman A, Chandrasekar L, Went N, Niebuhr DW. Recommendations for Population-Based Applications of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study: Position Statement by the...
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Jeoff Gordon sees PACEs science, PACEs Connection playing a vital role in ‘relieving some of the most anguishing pain in our society.’
Note: PACEs Connection is in dire financial straits. We are asking for support, from you, our 57,586 members, to help cover the loss of foundation funding that was promised and did not come through. Pay and hours have been cut for our staff—most of us will be laid off for the month of December. Another grant will pick up in January, but we will still be underfunded. Since sounding the alarm this summer, we’ve raised about $26,000 . Thankfully, about 25% of new donors are making monthly...
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How much would the NAS poverty reduction packages reduce referrals to CPS and foster care placements? Would they reduce racial disproportionality in child welfare? (nasonline.org).
Because of a collaboration with Columbia University and UW-Madison, we have answers to these questions. By Peter Peter Pecora, Casey Family Programs, March 17, 2023 - Overview The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recently released a “ roadmap ” to reduce child poverty by as much as half through the implementation of a series of social policy packages. The aim of this study was to simulate the reductions in Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement and foster care placements that are...
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“Going Way Upstream” - Panelists at Resilient Pender County Conference report on current trauma prevention and healing efforts; look to future
Amy Read of Coastal Horizons introduces the panel following a viewing of "Resilience: The Biology of Stress, The Science of Hope", at the Pender Resiliency Task Force Mini Conference Thursday, June 8 ,at Heide Trask High School in Rocky Point. A "dream team" of subject-matter expert panelists (L-R) were Ryan Estes of Coastal Horizons, Ben David, district attorney for Pender and New Hanover counties, Judge J. H. Corpening, district court judge for New Hanover and Pender counties, Taylor...
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“Caring for our own” theme emerges at May Meeting of North Carolina Chief Justice’s Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts
Ben David, co-chair of the North Carolina Chief Justice's Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts, shares plans to sustain the work done during the two-year term of the Task Force, to "care for our own" speaking of North Carolina's children, youth, families, communities, victims of crimes, members of law enforcement, the judiciary and court officers and staffers. He also shared Chief Justice Paul Newby's hopes of "getting ACEs-informed courts" into the culture, and said a national conference for...
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Review of “First 60 Days” booklet: Leveraging author’s work and movement could spark revolution to prevent and heal trauma, one precious baby, child, and caregiver at a time.
(This is a review of what I believe is an important new resource for the PACEs [for positive and adverse childhood experiences] science movement. Opinions expressed are my own, and are shared as a parent, advocate, author, and longtime student of trauma, healing, and prevention. Thoughts are also shared through my lens as someone who believes, deeply, in the incredible importance of and value in building healthier, more compassionate communities to support and nurture pregnant and new...
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Early Relational Health Innovators Partner In Program Supported by PACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities Members in Twelve California Counties
Christina Bethell, Ph.D, MBA, MPH, founder of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI), principal author of the groundbreaking study on positive childhood experiences, and creator of the free Well Visit Planner, among other innovations. Two internationally-respected leaders and innovators in complementary aspects of early relational health and childhood and maternal health equity recently launched a partnership they believe will benefit everyone from newborn babies and...
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Empathy: Can It Make The Difference?
Emotion has an enormous impact on imprinting memory in our brains. I had an experience when I was 6 years old that included emotion and I have the memory of it all of these many years later. It was a 6 year old birthday sleepover party. There were 7 girls invited that lived near each other and played together most days. A girl new to the neighborhood was invited only due to the requirement of the birthday girl’s mother. I was also invited. I lived a block away but did play with these girls...