Tagged With "Parenting Matters"
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What’s in the well? Pediatrician probes ACEs and the biology of toxic stress in kids [seattletimes.com]
Boot-strapping types who believe that surmounting a difficult childhood is mainly a matter of will may be perplexed by an anecdote near the beginning of Nadine Burke Harris’s new book, “The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity.” In it, the pediatrician describes a 7-year-old boy named Diego, who showed up at her Bay Area clinic looking like an undersized 4-year old. He had been referred by a school nurse for suspected ADHD . But Burke Harris also noted that her...
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What the ACEs Screening Movement Can Learn from the Healthcare Hotspotting Movement
No brief intervention or short-term infusion of services is a silver bullet that will overcome the long-term harm caused by structural racism, poverty, and multi-generational trauma.
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Why Kids With ACEs Shouldn't Get a Pass on Chores
Don't worry that chores are too stressful for kids with ACEs, says trauma researcher Bob Sege, MD. “You don’t want to coddle them,” Sege said, “because the message they will get is that they are damaged goods. They need to know that the adversity they suffered is only one part of them; it’s not all of them.”
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Why We Suck (at Self-Soothing & Self-Care): Dr. Dawn O'Malley
Without yoga and coffee, I'm kind of a jerk. These are my personal "puppy uppers and doggie downers" and prevent me from being cranky, quick to cry, and ready for conflict. Coffee and calming make life more manageable. Humans even seem tolerable. Without them I might veer into hating humans for being so needy which is not a great trait for a parent, partner or a professional. Or a self. My partner says coffee and exercise are acts of kindness, service as promote public safety. In other...
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Re: Prevention: Bringing Baby Home Training of Facilitators
I am sorry that I posted the wrong dates: May 17-18 in Sacramento. Thank you Carolyn
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aces_agenda.pdf
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Re: 10 ways to avoid ACEs (during the pandemic)
Really appreciate the reframe on social distancing to social connection and physical distancing!
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Re: 10 ways to avoid ACEs (during the pandemic)
Thank you so much! I am really concerned about how families are coping right now. I especially worry about children at risk for abuse/neglect, away from any eyes or supports who might protect them.
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Re: 10 ways to avoid ACEs (during the pandemic)
Hi Patricia, I likely will be organizing a brainstorming session for health care providers. I'm also going to be doing a story looking at the issues of prevention tools, workaround for vulnerable families -- those at risk for child abuse or intimate partner violence. Please let me know what other information I can gather in order to support you in your work. In the meantime, I'll be posting here and cloning other articles I think may be helpful.
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Re: 10 ways to avoid ACEs (during the pandemic)
Thanks Elizabeth for your comment!. I agree with you about the reframe. Physical distancing feels more accurate and less daunting to me!
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Re: Opinion: All Doctors Should Practice Trauma-Informed Care [calhealthreport.org]
“Thus, it should be standard practice for medical professionals to screen and assess for trauma in a safe environment. It is critical that primary and behavioral health systems have communication channels to inform each other about a person’s trauma and its effect on their mental health and physical wellbeing. In order to achieve this outcome, we are proposing state legislation to mandate trauma-informed care education in all California medical, dental and nursing programs. In addition, we...
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ParentingBook.pdf
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ChildrenACEs.pdf
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Re: Sesame Street in Communities Takes on Trauma
Quoting the story: “ What seems to me to be the active ingredient here is the normalization of these experiences for children,” Fisher said. “[It can be] really ostracizing and isolating for children to perceive that their circumstances are different than others’. It seems an extremely difficult communication goal [with kids at least] to "normalize" the experience, but at the same time say "what happened to you is not okay" -- soooo we should try to say that "what's wrong is 'normal'" ?...
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HOPE Stands with Black Lives Matter [positiveexperience.org]
By Chloe Yang, Dr. Robert Sege, and Dr. Dina Burstein, 6/2/20, positiveexperience.org These past few days, the killing of George Floyd has opened a raw wound, one among many, caused by police brutality and a system built on racism. HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) seeks to create a world in which every child has the chance to live a long, healthy life. The four building blocks promote positive, nurturing relationships. Safe, stable, and equitable environments. Opportunities...
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White Parents, It's Your Turn to Carry This Burden [newamerica.org]
By Autumn McDonald, New America, June 4, 2020 I date myself with a reference to Rodney King, and I do so intentionally. I was fourteen when he was brutally beaten by LAPD officers; I had no thoughts of kids, or how a parent protects them. But in households around the country, Black parents were having “ the Talk ” with their children— an intense, high-stakes training on the realities of racism— in the hopes of inoculating them against disproportionate police targeting and brutality. My...
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We Stand in Solidarity with the Worldwide Protests for Racial Justice
In response to the police brutality and racism that caused the deaths of George Floyd , Ahmaud Arbery , Breonna Taylor and countless other African Americans and people of color, ACEs Connection supports the worldwide protests demanding racial justice. Integrating practices and policies based on the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACES) — being trauma-informed — requires us to be racially just. Our organization's vision is a world where all people thrive. Our goal is to prevent...
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Just Released: New App To Support Families During the Coronavirus Outbreak and Beyond
Families with young children are currently facing unprecedented challenges and need support now more than ever. To help parents and caregivers access much-needed resources, our friends/partners at the Early Learning Lab just released Stay Play Grow , a free app that provides a one-stop source of trusted resources curated by their team of child development experts, women, and working moms. Parents and caregivers can find tips, tools, and information across four key areas in English and...
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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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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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Freedom From Trauma – Powerful & Profound Practices To Heal Trauma & Consciously Create The Body, Mind, Spirit You Truly Desire
We are living in complicated and stressful times. What needs to be healed seems more palpable than ever. It feels like the call to release what no longer serves has never been louder and we are feeling that tug at our core. While the founder of The League of Extraordinary People, Alfred White, has been gaining more clarity everyday on this, he was invited to be part of an event, more like a movement, to help others find freedom from what has been holding them back. It is a free, online...
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NAMI Basics Parents of Youth Mental Health Education
NAMI Basics is a class for parents and other family caregivers of children and adolescents who have either been diagnosed with a mental health condition or who are experiencing symptoms but have not yet been diagnosed. A nationally-developed program taught by trained volunteers who have lived experience with children. The duration is 6 weeks. The cost is Free. Foster parents successfully completing all 6 sessions will receive CEU credit. Course Topics include - The biology of mental illness...
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'I don’t know how we can really achieve racial equity if we’re not hearing the voices of those whom we hope to serve'
Dr. Shandi Fuller recalls that when she first assembled an all-staff meeting at the Solano County Family Health Services to show how equity and ACEs screening should go hand in hand, some staff members were bewildered. “Why are we talking about equity?” they asked. As Fuller explained to attendees at “A Better Normal,” an ACEs Connection webinar on Oct. 13, the question led her and a colleague to develop training for medical providers on this concept. The webinar was also based on extensive...
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O’Donnell: Opening 'so many doors for families': COVID-19 underscores importance of wraparound care for new moms and children
For once, being a biracial, low income, Medicaid patient didn't work against Selina Martinez. In 2015, two weeks after giving birth at a Manhattan hospital, Martinez arrived at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx where she was diagnosed with salmonella. During a monthlong stay, hospital staff members learned times were tough for the new mom. She'd been getting psychiatric care since the stillbirth of her last child, her husband was recovering at home from pancreatic cancer treatment and a...
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Think beyond ACEs screening, advises California funders workgroup in new report
Californians have experienced an alarming epidemic of adverse childhood experiences. Between 2011 and 2017, 60 percent of Californians reported experiencing at least one type of childhood adversity; about 16 percent experienced four or more. People who experience four or more ACEs are 1.5 times as likely to have heart disease, 1.9 times as likely to have a stroke, and 3.2 times as likely to have asthma as people who have experienced no ACEs. (For more information about ACEs and ACEs science,...
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A hospital builds awareness about trauma, deploys acts of empathy
In late 2018, Roberta Azzo, an operations program manager at Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center in Midlothian, Virginia, decided to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to infusing the hospital’s culture with a trauma-informed approach to care. This involves recognizing that trauma is widespread and that it can cause all kinds of troubled behavior, learning ways to de-escalate that behavior, and preventing practices that trigger patients and staff who have experienced trauma. The hospital...
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The Relentless School Nurse: Please SAVE OUR SCHOOLS
WHYY photo credit[/caption] My school district announced that four more schools will be closed at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. This devastating news prompted me to write this letter that will be combined with other school staff, families, and students to ask our state and national leaders to SAVE OUR SCHOOLS. This is my twentieth year as a school nurse serving the students, families, and staff of the Camden City School District. My first twelve years were spent at Cooper’s...
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ACEs Research Corner — February 2021
[Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site — abuseresearch.info — that focuses on the health effects of abuse, and includes research articles on ACEs. Every month, she posts the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs. Thank you, Harise!! -- Jane Stevens] Walker CS, Walker BH, Brown DC, Buttross S, Sarver DE. Defining the role of exposure to ACEs in ADHD: Examination in a national sample of US children. Child Abuse Negl.
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We’ve changed our name to PACEs Connection!
We have some very exciting news! As of today, ACEs Connection is now PACEs Connection. PACEs stands for Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences.
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Speakers at children & youth conference call for systems change based in love, liberation
California can support children and youth by tackling the state’s — and the country’s — legacy of White supremacy and replacing it with a trauma-informed approach of love, empathy, and support.
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How Meltdowns Can Manifest Resilience
As a primary care pediatrician, I spend most of my days talking about things that are hard for families. Parents ask what to do when their child won't poop on the potty. Or how to get their baby to sleep longer or how to get their teenager to wake up earlier. They ask how to get their child to sit in the car seat or what to do when they get car sick on long rides. And over the years I have developed a list of problem-solving strategies to help. But the one that has recently become my...
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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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California advocates press for expansion of visiting rights to incarcerated loved ones
In a recent nightmare, 8-year-old Jovina dreamt that her father got COVID-19. He was getting sicker, but she and her mother weren’t able to get there in time. “There,” in her father’s case, is a cell at the California Correctional Center (CCC) in Susanville, California, nearly 300 miles from where she lives in San Jose. In Jovina’s mind are a swarm of worries about her father’s welfare, her mother Benee Vejar reports. If an earthquake shakes the Bay Area, Jovina says, “What if the building...
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What's "Mattering" In Young Children and Why Does It Matter? [psychologytoday.com]
By Rahil D. Briggs, Psychology Today, September 21, 2021 There are many ways to think about baby, toddler, and child well-being. Perhaps you relate to the phrase “early relational health” or maybe you read the recent journal article in Pediatrics that called out the importance of ensuring that young children have safe, stable, and nurturing relationships (SSNRs). There are conversations happening about buffering toxic stress , increasing resilience , and promoting infant and early childhood...
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Los Angeles County Supervisors Approve Therapeutic Approaches to Youth Detention [imprintnews.org]
By Jeremy Loudenbeck, The Imprint, September 15, 2021 Citing the need for “repair and healing,” members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to expand therapeutic approaches to juvenile detention Wednesday, calling on department officials to create plans for mentorships with formerly incarcerated adults, restorative justice programs and more time outdoors. The unanimously approved plan presented by Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Sheila Kuehl also directs county officials to...
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This doll maker makes every child a custom, handmade doll that looks exactly like them. (upworthy.com)
Growing up, the kinds of toys you play with can make all the difference. When I was a child, I always felt like the way I looked was wrong because there were no dolls, cartoon characters, or actresses that looked like me. Thankfully, things are changing. Bigger companies like Mattel are now producing dolls in different shapes, genders, and skin tones. But gaps in the market still exist, especially for kids with special needs, physical disabilities, and skin disorders. That's where Amy...
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Upcoming 6/9 Webinar and New Report and Brief: Community Strategies to Address California’s Digital Divide and Its Impact on Children and Families
PACEs Connection and the Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative, a project of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) have developed two new resources, “Community Strategies to Address California’s Digital Divide and Its Impact on Children and Families” Report and the “Digital Divide Brief: Community Strategies to Address California’s Digital Divide and Its Impact on Children and Families”
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Pediatrician is changing the way we think about teens with 'lighthouse parenting' tips (upworthy.com)
Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash 'Lighthouse parenting' can help make raising teens less rocky. To read more of Christine Organ's article, please click here. Dr. Ken Ginsburg’s advice for parents is like a hug, TED talk and Masterclass rolled into one. As a parent of teens, I often wonder: W hy didn’t anyone tell me it would be like this? I don’t mean the warnings and complaints about how challenging the teen years are. I don’t mean all of the “just you wait” admonitions. I don’t mean the...
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“Going Way Upstream” - Panelists at Resilient Pender County Conference report on current trauma prevention and healing efforts; look to future
Amy Read of Coastal Horizons introduces the panel following a viewing of "Resilience: The Biology of Stress, The Science of Hope", at the Pender Resiliency Task Force Mini Conference Thursday, June 8 ,at Heide Trask High School in Rocky Point. A "dream team" of subject-matter expert panelists (L-R) were Ryan Estes of Coastal Horizons, Ben David, district attorney for Pender and New Hanover counties, Judge J. H. Corpening, district court judge for New Hanover and Pender counties, Taylor...
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“Caring for our own” theme emerges at May Meeting of North Carolina Chief Justice’s Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts
Ben David, co-chair of the North Carolina Chief Justice's Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts, shares plans to sustain the work done during the two-year term of the Task Force, to "care for our own" speaking of North Carolina's children, youth, families, communities, victims of crimes, members of law enforcement, the judiciary and court officers and staffers. He also shared Chief Justice Paul Newby's hopes of "getting ACEs-informed courts" into the culture, and said a national conference for...
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Review of “First 60 Days” booklet: Leveraging author’s work and movement could spark revolution to prevent and heal trauma, one precious baby, child, and caregiver at a time.
(This is a review of what I believe is an important new resource for the PACEs [for positive and adverse childhood experiences] science movement. Opinions expressed are my own, and are shared as a parent, advocate, author, and longtime student of trauma, healing, and prevention. Thoughts are also shared through my lens as someone who believes, deeply, in the incredible importance of and value in building healthier, more compassionate communities to support and nurture pregnant and new...
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Patient Compliance vs. Adherence: Advancing the Health Equity Mandate
Use of the term “compliance” instead of “adherence” by healthcare regulatory entities and organizations, plus practitioners, health systems and their and employees condones the blaming of patients for poor outcomes. It’s time to change this practice!
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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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Empathy: Can It Make The Difference?
Emotion has an enormous impact on imprinting memory in our brains. I had an experience when I was 6 years old that included emotion and I have the memory of it all of these many years later. It was a 6 year old birthday sleepover party. There were 7 girls invited that lived near each other and played together most days. A girl new to the neighborhood was invited only due to the requirement of the birthday girl’s mother. I was also invited. I lived a block away but did play with these girls...