Tagged With "Testing for ALL New Parents"
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Bill On Governor’s Desk Aims To Reduce Childhood Trauma By Diverting Parents Into Treatment, Instead Of Prison [witnessla.com]
By Taylor Walker, Witness LA, September 13, 2019 An estimated 10 million US children have parents who are currently locked up, or who have previously been incarcerated. A bill currently on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk, SB 394, seeks to reduce the number of parents and children separated by incarceration by boosting diversion. Children arguably suffer the worst consequences of mass incarceration. In 2014, a UC Irvine study found that having a parent behind bars can be more damaging to a kid’s...
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Birth and Attachment Book Review
A review of Myrna Martin's short and direct pamphlet about the importance and approach to "co-creating secure attachment". The book is available in four languages and can be found at www.myrnamartin.net/books
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Book: Integrated Early Childhood Behavioral Health in Primary Care: A Guide to Implementation and Evaluation
Edited by Dr. Rahil Briggs, Integrated Early Childhood Behavioral Health in Primary Care: A Guide to Implementation and Evaluation , the book focuses the primary care environment as an ideal venue in which to promote preventive, two-generation, behavioral health efforts. The book, with a foreword from Dr. Jack Shonkoff and published by Springer in 2016, Outlines the implementation of integrated early childhood behavioral health programming into pediatric primary care, Explores the process of...
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Book review: "Once I was very, very scared," a book on childhood trauma
The past few years have brought a wealth of evidence for the impact of childhood trauma on lifelong health. The AAP has recognized the importance of childhood trauma with conferences (2015 Violence, Abuse and Toxic Stress: An Update on Trauma-informed Care in Children and Youth) and resources ( AAP Trauma Toolbox for Primary Care .) Like many pediatricians, I have been grateful for the attention to and evidence base for an area of pediatrics I see on a daily basis but for which I have felt...
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Book review: "Once I was very, very scared," a book on childhood trauma
The past few years have brought a wealth of evidence for the impact of childhood trauma on lifelong health. The AAP has recognized the importance of childhood trauma with conferences (2015 Violence, Abuse and Toxic Stress: An Update on Trauma-informed Care in Children and Youth) and resources ( AAP Trauma Toolbox for Primary Care .) Like many pediatricians, I have been grateful for the attention to and evidence base for an area of pediatrics I see on a daily basis but for which I have felt...
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Books Build Connections Literacy Toolkit
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton just left the podium at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference & Exhibition in San Diego, where she unveiled the Academys updated early literacy toolkit for pediatricians and parents, Books Build Connections. We wanted to share this announcement with you as soon as it was made so that you can take advantage of this new resource. Books Build Connections : whats in the...
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Boston’s architect of community well-being: Pediatrician Renée Boynton-Jarrett
She talks with parents about the relationship between childhood adversities they have experienced and how that may have an impact on parenting.
“I frame things a bit more broadly than ACEs,” she said, “because I think it’s very important to reflect on a broader number of exposures than were covered in the original study, such as poverty or structural violence and racism.”
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Boys with an Incarcerated Family Member More Likely to Have Diabetes as Adults [healio.com]
By Bradley A. White, et al., Healio, February 8, 2020 Men who reported experiencing family member incarceration during childhood were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes during adulthood compared with men who did not report a family incarceration history, according to findings published in SAGE Open Medicine. “Previous studies have found that the incarceration of a parent plays havoc with the stability of housing, employment and parental marital relationships,” Bradley A. White, PhD, a...
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Bright Futures/Child Care Health Partnership Handouts for Parents
Bright Futures and Healthy Child Care America Parent Resources: Introducing new handouts that provide parents with tips on what child care programs will be working on with a child based on the child’s age. Each handout...
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Building a Movement to Birth a More Just and Loving World [Groundswell March 2018]
The National Perinatal Task Force: Building a Movement to Birth a More Just and Loving World - In my 20 years as a public health nurse, I've never seen race called out so clearly in a report like this. Data has shown disparities, however the data was presented in a tidy way — very apolitical, purposely written to not ruffle any feathers or point fingers - " persistent racial gap ". This report written by The National Perinatal Task Force is refreshingly honest and this is important. We need...
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Building a Trauma-Informed Approach with Pediatric Physical Therapists
In the profession of physical therapy (PT), the word "trauma" typically leads one to think of the physical manifestations of a catastrophic injury, subsequent emergency medical care, and lengthy rehabilitation services. However, the psychological aspects of trauma are not always as visible. Throughout an individual’s lifespan, PTs will provide services to restore function, manage pain, and increase physical activity. We provide education, hands-on care, and therapeutic exercise to improve...
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Building Resilience Grant
https://www.magnetmail.net/actions/email_web_version.cfm?ep=yGCdD8CRbHY3xIKXk_NtCs4FUb3AniOPEXihaJv83LFH6mhv-5acjUuQ2dFLxdZdUIp4INv-ZMN0tuPTQCEGSpqzR0gFmOgvH_d2IXxSjFvv-b5v1SHK2GNT6ddniIjq
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Building trust is now a critical part of health care
In a video clip , a hospital patient turns away in protest as a physician enters the room. “Why do you all keep coming in my room!” she asks in frustration. The physician moves a chair out of the way and sits down at eye level with the patient. “You’ve had to see so many people,” he acknowledges. “And I’m tired of it!” she yells. “I already know I have to get both of my legs cut off. That’s what they keep saying. I don’t have a choice!” “You don’t feel like you have a choice,” he repeats...
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CA announces robust perinatal depression prevention for Medi-Cal recipients
Melinda Coates experienced a tumultuous pregnancy. “I was really mentally upset literally from day one (of the pregnancy),” she says. (Melinda Coates is a pseudonym. To protect her and her children’s privacy and safety, we are not using her real name.) Coates had hoped to get counseling last October, when she was seven months pregnant. That’s when she enrolled in the state’s Medi-Cal program, shortly after she and her abusive husband moved to California, “but nobody was able to get me in...
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CA announces robust perinatal depression prevention for Medi-Cal recipients
Melinda Coates experienced a tumultuous pregnancy. “I was really mentally upset literally from day one (of the pregnancy),” she says. (Melinda Coates is a pseudonym. To protect her and her children’s privacy and safety, we are not using her real name.) Coates had hoped to get counseling last October, when she was seven months pregnant. That’s when she enrolled in the state’s Medi-Cal program, shortly after she and her abusive husband moved to California, “but nobody was able to get me in...
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CA pediatrician develops, tests, gets state OK for whole-child assessment tool that includes ACEs
Over the last dozen years or so, many pediatricians, astounded by the ramifications of the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on the children they care for, began integrating this science into their practices. The most common approach has been to ask parents about ACEs using a questionnaire, and to use this information to counsel parents and identify resources for the family. Different practices have been using different questionnaires: Some ask parents for their ACE scores...
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CA pediatrician develops, tests, gets state OK for whole-child assessment tool that includes ACEs
[Editor's note: This blog was first posted in April 2017. Dr. Marie-Mitchell updated the assessment by modifying a few of the questions, so we are republishing with the new assessment, one in Spanish and one in English.] Over the last dozen years or so, many pediatricians, astounded by the ramifications of the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on the children they care for, began integrating this science into their practices. The most common approach has been to ask parents...
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CA Surgeon General and DHCS Launch ACEs Aware Initiative and Website
Join a live webinar with California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris and Dr. Karen Mark Medical Director, Department of Health Care Services for a Medi-Cal provider introduction to the new ACEs Aware Initiative and the www.ACEsAware.org website. The Office of the California Surgeon General and the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), in the first public unveiling of the initiative, will host a live webinar to share details of the new ACEs Aware Initiative for Medi-Cal providers...
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CA to reimburse for only one of three ACEs screeners
California health care providers will soon begin to learn how many of the 13.2 million California children and adults in the state’s MediCal program have been exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). But the state’s proposed decision to reimburse only one of three recommended options for screening children has drawn mixed reactions from pediatricians. “If we have mandated legislation that only looks at one screening tool, it really limits the opportunity to improve that screening...
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California considers investing $100 million in-home visits for new moms and their babies [SCPR.org]
A bill working its way through the state legislature would create a state-funded program to help new mothers in the first few months and years after the birth of their children. The CalWORKs Baby Wellness and Family Support Home Visiting Program would spend $100 million to offer home visits from nurses or social workers to new mothers who are living in poverty. Support for home visiting programs is grounded in research that has found regular postpartum home visits can improve the health of...
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California gets its first ever surgeon general (ktvu.com)
California's first-ever Surgeon General has launched a listening tour that will take her around the state to hear about people's hopes for the new position and the state's new commitment to improving Californians' health. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris is a pediatrician with degrees from U.C. Berkeley, U.C. Davis Medical School, and Harvard University. She says, as the daughter of a biochemist and a nurse, she knew what her dream job was at an early age. "My immediate priorities as Surgeon General...
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California has Begun Screening for Early Childhood Trauma, But Critics Urge Caution [sciencemag.org]
By Emily Underwood, Science, January 29, 2020 On 1 January, California became the first U.S. state to screen for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)—early life hardships such as abuse, neglect, and poverty, which can have devastating health consequences in later life. The project is not just a public health initiative, but a vast experiment. State officials aim to cut the health impacts of early life adversity by as much as half within a generation. But critics say the health benefits of...
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California healthcare providers adapt ACEs screening from in-person to virtual environment
Dr. Amy Shekarchi, a pediatrician based in Los Angeles, CA, was helping to lead the rollout of ACEs screening among 50 health care providers at six clinics affiliated with the L.A. County Department of Health Services when the COVID-19 pandemic hit—days before she was set to launch the effort. “We had trained everybody in doing face-to-face [ACEs screening], and when COVID-19 happened we thought, let’s not throw the screening out. Everybody was ready,” says Shekarchi, who is the pediatric...
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California unveils ACEs Aware initiative to screen for trauma
Will screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in California be mandatory? No, but it’s recommended. Will there be training for physicians and staff on how to screen? Yes. Who will be reimbursed for screening patients in California? Physicians who serve patients in the state’s Medi-Cal program — for now. For more answers to these and other questions that surfaced during a Dec. 4 webinar introducing Californians to a new statewide initiative, read on. Come January 1, California will...
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Can people be saved from a terrible childhood? [theguardian.com]
When Sabrina Bugget-Kellum walked into a neighbourhood clinic in New York for a routine appointment in in 2016, she was desperate. Her son was in prison. She was trying to look after his two young children, who were aged one and two. Their mother was emotionally unstable. Bugget-Kellum did not want the chaos of the adults’ lives passed down to another generation. “We didn’t know if they would be safe with their mother,” she recalled recently. “I began to pray, please God, I need some help.
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'Can't Feel My Heart:' IG Says Separated Kids Traumatized [nytimes.com]
By The Associated Press, The New York Times, September 4, 2019 Separated from his father at the U.S.-Mexico border last year, the little boy, about 7 or 8, was under the delusion that his dad had been killed. And he thought he was next. Other children believed their parents had abandoned them. And some suffered physical symptoms because of their mental trauma, clinicians reported to investigators with a government watchdog. "You get a lot of 'my chest hurts,' even though everything is fine"...
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Can We Harness Pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton's Message of Hope?
Photo courtesy of Brazelton Touchpoints Center As our nation mourns the passing of renowned pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, hearing his voice through the outpouring of articles, video clips, and conversations on social media feels like a balm for the soul. In these trying times, his simple shift from learning "what's wrong" to listening for "what's right" in a child and family seems very much needed. In his 50 years practicing pediatrics, he saw up close the ways parents can struggle. With...
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Careful, It's Not Over Yet & Parenting with ACEs & PTSD
Note: Dawn Daum & Joyelle Bran dt are the featured guests on the live chat held in the Parenting with ACEs Group on Tuesday, June 13th at 10 AM PST / 1 PM PST. The topic is Parenting with PTSD & ACEs. Dawn and Joyelle are artists, activists and parents. They met a few years ago and set about creating an online community for parent survivors to working to break the cycle of abuse. Here's a small sample of the work they have done and are doing: Wrote a resource about Parenting as an...
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CDC announces Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Research & Evaluation Fellowship opportunity
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta has announced an Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Research & Evaluation Fellowship opportunity that resides in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) at CDC. The new fellowship position reflects a growing ACEs capacity within the CDC. The announcement states “The selected candidate will assist with research related to evaluating comprehensive community-based prevention strategies for primary...
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CDC's 'Connecting the Dots' Tool
Great new Resource from CDC shared with me from Dr. Kevin Sherin, Health Officer & Director of Florida Department of Health in Orange County, Florida. Welcome to the Connections Selector! This tool makes it easier for you to connect the dots and explore the relationships between multiple types of violence and the risk and protective factors they share at each level of the social-ecological model (SEM). A clear understanding of these connections can help you plan strategies to prevent...
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Change Package is Now Available!
Click here for the Change Package : Fostering Resilience and Recovery: A Change Package for Advancing Trauma – Informed Primary Care Earlier this year, to help primary care address the impacts of trauma, the National Council for Behavioral Health, with the support of Kaiser Permanente, launched a three-year initiative, Trauma-Informed Primary Care: Fostering Resilience and Recovery . “Trauma work is not new to the National Council. With effects across the lifespan, we’ve spent the last...
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Chicago healthcare providers start center for ACEs science education; aim to reach all medical, health students by 2025
In 2017, Dr. Audrey Stillerman and three other women from the Chicago healthcare community founded the THEN Center . Its goal is lofty: By 2025, it wants every graduating student in medical and health sciences across the United States to apply core concepts of childhood adversity, neurobiology, resilience and health equity into their work. Dr. Audrey Stillerman Today, the THEN Center (The Collaborative Study of Trauma, Health Equity and Neurobiology) is well on its way. Its founders are...
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Child abuse could leave 'molecular scars' on its victims [medicalxpress.com]
Children who are abused might carry the imprint of that trauma in their cells—a biochemical marking that is detectable years later, according to new research from the University of British Columbia and Harvard University. The findings, based on a comparison of chemical tags on the DNA of 34 adult men, still need confirmation from larger studies, and researchers don't know if this tagging—known as methylation—affects the victims' health. But the difference in methylation between those who had...
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Child neglect linked with changes to brain's white matter (MNT)
Past studies have shown that traumatic experiences in childhood can have negative implications for brain development. Now, a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics finds severe childhood neglect may cause structural changes to white...
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Child’s behavior may be linked to parent’s adverse childhood experiences [contemporarypediatrics.com]
Parents who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as abuse, neglect, or household dysfunction, are more likely than parents without these experiences to have children with behavioral health problems, according to an analysis of data from several large, nationally representative surveys of US households that addressed ACEs and children’s behavioral problems and diagnoses. Of the more than 2500 children for whom researchers had data, one-fifth had a parent who reported...
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Childhood Anxiety Linked to Later Problems With Alcohol [psychcentral.com]
New research has found evidence that children and adolescents with higher levels of anxiety may be at a greater risk of developing alcohol problems. Many studies have investigated the relationship between anxiety and alcohol use, but the evidence has been unclear, say researchers at the University of Bristol in the U.K.. Some studies found higher anxiety is linked to greater alcohol use, while others found anxiety is linked to lower alcohol use, or there was no association. For their study,...
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Childhood Stress and Adversity is Associated with Late-Life Dementia in Aboriginal Australians
This was just sent by the RACP “Paediatric Pot-Pourri”. It continues the developing and worrying themes presented at the recent NBPSA and CCCH satellites days before the RACP Congress. I cannot see any reason to imagine that these same outcomes do not also apply to those children living anywhere in the world where ACE’s are flooding into their lives. John Goldsmith “All paediatricians, particularly those with an interest in child development, are aware of the Adverse Childhood Experiences...
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Childhood trauma and Its lifelong health effects more prevalent among minorities [NPR Health Shots]
Photo: Woodleywonderworks/ CC 2.0 "When researchers first discovered a link in the late 1990s between childhood adversity and chronic health problems later in life, the real revelation was how common those experiences were across all socioeconomic groups. But the first major study to focus on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) was limited to a single healthcare system in San Diego. Now a new study — the largest nationally representative study to date on ACEs — confirms that these...
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Children of Color Face Higher Barriers to Success, New Casey Report Says [jjie.org]
The children of immigrants make up less than one-fourth of the nation’s youth population yet account for 30 percent of children living in poverty, a new report finds. More than that, young black and brown Americans were worse off compared to white and Asian-American children, the Annie E. Casey Foundation said. The foundation analyzed youth welfare along several axes, including education, health and economic indicators, to come up with an index of how well young people in various racial and...
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Colorado Launches Two Generation Approach to Family Services [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
Colorado is testing a new approach to providing services to struggling families in an effort to address the intergenerational cycle of poverty, incarceration and foster care. Two Generation (2Gen) is a new initiative by the state recognizing that children and their parents are best served by recognizing the needs of the entire family unit. “CDHS embedded the 2Gen approach into all of our services, recognizing that our clients only succeed when their providers or children also get the support...
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Come Chat with Dr. Claudia M. Gold: An ACE-Informed Pediatrician
Date: July 11th Time: 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST Location: Parenting with ACEs Group , Online Flyer: Attached below. Please share. Dr. Claudia M. Gold has practiced general and behavioral pediatrics for 25 years and specializes in early childhood mental health. She is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts, Boston Infant-Parent Mental Health program, William James College, and the Austen Riggs Center where she is a Human Development consultant. Dr. Gold is author of the following...
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Connecting with Families During Quarantine: Virtual Support and Telehealth
The New Jersey Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics Healthy Spaces program offers this webinar to provide strategies for health care providers to provide trauma-informed care during virtual patient encounters. Drs. Nicole Leopardi and Ruth Gubernick will share guidance on outreach messaging, stress management, and positive discipline. Participants will also engage in thoughtful reflection on how to implement small tests of change to adapt patient care and support connections with families...
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Cover Story November Issue of Journal of Family Practice: Childhood Adversity and Lifelong Health
I was honored to have my review article, “Childhood Adversity and Lifelong Health: from research to action”, chosen as the November 2018 cover story of the Journal of Family Practice . Here is a link to the article. Access is free after registration with the journal and retrievable directly by anyone who has Medline PubMed access. https://www.mdedge.com/jfponline/article/178388/pediatrics/childhood-adversity-lifelong-health-research-action Highlights from the article include: - recognition...
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COVID-19 and our dialogue with death
[Editor's note: Dr. Cristian Zanartu, an internist and palliative medicine specialist, is currently volunteering at Bellevue Hospital during the pandemic.] I was angry. So angry. How come the smartest country in the world is acting like the dumbest? Why aren’t health authorities giving us clear guidelines now, before this starts? Like: how to quarantine, how to quarantine from a symptomatic loved one in the same household (we knew by late February from Chinese data that most spread happened...
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COVID-19: The Trauma of Witnessing So Much Illness and Death Will Have Lasting Effects [medicinenet.com]
From MedicineNet, May 3, 2020 The tragic death by suicide this week of an emergency department physician who had been caring for COVID-19 patients in New York City underscores the huge psychological impact of the pandemic -- which will linger long after the virus is gone, experts say. "For frontline responders, the trauma of witnessing so much illness and death will have lasting effects for many," Bruce Schwartz, MD, president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), said during the...
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COVID-19: What’s equity got to do with it? [George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health]
Editor’s note: This illustration is a new COVID specific Pair of ACEs tree shown along with the original tree. The post is by Wendy Ellis, DrPH, MPH the Director of the Building Community Resilience Collaborative and Networks at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. It took less than two months for a virus undetectable to the naked eye to lay bare what lies in plain sight — exposing long-standing inequities, driven by social policies that have created...
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Cultivating Deliberate Resilience During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic [jamanetwork.com]
By Abby R. Rosenberg, JAMA Pediatrics, April 14, 2020 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is affecting our health care community in unprecedented ways. As a pediatric oncologist who studies resilience in the context of illness, I started thinking about what this pandemic means for our professional resilience a few weeks ago, when the first US patient with fatal COVID-19 died in my home city of Seattle, Washington. Promoting resilience among health care workers and organizations starts with...
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Cumulative childhood risk is associated with a new measure of chronic inflammation in adulthood [The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry]
The CDC/Kaiser Permanente landmark ACEs study showed a dose-dependent association between ACEs and health outcomes in adulthood. In this study of 837 patients, researchers examined the association between childhood predictors, including higher ACE scores, with levels of inflammation in adulthood. Read more about the study that appeared in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry here .
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Daddy, Papi, Papa, or Baba: The Influence of Fathers on Young Children’s Development - Zero to Three
In this podcast, Dr. Kyle Pruett talks about the important and unique role fathers play in the lives of young children. Dr. Pruett is clinical professor of child psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and is a past president of ZERO TO...
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Deportation Worries Fuel Anxiety, Poor Sleep, Among U.S.-Born Latina/O Youth (scienceblog.com)
“We’re seeing an increase in anxiety that is related to kids’ concern about the personal consequences of U.S. immigration policy, and these are U.S.-born citizens,” said Brenda Eskenazi, the Brian and Jennifer Maxwell Endowed Chair in Public Health in UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. “Further, these are kids in California, a sanctuary state with more protective policies for immigrant families, compared to many other states,” Eskenazi said. “So, this study is probably reflecting the...