Tagged With "Ben David New Hanover County DA"
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Public support for asking about traumatic childhood experiences in general practice, suggests initial study [Public Health Wales]
Almost nine out of 10 patients (87 per cent) who provided feedback following a new pilot initiative said a GP surgery is a suitable place to be asked about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Under the pilot initiative, 85 per cent of patients also said it was acceptable to provide information about ACEs to a health practitioner, and four out of five (81 per cent) said it was important for practitioners to understand this information. Just under a third (30 per cent) of general practice...
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Reconnecting to your Body after Peritraumatic Dissociation
In this article, we will talk about one of the most common symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress disorder – dissociation. We will explore different methods and tools that help us to reconnect with our body in the long term. Since one of those tools is therapy, we will also talk about the limits of talk therapy, and address how working with our body directly can teach us new and healthier responses when we are overwhelmed. Definition and Explanation of Dissociation For every trauma...
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Redesigning Maternal Care: OB-GYNs Are Urged to See New Mothers Sooner And More Often [npr.org]
This story was co-published with ProPublica . Doctors would see new mothers sooner and more frequently, and insurers would cover the increased visits, under sweeping new recommendations from the organization that sets standards of care for obstetrician-gynecologists in the U.S. The 11-page "committee opinion" on " Optimizing Postpartum Care ," released Monday by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists , represents a fundamental re-imagining of how providers, insurers and...
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Reel Love: How Films Helped Me Through Postpartum Depression [NYTimes.com]
Every Wednesday, after my husband left for work, Everest and I headed out for a movie date. “Wild” was a favorite, as were “If I Stay” and “The Hundred-Foot Journey,” because those were quiet, character-driven stories. Everest didn’t much care what was on the screen: He was only 3 months old when we started going to the weekly parent movie mornings at our local theater. These were screenings of new releases that catered to parents with babies – the lights in the theater were turned up, the...
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[Repost] Trauma-informed Care: It Takes More Than a Clipboard and a Questionnaire
California is about to launch an ambitious campaign to train tens of thousands of Medi-Cal providers to screen children and adults up to age 65 for trauma, starting on January 1, 2020. It is well-established that the early identification of trauma and providing the appropriate treatment are critical tools for reducing long-term health care costs for both children and adults. Research has shown that individuals who experienced a high number of traumatic childhood events are likely to die...
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RSVP now for 2020 MOM Annual Forum!
Clinical Keynote: Pilyoung Kim, Ph.D. Motherhood and the Brain Pilyoung Kim, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the department of psychology and the Director of Family and Child Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Denver . She and her team investigate the roles of prenatal and postnatal exposure to poverty and stress in (1) neural adaptation to parenthood in new mothers and (2) brain development in infants and young children. Her primary research method is pediatric neuroimaging...
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Save the Date: 2020 Healthy Mothers and Healthy Babies Conference
Mark your calendars! Perinatal Services BC will be hosting the biennial Healthy Mothers and Healthy Babies Conference in conjunction with UBC Interprofessional Continuing Education. Innovation and equity: The foundation to quality perinatal care in 2020 This conference is hosted by Perinatal Services BC, a part of the Provincial Health Services Authority. It is an exciting meeting of the minds; an opportunity for health care professionals interested in the care of pregnant and postpartum...
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Senator Harris to Reintroduce Maternal CARE Act [CWA E Newsletter]
Sen. Kamala Harris has announced a proposal to address the worsening maternal mortality crisis in the U.S., and deep racial disparities in care across the country. Harris' proposal highlights the fact that African American women are three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications compared to their white counterparts - and not just among poor women, according to the CDC . Harris proposes to create a new $25 million program aimed at fighting racial bias in maternal care by...
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She’s the ‘street doula’ behind the Homeless Humans of Tacoma. ‘They’re just like you and me’ (Tacoma News Tribune)
For roughly 40 years, Patti Ramos was a doula, assisting with more than 3,000 births. Now, Ramos has something new to consume her. There’s no paycheck involved this time — the 66-year-old gets by on Social Security income — but the hours are still long and the connections are still intimate. Today, Ramos, 66 and retired, considers herself a “street doula.” That’s because Ramos is the one-woman force behind the Homeless Humans of Tacoma project . For the last four years, she has spent her...
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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Strategies to Improve Maternal Mental Health in California [California Budget Bites]
(Posted May 1, 2019) Today marks World Maternal Mental Health Day and the start of Mental Health Awareness Month . Maternal mental health (MMH) is vital to the health and well-being of children and families. When mothers feel emotionally healthy and well supported, they are better able to develop strong bonds with their children, which promote children’s physical, mental, and emotional development. Conversely, when mothers experience mental health conditions during pregnancy or after giving...
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Study defines differences among brain neurons that coincide with psychiatric conditions [medicalxpress.com]
It's no surprise to scientists that variety is the very essence of biology, not just the seasoning, but most previous studies of key brain cells have found little variability in a common cell process that involves how genetic information is read and acted on. The process, called epigenetics, involves chemical or structural "tweaks" to gene activity that don't affect the underlying genetic code itself, but do affect when and how a gene becomes available to be read for its protein-encoding...
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Symptoms of Depression During and After Pregnancy
In order to have the best chance of improving outcomes for the mother and infant, routine screening and treatment for depression should begin early in pregnancy, a time when women have increased contact with the health care system.
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The Body Remembers
She had a poster of Where’s Waldo? on the wall, presumably there to distract her patients from what was happening while they lay on the exam table. This was my third appointment, and on the drive over I had fought down rising waves of panic at walking back in to this room, with Waldo and her gloved fingers. When my physiotherapist had first recommended this treatment after months of physio exercises had failed to produce the desired results, I went home and cried. I called Dawn and told her...
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The Developing Brain & Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
Thanks to an explosion in scientific research now possible with imaging technologies, such as fMRI and SPECT, experts can actually see how the brain develops. This helps explain why exposure to adverse childhood experiences can so deeply influence and change a child's brain and thus their physical and emotional health and quality of life across their lifetime. The above time-lapse study was conducted over 10 years. The darker colors represent brain maturity (brain development). I have added...
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The Girl on the Side (www.beatingtrauma.com)
Elisabeth Corey writes so honestly on her Beating Trauma blog . I'm a huge fan of her writing and advocacy work. This piece, in particular, is amazing. She writes about adult relationships and how they have been impacted deeply and consistently by ACEs in childhood. We know what we have lived. Unlearning and learning new and different things takes time and work. And it helps, that parents like Elisabeth share as they learn. We all benefit from that sharing. Many of us are learning how to...
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The Harmful Effects of Stress During Pregnancy can Last a Lifetime [sciencedaily.com]
From Science Daily, March 5, 2020 In a new study, they tracked a lifetime of physiological changes experienced by mice given a liquid solution containing the stress hormone glucocorticoid while in the womb or soon after birth. Glucocorticoids are naturally occurring hormones that reduce inflammation and are instrumental in helping infants and adults alike adapt quickly to environmental dangers, such as famine or violence. Physicians use them to treat asthma and autoimmune diseases caused by...
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The Hello It’s Me Project comes to Pittsfield: Dr. Claudia Gold at the helm of initiative to create healthy bonds between parents and infants (www./theberkshireedge.com)
Cissy's note: I am a huge fan of the way @Claudia Gold works with those of us Parenting with ACEs . The first time I read her writing I relaxed. She was speaking with and for parents not about or at us. Unfortunately, her approach is rare. Fortunately, she just launched a new project she's been dreaming of for years. I love the way she supports all families and how she centers the role of all parents in the lives of all children - especially those - not all except those...
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The pandemic may be intensifying postpartum depression. But there are resources to help. (The Lily)
By Juli Fraga, May 8, 2020, The Lily. On March 18 — a day before California became the first state to issue a stay-at-home order — Courtney Pladsen, 34, a nurse practitioner who lives in Portland, Me., gave birth to her first child. Like many of the hundreds of thousands of U.S. women who have given birth during the coronavirus pandemic, Pladsen’s life was turned upside down. In preparation for parenthood, Pladsen and her husband had lined up support: a lactation consultant to help with...
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The prevalence and clinical correlates of adverse childhood experiences in a cross-sectional study of primary care patients with cardiometabolic disease or risk factors (BMC)
From the article: To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the incidence and clinical correlates of ACEs in primary care patients who already have cardiometabolic disease or are at elevated risk based on conventional risk factors. Open Access LINK to article Background Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with risk of poor adult health, including cardiometabolic diseases. Little is known about the correlates of ACEs for adults who have already developed...
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The Relentless School Nurse: The Text Message No Parent Wants to Get - An Active Shooter is at School
Many blog readers know that my niece Carly is a survivor of the Parkland shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. You may know that my father also survived a mass murder, and like Carly, hid in a closet until the police arrived. Almost 70 years separated the two tragedies. Our guest blogger this week is my sister Merri, Carly's mom. Merri shares her first-hand account of what happened the afternoon of February 14, 2018, when Carly sent this text, “Mom don’t freak out but we are on...
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The Rise of the Trauma-Informed Mothers
The next generation is less likely to wear predisposed shackles of trauma because as trauma-informed parents we are re-wiring the traumatically stressed DNA that was passed down to us.
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The Trauma-Sensitive Parenting Summit & Commentary
"Having a history of trauma or loss does not by itself predispose you to have a child with disorganization. It is the lack of resolution that is the essential risk factor. It is never too late to move toward making sense of your experiences and healing your past. Not only you but also your child will benefit." That's a quote from the book Parenting from the Inside Out: How A Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive, which was published fifteen freaking years ago. It's...
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The Type of Postpartum Depression No One Talks About [Health.com]
Postpartum depression is recognized and understood today more than ever before, thanks to advances in research and public awareness campaigns. While the stigma around the disorder isn’t entirely gone, many new moms who might have once suffered in silence are reaching out for help—and speaking out about their experiences. But women aren't the only group that can be affected by postpartum depression: New dads can struggle with it too. Fathers don’t suffer from depression in the same way, or at...
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The Unexpected Perk Of My Group Pregnancy Care: New Friends [CA Healthline]
I had always imagined going through pregnancy surrounded by family and friends. But when I found out I was pregnant, my husband, Alex, and I had just moved from San Francisco to Chicago. I knew almost no one. I ended up finding a community where I least expected it: at a medical office. CenteringPregnancy is group prenatal care offered by more than 600 practices across the country. Rather than the standard 15-minute individual visits in an exam room, women who are due around the same time...
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Thrive Washington: 3rd Edition of NEAR@Home Toolkit Released
Thrive Washington is pleased to announce that the 3 rd edition of the NEAR@Home toolkit is now available and offers home visitors more guidance on how to safely, respectfully and effectively address Adverse Childhood Experiences with the families they serve. This new edition reflects what was learned when the toolkit was incorporated into a Facilitated Learning Process with 225 home visitors and 54 supervisors in the four states of federal Region X: Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. It's...
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Through a Trauma Lens: The Need for Doulas
Trigger warning: trauma, doctors, hospital, birth, sex It is very important to me to approach all of the work that I do from a trauma-informed perspective. Whether it is asking for consent before touching a student in yoga class, offering self-regulation skills to those I work with, or preparing clients for potential triggers*, I do my best to incorporate my on-going learning in the field of trauma into my professional practices. Recently, I began taking trauma classes for professionals...
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TIC: News and Notes for November 2019
ACEs, Adversity's Impact Podcast: Dr. Nadine Burke Harris Vital Signs: Estimated proportion of adult health problems attributable to adverse childhood experiences and implications for prevention - 25 states, 2015-2017 Animal study shows how stress and mother's abuse affects infant brain LGBTQ, traumatized homeless youth more vulnerable to being trafficked: Report How do these pediatricians do ACEs screening?Early adopters tell all When family relationships become toxic: The trauma of...
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TIC: News and Notes for the Week of October 21, 2019 [dhs.wisconsin.gov]
ACEs, Adversity's Impact There is only one boat: The myth of normalcy by Dr. Gabor Mate Understanding historical trauma to strengthen community Childhood trauma linked to early, premarital childbirth and poor health for women Early life racial discrimination linked to depression, accelerated aging When mothers are killed by their partners, children often become 'forgotten' victims. It's time they were given a voice Children's language skills may be harmed by social hardship Does racism...
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Untreated perinatal paternal depression: Effects on offspring (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Note: So many of us mistakingly believe hormone-related changes in pregnant women are the only cause of depression for new parents. Not so, as many fathers and adoptive parents know. This abstract suggests the following: Hence, facilitating access to vigorous and evidence based treatments is a public health opportunity for improving the quality of life of depressed parents and their children. Evidences emerging from this review actually suggest that the traditional gender-focused approach to...
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Untreated Postpartum Depression and Anxiety Costs California Billions, Report Concludes [CA Health Report]
Untreated mood and anxiety disorders associated with pregnancy are costing California billions of dollars in health care spending, social services expenses and productivity losses, according to a new report. The study , conducted by the research firm Mathematica with funding from three foundations including the California Health Care Foundation, estimates the cost of untreated perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) in California at $2.4 billion for all births in 2017. This includes...
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Violence, Drugs, Mental Illness May Account for Half of Maternal Deaths [PsychCentral.com]
Intimate partner violence, substance use and mental illness may be as threatening to health and survival during pregnancy as medical issues, according to a new study. In the study, researchers from the Boston University Medical Center note that mortality rates for pregnant women are increasing in the U.S. Many are due to medical causes thought to be directly related to pregnancy, such as hemorrhage, thromboembolism and hypertensive disease. Although substance use, serious mental illness and...
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What a Pediatrician Can Do for a Child Seeking Asylum-And What She Can't [newyorker.com]
By Rachel Pearson, The New Yorker, October 8, 2019 On a cool spring afternoon, in a clinic that serves refugee and immigrant families, I sit across from a teen-age girl. She is otherwise known as an unaccompanied alien child, or U.A.C. She left her home in Central America, crossed the southern border, and was detained for a week—in Texas, she thinks—in a facility where breakfast was a cold bean burrito, lunch was a cup of microwavable noodle soup, and dinner was a cold bean burrito. She says...
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What Happens When Hollywood is Not Trauma Informed? MMH Advocates are Calling for Warning and a Boycott of Charlize Theron's New Movie "Tully" [huffingtonpost.ca]
"'... It's very disappointing the illness would be so grossly misdiagnosed in a major motion picture when we know that only 15 percent of women who experience a postpartum mood disorder get treatment because of the stigma and shame associated with it,' Zoblin told HuffPost Canada. 'I think mothers should be made aware going into the movie that it might be triggering.'" Warning: this post and the linked article contain spoilers for the new movie "Tully". The previews for this movie would lead...
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How a famous hospital turned around its low rate of screening moms for depression [CenterForHealthJournalism.org]
With two maternal mental health bills on the California governor’s desk and one already signed , a Los Angeles hospital’s work to screen new mothers for depression could soon become a statewide model. Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles worked hard to bring up its low rate of screening postpartum women for depression. If signed, one of the new bills would require obstetric teams to do the same. The hospital’s screening success is largely due to the dogged persistence of clinical psychologist Eynav...
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How bad will my postpartum depression be in 12 months? [Science Daily]
'Game-changing' study uses four factors to accurately predict severity, longevity of postpartum depression Date: January 16, 2019 Source:Northwestern University Summary:A new study was able to successfully predict -- with 72.8 percent accuracy -- if a new mother would experience worsening depressive symptoms over the first year after giving birth. The scientists predicted this depression trajectory using four maternal characteristics that put the mother at risk. Identifying these factors...
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How Does Trauma Affect a Person’s Interaction with Their Child? (www.nicabm.com) & Commentary
Has anyone seen this video posted on the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine (NICAMB) blog? "According to Dr. Ruth Lanius, a parent's experience of trauma can impact their ability to form a close, intimate relationship with their child." Ruth Buczynski, PhD Those of us Parenting with ACEs sure know that's the truth. Developmental trauma impacts our ability to form close and intimate relationships with ourselves, other adults and our children. The video was...
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How Genes Respond to Trauma and Stress
Okay! So, after getting YOUR answers to my crowdsourcing question (thank you for the 100 responses on Facebook and Instagram !): "What do you want to see from me on social media?" the overwhelming #1 response was more nuggets of science, offered with the shared sense that I understand YOUR struggles, I see your suffering. And I do. Oh, you have no idea how much I do. So, with that in mind, here's a nugget of science about How Genes Respond to Trauma and Stress . Some genes, like the ones...
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How It Feels & How We Heal: Parenting with ACEs Chat Quotes (You Tube, Database, PDFs, Links)
Parenting with ACEs is sharing inspiration, information, and expertise from our chat series in 3 formats. Parenting with ACEs: How It Feels & How We Heal Quote Collection (pdf version below as well) Quotes Database (pdf version below as well) Links to Chat Transcripts and before and after-the-chat blog posts. Thanks to everyone who showed up, who shared, and who is doing the important work that is our mission (prevent ACEs, heal trauma, build resilience). We know that work happens...
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How Postpartum Depression is Different from Baby Blues [PsychCentral.com]
Today, even though we’ve made much progress, postpartum depression (PPD) still gets confused with baby blues. It still gets minimized and dismissed. Oh, don’t worry. Being sad and sobbing are totally normal. So is feeling frustrated. You just gave birth, after all. You just need some sleep. A day off. A change in attitude. Maybe you should stop putting so much pressure on yourself. Maybe you’re not used to being home so much. You need time to adjust. You need to get used to your new normal.
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How to get more low-income moms screened for depression? CMS says, ‘Bill me!’ [CenterForHealthJournalism.com]
In recent years there’s been a surge in awareness of how common and debilitating maternal depression can be. As the research accumulates and media coverage keeps apace, the idea that depression and related disorders can wreak serious havoc on a mother and affect her baby’s development has given fresh urgency to efforts to get moms more help. Among policymakers, growing recognition of the problem has translated into new programs, with a number of states encouraging screenings and treatment.
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Hunger Moves to the Suburbs [sfchronicle.com]
By Tara Duggan, San Francisco Chronicle, November 4, 2019 Most people think of people lining up at food pantries and soup kitchens as an urban phenomenon. But in Alameda County, which has one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the Bay Area, an increasing number of people living in the suburbs are also having trouble affording food. That includes Livermore, a city in the Tri-Valley area that’s better known for its wineries. “When people think of homelessness and poverty, they don’t...
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Improve Birth and Perinatal Outcomes with a Trauma Sensitive Approach
The Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health is excited to bring together 10 talented practitioners to explore the Trauma Informed Practices that help improve birth outcomes and support human development right from the very start. The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (1998) launched the importance of trauma and trauma informed care in our health and educational systems. We suddenly had a measure of how early experiences in childhood could correlate with adult disease.
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Introduce mental health checks for new mothers, ministers told Six-week checkup would help the 50% of UK mothers with mental health problems
New mothers should receive a mental health checkup six weeks after giving birth to help tackle possible postnatal depression and other problems related to having a baby, ministers have been told. A cross-party group of 60 MPs and peers have written to Steve Brine, the minister for public health and primary care, demanding that all mothers in England have an assessment of their emotional and mental health carried out by a GP, practice nurse or health visitor. They say that making such...
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Introducing myself, Morgan Vien & NEW Practicing Resilience Community
Hello! I’m a Community Manager for the Practicing Resilience for Self-Care & Healing community. This is an introduction to me and this new community. I graduated with a B.S. in Public Health from Santa Clara University June 2017. And I’m interested in preventing chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, at the community and population level by addressing biological, psychological, and social factors that affect chronic disease outcomes. As the...
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Introducing NEW Becoming Trauma-Informed & Beyond Community
Earlier this year @Dawn Daum wrote to us when she was ready to share ACEs science with people in the organization she works in to make a case for moving towards more trauma-informed care for the benefit of the staff and those they serve. She was frustrated because almost all the training and resources she found were geared towards schools, clinical staff or to organizations working with children and families rather than ACE-impacted adults in the workplace and who are...
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Just 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation can improve verbal learning and memory processes, study finds (psypost.org)
By Eric W Dolan, December 3, 2019, for psypost.org New scientific research published in the journal Memory & Cognition provides evidence that a brief mindfulness meditation exercise can enhance verbal learning. “A number of studies have shown that mindfulness can improve cognitive abilities, including certain verbal abilities. However, little research has examined how mindfulness can affect verbal learning and memory. Furthermore, no research has examined the mechanism by which...
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“Landmark” Maternal Health Legislation Clears Major Hurdle [propublica.org]
Update, Dec. 13, 2018 at 8:15 p.m. ET: On Thursday evening, the Senate unanimously passed its version of the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act, sending it to the president to sign. Congress moved a big step closer on Tuesday toward addressing one of the most fundamental problems underlying the maternal mortality crisis in the United States: the shortage of reliable data about what kills American mothers. The House of Representatives unanimously approved H.R. 1318 , the Preventing Maternal...
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Lesson learned integrating ACEs science into health clinics: Staff first, THEN patients
Nearly two years ago, a team of colleagues at LifeLong Medical Clinics jumped at the opportunity to integrate practices based on ACEs science to prevent and heal trauma in their patients when it joined a two-year learning collaborative known as the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative (RBC). A few months after training began, the staff realized they had to put on the brakes.
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Making the Good Stuff Louder: Trauma Dad, Bryon Hamel
Byron Hamel, (AKA Trauma Dad ), is a filmmaker , children's rights and men's wellness advocate. He's also a father with "ACEs through the roof," who survived child torture at the hands of a man now on death row for infanticide. Before the Father & ACEs chat started last week (see full chat transcript ), we discussed if and how to give a trigger warning. Hamel's experienced horrific trauma during childhood. He didn't want to traumatize those on the chat but wanted to be honest.