Tagged With "mental health"
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Inside Boston Hospitals, A Reckoning With Racism (WBUR)
By Martha Bebinger, June 19, 2020, WBUR As calls for racial justice continue on Boston streets, conversations have shifted to what’s next. That’s true inside hospitals as well, where the life-long effects of racism play out every day. “You could almost take any chronic disease in America, diabetes, hyper-tension, and there will be higher rates and worse outcomes in Black Americans,” says Dr. Rose Olson, a resident physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “That’s not due to biology or...
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Patients in a pandemic (Oregon Coast Today)
By Rachel Baird & Krista Melone, June 16, 2020, TODAY. I n the middle of a pandemic, a discussion about “everyday health” and the medical community tends to take a backseat to the more pressing questions surrounding the spread of a new virus. However, as many of us are realizing, the impact COVID-19 has had on medical practice nationwide is far-reaching. From elective surgeries that have been postponed, to blood drives being canceled and increased concern about routine visits; the...
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Humana: ‘Unhealthy Days’ For Medicare Population Fall As Social Determinants Screened (Forbes)
By Bruce Japsen, June 18, 2020, Forbes. A project by Humana to improve the health of seniors in private Medicare plans through better management of patient populations continues to show improvement five years into the effort, the health insurer said in a new report. Humana’s “Bold Goal” initiative, which began in 2015, uses measures established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track an individual’s physical and mental “unhealthy days” over a 30-day period. The social...
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THURSDAY!! 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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ACEs screening is about building relationships, says early adopter
Whether or not to screen for ACEs in primary care is an important debate—and I hear and respect the passion from both sides of the argument. I fall in the “pro-ACE assessments” camp, but with some important caveats. I think that assessments for ACEs are dramatically different from screening for autism or developmental delays. In my opinion, assessments for ACEs in primary care should be primarily about building relationships.
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Linda Grabbe: Helping her communities develop resilience through the Community Resilience Model
Grabbe searched for models that would help her homeless and addicted patients. “There are good body-based models for psychotherapy, which may be the most effective approach for trauma,” she says, “but hardly any of my patients were receiving any kind of therapy. There are thousands of people in our communities who have high ACE scores who will never get the years of psychotherapy they deserve. CRM is a self-mental wellness care tool and is exquisitely trauma-sensitive—so it can help enormously.”
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HHS Awards $107.2 Million to Grow and Train the Health Workforce (HHS.gov)
Sharing - if funding is in your area, consider seeking opportunities to infuse ACEs science! June 18, 2020, Press Release: Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is announcing awards totaling $107.2 million to 310 recipients to increase the health workforce in rural and underserved communities . Recipients across 45 states and U.S. territories received funding to improve the quality, distribution and...
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Childhood Physical Neglect Is Associated With Exaggerated Systemic and Intracellular Inflammatory Responses to Repeated Psychosocial Stress in Adulthood (PMC)
By Hannah M. C. Schreier, Yuliya I. Kuras, [...], and Nicolas Rohleder Abstract Experiences of child maltreatment are associated with a host of adverse mental and physical health outcomes in adulthood. Altered reactivity to psychosocial stress exposure may partially explain known associations between early experiences of maltreatment and later life health. The present study focuses on examining whether experiences of child maltreatment are associated with physiological reactions to initial...
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Adverse Childhood Experiences Are Associated With Childhood-Onset Arthritis in a National Sample of US Youth: An Analysis of the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health (Journal of Peds)
Tamar B Rubinstein et al. J Pediatr . 2020 . Abstract Objectives: To determine whether there is an association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and childhood-onset arthritis, comparing youth with arthritis to both healthy youth and youth with other acquired chronic physical diseases (OCPD); and to examine whether ACEs are associated with disease-related characteristics among children with arthritis. Study design: In a cross-sectional analysis of data from the 2016 National Survey...
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A Better Normal Tuesday, June 30th at Noon PDT: Reinterpreting American Identity, a Community Discussion
"I think that all of us, regardless of our racial or ethnic background, feel relieved that we no longer have to deal with the racism and the sexism associated with the system of slavery. But we treat the history of enslavement like we treat the genocidal colonization of indigenous people in North America, as if it was not that important, or worse, as if it never happened." —Angela Davis, "The Meaning of Freedom" Please join us for the ongoing community discussion of A Better Normal, our...
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CMS: NEW – Waivers & flexibilities for health care providers 6.25.20
Click here for the CMS Corona Virus Waivers & Flexibilities. Coronavirus Waivers & Flexibilities In certain circumstances, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) using section 1135 of the Social Security Act (SSA) can temporarily modify or waive certain Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, or HIPAA requirements, called 1135 waivers. There are different kinds of 1135 waivers, including Medicare blanket waivers. When there's an emergency, sections 1135 or 1812(f) of...
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A Medical School Is Using Art to Combat Bias, Training Students to Diagnose Famous Paintings (and Identify Their Assumptions in the Process) (ArtNet News)
By ArtNet News, June 29, 2020. As conversations about bias in health care reach new heights amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a new course at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine is hoping to combat the scourge with an unlikely tool: famous artworks. The school has launched a new course in collaboration with the university’s Abroms-Engel Institute for Visual Arts and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute that tasks junior- and senior-level med students with analyzing works of...
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Physician Burnout, Interrupted (NEJM)
By Pamela Hartzband, M.D., a nd Jerome Groopman, M.D. June, 25, 2020, N Engl J Med 2020; 382:2485-2487 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2003149. Before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, each day seemed to bring another headline about the crisis of physician burnout. The issue had been simmering for years and was brought to a boil by mounting changes in the health care system, most prominently the widespread implementation of the electronic health record (EHR) and performance metrics. 1 Initially, the...
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Resilient Georgia and Georgia Public Broadcasting present "Mental Fitness for Resilience" Second Panel - The Trauma of Racism
Resilient Georgia recently presented a roundtable discussion, featuring a distinguished panel of professionals, on the trauma associated with racism and racial discrimination, as part of the Mental Fitness for Resilience Campaign. The distinguished panel for this Georgia Public Broadcasting production included Dr. Patrice Harris, MD, MA, psychiatrist and the first African-American woman to be elected president of the American Medical Association; Dr. Terri McFadden, a General Pediatrician...
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Reimagining Healthcare as a Community Investment
At this point, COVID-19 has been a part of our lives for nearly six months now. While the most recent current events are not unfamiliar social problems, this pandemic has provided us with a stronger lens with which to see many of the underlying inequities within our communities. This article, “The Moral Determinants of Health,” explores these inequities by illustrating the systemic imbalances within the field of medicine and the amount of resources we allocate to solving problems as opposed...
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Re: Reimagining Healthcare as a Community Investment
Let us be clear: Guaranteeing medical services as a right to all Americans is not only a moral mandate, it is an investment in individual freedom and capacity, in family security and opportunity, as well as community solidarity and peace. The rest of the mature developed world places this priority along side fire departments, schools, and housing as collective public goods guaranteed by the government. Here in the USA this moral mandate has been retarded first by racism (those states which...
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Help Navigating the Road to Community Resiliency
The first time I ever heard the words trauma-informed care and the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study was in the summer of 2014. At the time, I was working for the local Police Department as the Director of a grant-funded Crime Reduction Project aimed at reducing drug-related and violent crime. Of the many program goals, one was to develop a rehabilitative corrections program for felony offenders with addictions in order to reduce recidivism. Though I’ve lived in this region for...
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Central Valley’s first four-year medical school soon will welcome its first class (Your Central Valley)
By Dennis Valera, July 5, 2020, Your Central Valley. CLOVIS, California (KSEE) — For decades, the Central Valley has struggled to have enough doctors. A small step in fixing that: having a local medical school. In a matter of weeks, 75 medical students will be California Health Science University’s first class in its College of Osteopathic Medicine. The 94,000 square foot building is meant to house 600 students, along with its faculty and staff. [ Please click here to read more. ]
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Do safe, stable, and nurturing relationships work? New research has important findings for responding to ACEs
While we know that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can cause risk behaviors, research has told us that the presence of protective factors can help mitigate the effects of ACEs. Common risk behaviors such as smoking tobacco and alcohol misuse can be a result from the trauma of childhood disadvantage. In responding to ACEs, public health research proposes that protective factors such as safe, stable, nurturing relationships (SSNRs) with a caring adult can mitigate the long-term effects of...
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Health Disparity, Racial Weathering, and Social Determinants: How Do We Create Antiracist Healthcare? [saragottfriedmd.co]
By Sara Gottfried, Dr. Sara Gottfried MD, July 13, 2020 I take respectful care of my patients regardless of skin color, but in the past few years, I’ve realized that is not enough. There are many sources of information that have influenced me. Conversations, particularly a recent interview with integrative physician Andrea Pennington MD. Books, mentioned in this article, including How to Be an Antiracist by Boston University Professor Ibram X. Kendi and founder of the Antiracism Center for...
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Incidence of Stress Cardiomyopathy During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic (JAMA)
By : Ahmad Jabri, MD ; Ankur Kalra, MD ; Ashish Kumar, MBBS ; et al, July 9, 2020, JAMA. Question Is psychological, social, and economic stress associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) associated with the incidence of stress cardiomyopathy? See attached pdf - or [ Please click here to read more. ]
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Navigating Trauma in Your Personal Statement for Medical School (In-Training)
By Britt D. K. Gratreak, July 21, 2020, University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson I applied to medical school twice. In retrospect, I was unsuccessful the first time for a few reasons: my timing was terrible, I had too much humility about my achievements, and I didn’t ask for enough opinions about my application from people who were rooting for me. My trauma was also too raw and recent to write in a way for strangers to understand. After taking a few years to focus on research, I...
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ACEs and Gynecological Problems - A Conversation Starter
Gynecological problems as a result of ACEs, and particularly of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA), are rarely discussed in books and articles about the ACEs. The author would like to see that issue become part of the ACEs conversation.
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GUEST EDITORIAL: We need a new model for mental health [heraldtribune.com]
By Andrea Blanch, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, July 27, 2020 People are really stressed out right now. A recent national survey reports that “serious psychological distress” — the kind that can lead to longer-term psychiatric disorders — has more than tripled since this time last year. We are already seeing the consequences in Sarasota County, with the number of opioid-related deaths in the first half of 2020 more than double the number in all of 2019. And based on experience with SARS, experts...
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Donald Trump is the product of abuse and neglect. His story is common, even for the powerful and wealthy.
“In order to cope,” writes Mary Trump, “Donald began to develop powerful but primitive defenses, marked by an increasing hostility to others and a seeming indifference to his mother’s absence and father’s neglect….In place of [his emotional needs] grew a kind of grievance and behaviors—including bullying, disrespect, and aggressiveness—that served their purpose in the moment but became more problematic over time. With appropriate care and attention, they might have been overcome.”
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Structural Racism, Social Risk Factors, and Covid-19 — A Dangerous Convergence for Black Americans (NEJM)
Perspective by Leonard E. Egede, M.D., and Rebekah J. Walker, Ph.D. July 22, 2020, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2023616 . *Author Affiliations: From the Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, and the Center for Advancing Population Science, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Current protests throughout the United States are highlighting the history of marginalization of and discrimination against Black Americans, including 250 years of slavery, 100 years of Jim Crow laws,...
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Baby courts: A proven approach to stop the multigenerational transmission of ACES in child welfare; new efforts to establish courts nationwide
The organization Zero To Three estimates that in the U.S., a child is taken into the child welfare system every six seconds. “Many of society’s most intractable problems can be traced back to childhood adversity. Being in the child welfare system increases the likelihood of more adversity and criminality. Baby court is a proven approach to healing the trauma of both child and parent, and breaking the cycle of maltreatment,” says Mimi Graham, Ed.D ., director of the Florida State University...
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Trauma informed pain treatment
A patient-centered approach to opioid tapers must account for the reality that many people who are given a prescription for an opioid to treat pain have significant mental health conditions—for which opioids act as a psychotropic agent. An opioid taper must therefore address psychological trauma, in particular.
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Community-level changes can impact health outcomes (Contemporary Pediatrics)
By Rachael Zimlich, August 21, 2020, Contemporary Pediatrics. Improving neighborhood conditions in disadvantaged areas can help improve health outcomes, but these improvements may be modest and take a long time to see. Still, any improvement is a good improvement, concludes a new study. The report , 1 published in Pediatrics , reviews a collaboration by hospitals and community leadership in Ohio, where efforts were aimed at improving health outcomes by making communities better places to...
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Does VP Candidate Kamala Harris know about ACEs? You bet!
Nadine Burke Harris, California’s Surgeon General, has a lot in common with the vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris—Jamaican heritage, surname, home state—and a commitment to addressing ACEs and toxic stress. As reported in the New Yorker article by Paul Tough, “The Poverty Clinic,” Dr. Harris told Kamala Harris, then San Francisco district attorney, about ACEs in 2008 and in response, she offered to help. District Attorney Harris then introduced her to professor of child and...
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Does racism make us sick? Amid a national reckoning, the question gains new importance [sfchronicle.com]
By Tatiana Sanchez, San Francisco Chronicle, August 24, 2020 Elaine Shelly has lived with multiple sclerosis for 30 years. But she said she still panics whenever she has to see a new neurologist because of racial discrimination she’s experienced in the past. Even getting a proper diagnosis for her illness was a battle. “I’d go to these neurologists who would tell me that Black people don’t get M.S. and that I must be mentally ill,” said Shelly, 63, of San Leandro. A former print journalist,...
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Public Health considers itself as a social science. It can be a resource for ACEs activists.
I have just attended two Virtual meetings about public health. Public health agencies have been under funded for years. The covid19 crisis has impacted those institutions heavily. However many Public Health agencies are ACEs aware. They can be useful allies for ACEs activities. What follows is from the Fighting For Our Lives forums follow up communication. The recordings from the forum series are available at the following links. There is a brief registration form before you can view the...
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NIHB Launches Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) Hub
The National Indian Health Board, in collaboration with CDC, has launched a new resource hub! Many Tribal individuals, families, and communities have been impacted by childhood experiences causing physical and mental health adversities throughout the lifespan. However, with understanding and effort, individuals and communities can confront Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) for positive health outcomes. This information hub, launched by the National Indian Health Board includes a "resource...
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Psychological Trauma Is the Next Crisis for Coronavirus Health Workers [Scientific American]
After his roughest days in a New York City emergency room, physician Matthew Bai feels his whole body relax when he sees his wife and 17-month-old daughter. “My light at the end of the tunnel is going home to family,” Bai says. When Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Hospital started to overflow with COVID-19 patients in late March, however, Bai and his wife decided she should take their toddler and stay with her parents in New Jersey. The risk of spreading the virus to his family was too great. Now...
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New ACEs initiatives learn about strategic plan development from from New Hanover (NC) Resiliency Task Force executive director Mebane Boyd
The desire to see other ACEs initiatives grow and flourish was evident at a recent meeting of the Resilient Columbus County (North Carolina) ACEs initiative when Mebane Boyd, executive director of the New Hanover Resiliency Task Force (also in North Carolina), shared with the Columbus County and neighboring Pender County groups how New Hanover created and works on its strategic plan. In the spirit of sharing, Boyd agreed to let ACEs Connection post the strategic plan and the video of the...
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Cost-effectiveness of Leveraging Social Determinants of Health to Improve Breast, Cervical, and Colorectal Cancer Screening (JAMA)
By Giridhar Mohan, MPH; Sajal Chattopadhyay PhD., JAMA Oncol. Published online June 18, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.1460 Key Points Question What are the costs of interventions leveraging social determinants of health to improve breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening, and are they cost-effective? Findings In this systematic review of 30 unique economic evaluations, the median intervention cost per participant was $123.87, the median incremental cost per additional person...
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Researchers discover a specific brain circuit damaged by social isolation during childhood (Science Direct)
August 31, 2020, The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Study in mice shows long-lasting effects and points the way to potential treatments Summary: Researchers have identified specific sub-populations of brain cells in the prefrontal cortex, a key part of the brain that regulates social behavior, that are required for normal sociability in adulthood and are profoundly vulnerable to juvenile social isolation in mice. [ Please click here to read more. ]
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ACEs Aware Seeking Applicants to Support Clinical Work [acesaware.org]
ACEs Aware Seeking Applicants to Support Clinical Work Apply by September 15, 2020 ACEs Aware , led by the Office of the California Surgeon General (CA-OSG) and the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), is hiring for three new positions to further the mission of supporting Medi-Cal providers across California with training, clinical protocols, and payment for screening children and adults for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Aurrera Health Group is the project management...
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Introducing ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and Resilience to First-Year Medical Students [mededportal.org]
By Edore Onigu-Otite, Sindhu Idicula, MedEdPORTAL, September 15, 2020 Abstract Introduction: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with negative mental and physical health outcomes and predictive of higher sociodemographic risk. Introducing ACEs into undergraduate medical education is key to prevention, early recognition, and intervention. Methods: In a 1-hour lecture, held live and viewed online, we delivered a condensed introduction to ACEs to first-year medical students.
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Addiction Born Out of ACEs and The Return of Hope [avahealth.org]
The downstream effect of childhood trauma has been well documented regarding the biological and psychosocial impacts. This presentation will highlight the neurobiological changes associated with ACEs that function as a "primer" for the onset of addiction and related behaviors. It will conclude with principles for influencing these same pathways that assist with restoration of the mind and health downstream effect of childhood trauma has been well documented regarding the biological and...
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RSVP now! FREE Learning opportunity for CA healthcare providers: Oct 1, 2020 at noon PST
RSVP now for a presentation by Susie Wiet, MD who is an integrative developmental psychiatrist with expertise in holistic treatment of trauma-addiction, dual diagnosis, and complex psychiatric disorders. Target Audience T his activity is intended for CALIFORNIA physicians, physician assistants, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, psychologists and social workers engaged in the care of patients who have experienced violence or trauma. Educational Objectives After completing these...
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Addressing Childhood Poverty in Pediatric Clinical Settings [jamanetwork.com]
By Margaret G. Parker, Arvin Garg, Margaret A. McConnell, JAMA Pediatrics, September 14, 2020 Two in 5 children are poor or nearly poor, and childhood poverty is a key social determinant of heath that is associated with negative health and developmental outcomes across the life course. In 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a policy statement on child poverty and health, emphasizing the importance of addressing poverty-related risk factors in the delivery of pediatric care.1...
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Re: Free 2020 Virtual Trauma-Informed Care Conference
Thanks, Bharat, for the post! I will help spread the word by posting on the Georgia ACEs Connection site as well as the SE Region on ACEs Connection. I invite you and others to please use the social media bar below the story to share this out on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. and or to copy the link and email this story to colleagues. If we want to have a trauma-informed world we need the medical community helping to drive demand to make it so. We are grateful for you work to take ACEs...
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Free 2020 Virtual Trauma-Informed Care Conference
Each year, STAR hosts a Trauma-Informed Care Conference to help educate the next generation of leaders and build a strong network of Trauma-Informed professionals in the state of Georgia. The conference will be held on Saturday, October 3rd from 10:00am- 1:00pm EST and Sunday, October 4th , 2020 from 2:00pm-5:00pm EST conducted virtually via Zoom.
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Medicine and medical science: Black lives must matter more The Lancet
The following quote appeared in an editorial in The Lancet on June 13, 2020: "What can medical journals do? Our task is to educate ourselves and others about racism. We must support Black and minority ethnic health workers. And we must use evidence and our values to speak out for Black and minority ethnic communities. The Lancet is a journal with a deep colonial history: the journal has published work that supported the health of settler colonialists and that prioritised their health over...
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Implementing the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics in Tennessee: Parent and Clinician Perspectives (Child Wefare)
Child Welfare publication, Child Trends, September 25, 2020. The QIC-AG is a five-year project working with eight sites that implemented evidence-based interventions or developed and tested promising practices which, if proven effective, can be replicated or adapted in other child welfare jurisdictions. Effective interventions are expected to achieve long-term, stable permanence in adoptive and guardianship homes for waiting children as well as children and families after adoption or...
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Teaching Doctors In Training To Connect Climate Change And Health Care (WBUR)
By Martha Bebinger, September 24, 2020, WBUR. It was low tide on the North Shore of Boston when Steve Kearns felt the mosquito bite that would land him in a hospital with West Nile Virus disease for a week. “For at least six months after that, I felt like every five minutes I was being run over by a truck,” Kearns says. “I couldn’t work, I couldn’t walk very well, and I couldn’t focus. I wondered for a bit if I’d ever get better.” Kearns recounts the experience during a check-up with his...
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Just in TIME: Trauma-Informed Medical Education [link.springer.com]
By Aneesah McClinton & Cato T Laurencin, Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, October 1, 2020 Abstract Numerous organizations implement a trauma-informed approach. This model assists institutions in providing care and education that delivers support to members who have undergone traumatic experiences, and many institutions apply the principles as a universal precaution. Student and trainee experiences in medical education reveal a hidden curriculum that may deliver...
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The importance of care coordination [medcitynews.com]
By Brooke Sabia, MedCity News, September 30, 2020 Some may ask the question, “What does a care coordinator do for my personal well-being?” There is no short answer as to what a patient can benefit from by receiving assistance from a care coordinator. Their job is to connect with high-risk individuals to uncover and identify needs in a patient-centered manner and in a way that takes into account whether the patient has endured any trauma. When people think of care coordination, they typically...
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'A Better Normal:' Can universal ACEs screening be equitable? -- Concerns and solutions
Can universal ACEs screening be equitable? A conversation about concerns and solutions. When: Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2-3:30 pm PDT/5-6:30 pm EDT This webinar explores what it takes to ensure that equity is built into the process of screening and providing support for families who have experienced trauma and want help. REGISTER HERE Background At the beginning of this year, California, through the ACEs Aware initiative began rolling out universal screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs),...