Tagged With "Journal of Behavioral Medicine"
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Five Numbers to Remember about Early Childhood Development [DevelopingChild.Harvard.edu]
The early years matter because, in the first few years of life, more than 1 million new neural connections are formed every second. * Neural connections are formed through the interaction of genes and a baby’s environment and experiences, especially “ serve and return ” interaction with adults, or what developmental researchers call contingent reciprocity. These are the connections that build brain architecture – the foundation upon which all later learning, behavior, and health depend. [For...
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For a pediatrician and former teacher ACEs awareness came from a punch in the face
Dr. Kavitha Selvaraj did not learn about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) from a class in medical school. Her first awareness of ACEs came after a student slugged her in the face when she was a new teacher in a school in Los Angeles. She had heard a chorus in the hallway urging her students she refers to as “J” and “N” to “Fight! Fight! Fight,” she writes in an essay in a recent issue of the journal Pediatrics . The two were trading punches. When she stepped in the middle to break it up...
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From aromatherapy to anger management: How schools are addressing the 'crisis' of childhood trauma [NBCNews.com]
Schools are experimenting with new ways to address behavior issues and support students who are struggling emotionally. By Elizabeth Chuck and Marshall Crook May 20, 2019, 11:24 AM EDT YAKIMA, Wash. — Instead of going outside for recess on a recent Friday, fifth-grader Thomas Stevenson walked down a hallway in Ridgeview Elementary School and entered a dimly lit room. Inside, lavender aromatherapy filled the air, spa-like music played and a projector broadcast clouds onto a screen. Passing by...
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Hearing in House Education and Labor Early Childhood Subcommittee addresses intersection of trauma and education
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris (l) and Karina Chicote, Churchill Fellow from western Australia meet after congressional hearing After watching the hearing on a monitor in the overflow room, Karina Chicote, a Churchill Fellow from western Australia, and I hustled to the hearing room in hopes of speaking to the lead witness, Nadine Burke Harris, MD, the first Surgeon General of the State of California. She was deep in conversation with others, including a young woman who wanted to tell her how...
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How collaboration helps clinic in San Mateo County, CA, tackle ACEs in children
Dr. Elizabeth Grady is a pediatrician at the South San Francisco Clinic, a community clinic of San Mateo Medical Center. She and Susana Flores , a senior public health nurse with San Mateo County Health, spoke with me about how the clinic and other health agencies in San Mateo have been able to craft ways to work together to prevent and heal toxic stress in children. Grady also talked about how she and Flores have been working with the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative (RBC), a group of...
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How do these pediatricians do ACEs screening? Early adopters tell all.
Last week, three pediatricians — with a combined experience of 15 years integrating ACEs science into their practices — reflected on the urgency they felt several years ago that prompted them to begin screening patients for childhood adversity and resilience when there was practically no guidance at all. Along their journey , they accumulated a list of lessons learned for other pediatricians and family clinics to use. The three pediatricians participated in the ACEs Connection webinar,...
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How to Be More Resilient [nytimes.com]
As a psychiatrist, I’ve long wondered why some people get ill in the face of stress and adversity — either mentally or physically — while others rarely succumb. We know, for example, that not everyone gets PTSD after exposure to extreme trauma, while some people get disabling depression with minimal or no stress. Likewise, we know that chronic stress can contribute to physical conditions like heart disease and stroke in some people, while others emerge unscathed. What makes people resilient,...
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Immigrant teens, parents explore ACEs, resilience in 5-week course with family doc
Dr. Angela Bymaster, a family doctor in San Jose, Calif., was determined to find a way to teach ACEs science to her patients. Teens would come to the Washington Neighborhood Clinic clearly depressed by a range of problems at home that were contributing to risky sexual behavior and marijuana use, as well as preventable health problems like extreme obesity.
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In ACEs Connection webinar, physicians talk trauma, offer tips for helping pediatric immigrant patients
Dr. Raul Gutierrez, a pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay Area, said he and his fellow clinicians see constant fear and its health consequences every single day among the largely immigrant and Latino population they serve. It’s all the result of anti-immigrant policies and the news cycle that feeds the fear. Dr. Raul Gutierrez “It is almost inescapable with the repercussions of immigration policy on the radio, television, social media and from friends and family,” Gutierrez told the 69...
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Interim report of the President’s opioid commission says its final report will address early intervention strategies for children with ACEs
On August 8, President Trump spoke to the opioid crisis in this country and declined to declare a national emergency as recommended by the “President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.” Instead, the President emphasized the law and order aspects of the problem and the importance of preventing drug use in the first place since addiction is so hard to overcome. The Commission will make a final report in the fall. The recently released interim report makes eight...
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4 years after integrating ACEs science, Pueblo, CO clinic improves services for families; cuts ER costs, doctor stress
Four years ago, Dr. Leslie Dempsey would never have talked about ACEs — adverse childhood experiences — with her patients. Now ACEs is a common topic. “Just as I don’t feel awkward asking someone if they smoke or do intravenous drugs, I don’t really feel awkward talking about their childhood traumas in a way that it relates to their health. It’s just integrated into obtaining background and social history,” she says. Dr. Leslie Dempsey Dempsey is a physician in obstetrics who oversees a team...
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A Message from the President of the Illinois Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics
Dear Illinois ACE Connection members, Children and families from all demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds in Illinois experience trauma, adversity, and chronic stress. Social determinants such as where we live, work, and play, can further exacerbate positive or negative physical, emotional, and behavioral health issues. The critical factor that determines if a child, family, and/or community can manage trauma, adversity, and chronic stress successfully is resilience : the process by...
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A plethora of journal articles on ACEs science
As the community manager of ACEs in Pediatrics, I comb the web looking for pertinent studies and information that may be of interest to ACEs in Pediatric members. In the last several days the journals Pediatrics, the North Carolina Medical Journal, Child Abuse & Neglect and the Journal of Women's Health have published a number of articles on ACEs science. Here is a list of some of the articles and commentary featured in each journal: ACEs and Pregnancy: Time to Support All Expectant...
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ACE Fact Sheets to Give Your Doctors, Patients & Beyond (free downloads)
I was first inspired to create a fact sheet summarizing the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) after reading a comment in “Got Your ACE score?” A reader wished she had a form to give her doctor that documented the vast body of evidence explaining how early trauma increases risk for chronic physical and mental health conditions and much more.
I could relate.
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ACEs Aware Webinar: Trauma-informed practices to address stress from COVID19
How can health care providers take care of themselves, their colleagues and their patients during this COVID-19 pandemic? First and foremost is recognizing how the pandemic can stir up trauma from the past, said Dr. Alicia Lieberman, a psychologist specializing in trauma. “COVID19 is reawakening traumatic reminders in many of us and in the families we work with. And that often makes it difficult for parents to protect themselves and their children,” she noted. Lieberman, the director of the...
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ACEs Research Corner — February 2020
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's posting the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs science. Thank you, Harise!! -- Jane Stevens] Kambeitz C, Klug MG, Greenmyer J, Popova S, Burd L. Association of adverse childhood experiences and neurodevelopmental disorders in people with fetal alcohol...
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ACEs Research Corner — January 2020
Research papers this month include links between ACEs and bullying, dropping out of high school, adult disability, and the effects of countering ACEs.
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ACEs Research Corner — March 2020
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's posting the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs science. Thank you, Harise!! -- Jane Stevens] Brown SM, Bender K, Orsi R, McCrae JS, Phillips JD, Rienks S. Adverse childhood experiences and their relationship to complex health profiles among child...
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ACEs Research Corner — September 2018
[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's posting the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs. Thank you, Harise!! -- Jane Stevens] Schickedanz A, Halfon N, Sastry N, Chung PJ. Parents' Adverse Childhood Experiences and Their Children's Behavioral Health Problems. Pediatrics. 2018 Aug;142(2).
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After 5-year journey to integrate ACEs science, Santa Rosa, CA, pediatric clinic is trauma-informed, from head to toe
Dr. Meredith Kieschnick was among the first physicians in the U.S. to hear the term, "adverse childhood experiences". That was in 1998, early on in her career as a pediatrician, when the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) published its initial findings in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine . “I attended a conference at which (Dr. Vincent) Felitti spoke,” she recalls. Felitti, at that time director of the Health Appraisal Center at Kaiser Permanente...
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Alternative IHEBA with ACEs for California (and Other) Pediatricians
If you are a pediatrician serving Medicaid managed care patients in California, then you are required to use the Staying Healthy Assessment or an alternative IHEBA (Individual Health Education Behavioral Assessment) at all well-child visits. The bad news is that getting approval to use an alternative IHEBA is a tedious process. The good news is that as of October 27, 2016 the Whole Child Assessment (WCA) is available for use in English and Spanish. Most importantly, the WCA has been...
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Alternative IHEBA with ACEs for California (and Other) Pediatricians
If you are a pediatrician serving Medicaid managed care patients in California, then you are required to use the Staying Healthy Assessment or an alternative IHEBA (Individual Health Education Behavioral Assessment) at all well-child visits. The bad news is that getting approval to use an alternative IHEBA is a tedious process. The good news is that as of October 27, 2016 the Whole Child Assessment (WCA) is available for use in English and Spanish. Most importantly, the WCA has been...
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Behavioral Health Conference and ACEs
May 14, 2019 and May 15, 2019 there is a Behavioral Health Conference hosted by the United Way in Broward County. Be sure to stop by the Children's Services Council/ ACES Broward table to sign up to be a part of the ACE's Broward Community. At the conference, CSC President/CEO Cindy Arenberg Seltzer will be giving a brief introduction about ACE's. https://www.drugfreebroward.org/events/behavior-health-conference/
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Solano County's (CA) ACEs initiative, a robust community effort, makes room for input from all
In a house called “Johanna’s House” on a tree-lined side street in Vallejo, Calif., four women are filling out the adverse childhood experiences (ACE) survey given to them by Maria Guevara, the founder of Vallejo Together, an organization that serves homeless residents in Vallejo. The house was named for Johanna Dilag, a homeless woman who was found dead along with her dog.
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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Stress and self-esteem in adolescence predict physical activity and sedentary behavior in adulthood
Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a newly-published study in the journal Mental Health and Physical Activity examines how long term exposure to stress correlates with the level of exercise in adulthood. The study also examines the association of higher self esteem and physical activity, and the role that stress and self esteem play in adult obesity. Read more here
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Study Examines Links Between Early ACEs and Outcomes in Middle Childhood
"Adverse experiences in infancy and toddlerhood: Relations to adaptive behavior and academic status in middle childhood", will be published in the August issue of the journal Child Abuse and Neglect . The study, conducted by University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences researchers Lorraine McKelvey, Nikki Edge, Glenn R. Mesman, and Leanne Whiteside-Mansell, along with Arizona State University researcher Robert H. Bradley, collected and analyzed interview data from a sample of low-income...
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Talk, read, sing, repeat. A pediatrician’s prescription to parents. (clintonfoundation.org)
A mission to transform patients’ lives Just two years prior, Dr. Doshi piloted the hospital’s partnership with Too Small to Fail to help pediatricians provide consistent guidance for their patients on the critical importance of the early years in a child’s brain development. Too Small to Fail gave a clear message to encourage parents to talk, read, sing, play, and bond with their babies from birth – along with a tote bag full of children’s books, music, baby clothing, and parent resources to...
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Teaching Parenting Skills At Doctor Visits Helps Children's Behavior [NPR.org]
As researchers have come to understand how poverty and its stresses influence children's brain development, they've begun untangling how that can lead to increased behavior problems and learning difficulties for disadvantaged kids. Rather than trying to treat those problems, NYU child development specialists Adriana Weisleder and Alan Mendelsohn want to head them off. They say they've found a way: Working with low-income parents when they bring babies and young children to the pediatrician.
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The AAP opens up access to ACE studies to highlight long-term impact of family separations and detentions at the border
Photo by Gerald R. Nino/Wikimedia.org "We have created a collection of articles on toxic stress since the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health, the Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption and Dependent Care, and the Section on Behavior and Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics published their landmark policy statement, “ Early Childhood Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Role of the Pediatrician: Translating Developmental Science into...
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The Academy of Pediatrics Calls to End Spanking, and APSAC agrees!
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises parents against the use of spanking as a disciplinary tool, citing multiple potential hards. APSAC agrees and offers alternatives for parents
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The Relentless School Nurse: Brandy Bowlen Shares Her Message - From Seat to Feet
Brandy Bowlen has transformed her school community by first taking a stand for her own health and well-being. This is not an easy feat for nurses. Eight years ago, when Brandy was a new school nurse, she found herself overwhelmed, overstressed and overweight. She became a warrior for self-care, connecting the importance that her professional persona would be most impactful if she presented herself as an example. Brandy shares her journey to wellness for herself and her school community.
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The Relentless School Nurse: When the Health Office Pass Includes Emotions
The collaboration between school counselors and school nurses creates safe spaces for students at school. Building a coalition between school counselors and school nurses creates a safety net for our most complex and challenging students while benefiting the whole school community. Promoting connections through intentional relationship building, and ensuring a school environment that is physically, emotionally and psychologically safe changes the culture and climate. Read about an amazing...
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The ‘Unseen Wounds’ of Child Emotional Abuse [psmag.com]
As recent reports regarding actor Stephen Collins remind us, accusations of child sexual abuse reliably produce a reaction of intense horror. But a new study suggests that, if we are to seriously address the mistreatment of children...
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TIC: News and Notes for the Week of March 18 2019
ACEs, Adversity's Impact Screening for adverse child experiences in primary care Linked: Adverse childhood experiences, health + addiction Adults with childhood traumas 11 times more likely to be involved in drugs and violence, report says Warning of overload in childhood trauma data Mental health issues increased significantly in young adults over last decade New student group to give hope to those with traumatic childhoods How anxiety leads to disruptive behavior Brain and Biology...
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Trauma education and mindfulness help youth living amid gun violence
Armon Hurst, 2nd from left, first row, Teens on Target, courtesy of YouthAlive! Eighteen-year-old Armon Hurst serves as vice president of the student body at Castlemont High School in Oakland, Calif. He has a 4.0 grade point average, is an avid baseball player, and is slated to go to college next year. But until a few years ago, Hurst would find himself waking from nightmares in the middle of the night. It was difficult to concentrate at school, and he wasn’t eating well. Armon Hurst “There...
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Trauma Informed Care for people with Developmental Disabilities Conference
Sponsored by the Family Resource Center-Parents Helping Parents May 12,2018 in San Jose,CA
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Trauma-informed groups rev up to address race, inclusion
Eighteen-year-old Kia Hanson has always enjoyed her time as a youth leader at the East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC). She’s worked mostly with five- and six-year-olds since she began in 2016. Recently, she tapped into new skills, especially if the kids were having a meltdown. Kia Hanson “If they’re off, we ask them, ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘Do you want to talk about anything?’,” she explains. “Basically asking before assuming they’re mad at the world for no reason.” What made the...
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Understanding and Responding to Children who Bite
Biting is a typical behavior often seen in infants, toddlers, and 2-year olds. As children mature, gain self-control, and develop problem-solving skills, they usually outgrow this behavior. While not uncommon, biting can be an upsetting and...
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Understanding Motivation: Building the Brain Architecture That Supports Learning, Health, and Community Participation [developingchild.harvard.edu]
A healthy, engaged community depends on people achieving to the best of their potential, contributing actively to the economy and public well-being, and helping the next generation to thrive. A complex set of intertwined social and biological factors influences people’s motivation to participate actively and productively in schools, jobs, and communities–and to persevere in the face of setbacks. To unlock this puzzle and ensure that all people have the opportunity to develop motivation to...
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Webinar: Crossroads of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Developmental Disabilities
Physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, child life professionals, and other patient service providers are invited and encouraged to join a webinar entitled: "Crossroads of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Developmental Disabilities" Increased levels of toxic stress, which can be caused by recurrent or chronic exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), can impair neurodevelopment, behavior, and overall health of a child (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services...
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Webinar Recording and Resources - Crossroads of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Developmental Disabilities
For many healthcare providers, it can be challenging to distinguish between behaviors associated with a developmental disability and behaviors resulting from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). It takes coordination across multiple disciplines to ensure early and accurate diagnosis and treatment of ACEs and/or developmental disabilities. Research has shown that individuals with disabilities are at increased risk for experiencing violence of all types, especially physical violence and...
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What Exactly is a Toddler Tantrum?
Several years ago NPR had a story about temper tantrums, describing a study showing that the sounds children make during a tantrum indicate that they are primarily sad rather than angry. The written version of the story opens with description of tantrums as " the cause of profound helplessness among parents." I thought this was an interesting choice of words, as I have always thought of tantrums as representing a sense of helplessness in children. In fact, in my over 20 years of practicing...
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When Parents Fear "It's All My Fault"
Many of my colleagues in the field of early childhood mental health work with what are termed "high risk" populations. Children of drug addicted parents, victims of child abuse, and families in abject poverty. While the challenges these families face are daunting, I find myself feeling some envy for my colleagues whose clients are in such obvious distress that the need for intensive treatment of parent and infant is not in question. In my rural, small-town population things are not so clear.
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Who's integrating ACEs?
2015 article about Children's Clinic in Portland, OR, doing ACEs history on parents of four-month-old babies. 2014 article about pediatricians taking ACEs history on ACEsTooHigh.com. Center for Youth Wellness, San Francisco,...
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Why I believe Gregory Williams, and his book, Shattered By The Darkness, will help save lives and revolutionize healthcare.
When you first hear about it, it sounds unlikely, fact that something that happened to someone in utero, at the age of two months, or four years, or any time in childhood, is what is killing them as an adult, or making them want to die, or making them want to hurt themselves or others. Yet the connection between childhood trauma and adult disease, mental illness, addiction, suicide, violence – most all of society’s ills – is as irrefutable as the myriad truths revealed about it in the...
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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 screen if there are no services? (Barbara J. Howard - Pediatric News)
Why screen if there are no services? By: DR. BARBARA J. HOWARD OCTOBER 6, 2014 Behavioral Consult Do you remember the discussion of the ethical dilemma of Huntington’s disease you probably participated in during medical school? The...
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Yoga & Mindfulness: Strategies for Empowerment & Violence Prevention Among Homeless Youth [smdp.com]
Dr. Petering and the MyPath Program are part of an ongoing partnership supported by SPY’s 4-year Innovations contract with LA County’s Department of Mental Health. “You need to try mindfulness and Yoga. It’s hard to live in the streets when you are homeless, people can’t live like that. The pain is too much, it’s too stressful and some people can’t handle it, so they take their own life. Let’s try these mindfulness techniques and yoga poses and see how much it will change, and things will...
Comment
Re: Screening for childhood adversity: the what and when of identifying individuals at risk for lifespan health disparities [Journal of Behavioral Medicine]
Is this article available to be posted? I cannot access via the link thanks! Carmela