Tagged With "Child Protective Services"
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Mental Health Awareness: When Suffering Is Not an Illness
When I was an adolescent and young adult, I struggled with depression. As I reflect back on that time, so much of what I was experiencing was deeply tied to coming to terms with my sexuality. Growing up in the 1980’s in a relatively conservative town, I was closeted (even to myself) until I was a young adult. The pain and fear of being different, of not belonging, of being judged or rejected for who I was more than my adolescent brain could wrap its conscious head around.
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Hollowed-Out Public Health System Faces More Cuts Amid Virus (KHN)
By Lauren Weber and Laura Ungar and Michelle R. Smith, The Associated Press and Hannah Recht and Anna Maria Barry-Jester JULY 1, 2020 The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources necessary to confront the worst health crisis in a century. The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources to confront the worst health crisis in a century. Marshaled against a virus that has sickened at least 2.6 million in the U.S., killed...
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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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Preventing a Parallel Pandemic — A National Strategy to Protect Clinicians’ Well-Being (NEJM)
Victor J. Dzau, M.D., Darrell Kirch, M.D., and Thomas Nasca, M.D. August 6, 2020 N Engl J Med 2020; 383:513-515. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2011027. The Covid-19 pandemic, which had killed more than 60,000 Americans by May 1, has been compared with Pearl Harbor and September 11 — cataclysmic events that left indelible imprints on the U.S. national psyche. Like the volunteers who flooded into Manhattan after the World Trade Center attacks, the health care providers working on the front lines of the...
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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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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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My ACEs Affected My Birth
High blood pressure. In your third trimester of pregnancy, you do not want to hear these three words, especially if you are planning to have a home birth. My blood pressure nearly caused me to have an induction for my first birth and transfer to a hospital birth for my second birth. I wish I had known of the ACEs test so I wouldn't have felt so lost and guilty. For my first birth I was clueless. I did not understand why this was happening to me because I ate a healthy diet, went to boxing...
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Research from San Bernardino pediatric population
Sharing our recent publication of data on ACEs and immune cell gene expression
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To Achieve Health Equity, Leverage Nurses and Increase Funding for School and Public Health Nursing, Says New Report (nationalacademies.org)
WASHINGTON — Nursing in the next 10 years will demand a larger, more diversified workforce prepared to provide care in different settings, to address the lasting effects of COVID-19, to break down structural racism and the root causes of poor health, and to respond to future public health emergencies, says a new report from the National Academy of Medicine. Nurses represent the largest segment of the U.S. health care workforce, with nearly 4 million nationwide. Over the next decade, nurses...
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2011-2021—A decade of steady growth in ACEs and TI laws and resolutions in the states
In 2019 and 2020, dozens of states enacted nearly 60 laws and resolutions that reference adverse childhood experiences or trauma. In this post, there's an interactive map that shows them all.
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New Release: Humboldt County Home Visiting Program Environmental Scan
In partnership with First 5 Humboldt and funded by the First 5 California Home Visiting Coordination Grant, the California Center for Rural Policy has just released the Humboldt County Home Visiting Program Environmental Scan. The findings and recommendations in the environmental scan are grounded in partner workgroups, interviews, and surveys that occurred in 2020-21 and capture the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on home visiting services. Excerpts: "The organizations that provide home...
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Nourishing a Brain Wounded by Childhood Adversity
The right mix of nutrients revitalizes the brain that's been wounded by ACEs. Good nutrition can quickly improve mood and functioning in the present, while improving the potential to rewire disturbing memories imprinted in childhood.
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Register now for "Building the Movement with Coalitions", presented by the Campaign for Trauma-informed Policy and Practice, PACEs Connection, and the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives
Please register now at this link to reserve your spot. You’re invited to participate in Building the Movement with Coalitions, the first of eight remarkable workshops featured in the series, “ Building a National Movement to Prevent Trauma and Foster Resilience ”. The first half-day workshop will occur virtually on January 7th from 1-5pm ET/10am-2pm PT. It focuses on the history and future of the movement and building community-owned, trauma-informed, prevention-focused, and healing-centered...
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Nightmares and ACEs: They No Longer Need Rule the Night
Recurring nightmares lead to much needless suffering for survivors of adverse childhood experiences—suffering that goes well beyond disturbed sleep. Five steps help take back the night.
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Neuroplasticity, Imagery, and Adverse Childhood Experiences
The disturbing neural imprints from adverse childhood experiences need not be a life sentence. Imagery is an extremely helpful tool to modify the circuitry of the brain, utilizing the principle of neuroplasticity. Imagery strengthens and stabilizes the brain, while laying down alternative neural pathways.
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Moving Forward After Adverse Childhood Experiences, Part 2: Harness the Liberating Power of Forgiveness
The well-timed choice to forgive deep injuries from childhood, though difficult, can greatly improve psychological wellbeing and free us to move ahead. Four keys to forgiveness lay the foundation for cultivating healing forgiveness skills.
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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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Exploring the Connection Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Diabetes
Life is hard. None of us makes it through unscathed. Unfortunately, though, some of us have a much tougher journey on this planet than others. Most distressingly of all, children and babies are by no means immune from the wounds that this world all too often inflicts. Indeed, for many children, trauma is not a future threat but a present reality. And these adverse childhood experiences (ACE) can have a devastating long-term impact across all domains of a child’s life. This includes...
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North Carolina moves closer to creating nation's first ACEs-informed courts system
(l-r) Judge J. Corpening; Ben David, district attorney, New Hanover County; Chief Justice Paul Newby; Judge Andrew Heath, executive director, Administrative Office of the Courts of the Chief Justice's ACEs Informed Courts Task Force. David and Heath serve as Task Force co-chairs . “There is not any more important work going on in the State of North Carolina,” said Ben David, District Attorney for New Hanover County and co-chair of the Chief Justice’s ACEs-Informed Task Force . The Task force...
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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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Register Now for Inaugural Statewide Summit: Leveraging North Carolina’s Assets to Prevent Childhood Trauma — Virtually & In Raleigh April 27-28!
Information from Summit Brochure and registration site available here . North Carolina’s first Statewide Trauma Summit – a virtual and in-person summit – will beheld Thursday and Friday, April 27-28, in Raleigh, at The McKimmon Conference and Training Center, Summit leaders announced recently. “Momentum is growing in NC for building trauma-informed systems that strengthen resilience and weed out systemic and often intergenerational sources of child trauma. To advance this work, it is...
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Drug Addiction and ACEs: A Journey Through the Gates of Hell to Redemption
Attachment disruptions and other hidden wounds from ACEs can render one more vulnerable to drug addiction. Genuine, mature love from others, and for oneself, can change the course of one's life. A recent book highlights the path from childhood trauma to addiction to recovery.
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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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What Children Really Need Is Adults That Understand Development
The brain doesn’t fully develop until about the age of 25. This fact is sometimes quite surprising and eye opening to most adults. It can also be somewhat overwhelming for new parents and professionals who are interacting with babies and young children every day, to contemplate. It is essential to realize however, that the greatest time of development occurs in the years prior to kindergarten. And even more critical to understand is that by age three 85 percent of the core structures of the...
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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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Releasing the Grip on Your Difficult Past
Three burdensome happens learned in trying to cope with adverse childhood experiences can be changed. Efforts to drop and replace these troubling habits can be extremely liberating.
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Trauma-Informed Competency Set for Undergraduate Medical Education
The National Collaborative on Trauma-Informed Health Care, Education and Research (TIHCER) presents: Trauma-Informed Competency Set for Undergraduate Medical Education Trauma is nearly universal and a root cause of numerous health and social problems, including 6 of the 10 leading causes of death. Research has substantiated the profound impact of trauma on the brain and body - and why trauma training is critical to the education and practice of health professionals. Yet a critical lag...
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Trauma-Informed Competency Set for Undergraduate Medical Education
The National Collaborative on Trauma-Informed Health Care, Education and Research (TIHCER) presents: Trauma-Informed Competency Set for Undergraduate Medical Education Trauma is nearly universal and a root cause of numerous health and social problems, including 6 of the 10 leading causes of death. Research has substantiated the profound impact of trauma on the brain and body - and why trauma training is critical to the education and practice of health professionals. Yet a critical lag...