Tagged With "human rights"
Blog Post
A Guide to Providing Telehealth During the COVID-19 Crisis
ACEs in Pediatrics community manager's note: Although this post by Daren Casagrande is geared toward mental health providers, I thought it had material that could be useful to a wider swath of health care providers. Please comment below if you have any questions or suggestions. --- Laurie Udesky Many of us in the mental health field are being thrust into unfamiliar territory as clinicians in the midst of the COVID-19 response. We either risk personal health (and the health of our clients) by...
Blog Post
ACE-Aha Moments & Parenting: Meet Aprel Phelps Downey
Aprel Phelps Downey What was your ACEs Aha moment? When did you first hear about ACEs and what impact did/does it have on you? How do ACEs impact you as a parent? How is your parenting impacted by past trauma? What’s been most helpful to you as a parent parenting with ACEs? What’s been most challenging for you as a parent parenting with ACEs? What has parenting taught you? What have you learned? How do you manage complex family relationships? What inspires/encourages and helps you? I know...
Blog Post
ACEs, biomarkers and the cost of adversity
How useful and necessary are biomarkers in telling the story of how toxic stress from adverse childhood experiences and resilience can impact a child’s long-term health? In the introduction to an article in the journal BioEssays , Dr. Kathryn Ridout, a Kaiser Permanente San Jose psychiatrist, and her co-authors examine what is known about two biomarkers and quote data on child maltreatment and its economic burden over time that says it all. “When totaling the costs of health care, child...
Blog Post
ACEs screening in CA — a Q and A with Dr. Dayna Long
Last year, the California Department of Health Care Services rolled out its plans for universal screening for trauma among its pediatric and adult Medicaid population. Beginning January 1, 2020, California physicians were able to receive an incentive payment of $29 for each pediatric patient screened for ACEs using the PEARLs ( Pediatrics Adverse Childhood and Resilience Study) tool. Dr. Dayna Long talked with ACEs Connection staff reporter Laurie Udesky about ACEs science, what led to the...
Blog Post
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study: Beyond Screening in Pediatrics
The evidence is clear. When bad things happen to us as young children, we are at significantly increased risk for not only mental health problems, but also a wide range of physical health problems including asthma, heart disease, and even early death. These "bad things" all involve disruptions in caregiving relationships. A national movement directed at screening for ACEs in pediatric practices has emerged from this work. My suggestion that the implication of the Adverse Childhood...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
Announcing a New Parenting and ACEs Blog from Stress Health, an Initiative of the Center for Youth Wellness
Research shows that the right kind of support and care can mitigate the impact of toxic stress in children and help them bounce back.
Blog Post
BABY ACES: When we consider the traumas that qualify as ACEs, babies need their own list.
Babies are obviously very different from older children developmentally, including their ability to understand and process trauma. Indeed, a baby may be completely unaware of an actual ACE— say, the incarceration of their father— which a middle schooler would be painfully aware of. Yet at the same time, the baby could be much-more-acutely impacted by the secondary effect of this same ACE: a sad, stressed, and distracted mother. Similarly, if a parent dies in a car accident when a child is in...
Blog Post
Shifting the focus from trauma to compassion
photo: Rolf Schweitzer/CCO Dr. Arnd Herz, a self-described champion for ACEs science, would like nothing more than to witness a greater appreciation of how widespread adverse childhood experiences are. Herz, a pediatrician and director of Medi-Cal Strategy for the Greater Southern Alameda Area for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, would also like to encourage more people in health care to engage in a trauma-informed care approach, a change in practice that he says not only benefits...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
Strengths-based Approaches to Screening Families for Health-Related Social Needs in the Healthcare Setting [Center for the Study of Social Policy]
How do you screen families to determine whether they have enough to eat or if they feel safe in their homes or communities without alienating them? In this new brief, authors Dr. Renee Boynton-Jarrett and JoHannah Flacks describe strength-based approaches to screening for health related social needs.
Blog Post
Study shows most pregnant women and their docs like ACEs screening
Photo/ CreativeCommons Would pregnant women participate in surveys from their doctors asking them about whether they had experienced trauma in their childhood? In surveying moms-to-be at two Northern California Kaiser sites, clinicians discovered that the women were receptive to filling out an adverse childhood experiences (ACE) survey, according to a study that was published earlier this year in the Journal of Women’s Health. In fact, researchers found out that the vast majority of pregnant...
Blog Post
Survey: Healthcare providers, community organizations weigh in on California's ACEs screening program
In January, California took a historic leap forward to promote universal ACEs screening of the state’s 13 million adults and children in the Medi-Cal program. The eventual goal is to promote ACEs screening for all patients, but this is a first step in dealing with a major issue that ACEs science has identified: that many children will develop serious health problems later in life because the healthcare system is not currently set up to detect the roots of those problems. The term ACEs, which...
Blog Post
The Power of a Baby's Laugh
Peek-a-boo: A window on baby's brain By Anna Lacey BBC Health Check http://www.bbc.com/news/health-24553877 Baby laughter: What it reveals about your baby's brain Continue reading the main story Health Check A baby's first smile is an...
Blog Post
The quest to find biomarkers for toxic stress, resilience in children — A Q-and-A with Jack Shonkoff
The JPB Research Network on Toxic Stress , led by Dr. Jack Shonkoff, is working on developing biological and behavioral markers for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and resilience that they believe will be able to measure to what extent a child is experiencing toxic stress, and what effect that stress may be having on the child’s brain and development. The JPB Research Network on Toxic Stress is comprised of scientists, pediatricians and community leaders, and is a project of the Center...
Blog Post
The Relentless School Nurse: Soap, Toothbrushes & Sleeping on Concrete Floors
Earlier in the year, I wrote a blog post about one of my newest students who was saving food that was served in school to bring home to her family. The 4-year-old girl, a recent immigrant from Guatemala, was storing food in her pants pockets instead of eating at school. Here is a link to the blog post: Pockets Filled With Chicken and Other Social Determinants of Health Yesterday, I was privileged to see this little girl welcome the guests for the end of year celebration as the students move...
Blog Post
Toxic Childhoods [politico.com]
Often times, a pediatrician or medical professional well-versed in the effects of ACEs or toxic stress can be the initial bridge to services, support, and building resilience for children, youth and families served by child welfare. It's exciting and encouraging to read about more and more pediatricians grounding their medical practice within ACEs framework. A toddler came into my examination room recently at Bayview Child Health Center in Bayview Hunters Point, an underserved, largely...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
Trauma presents unique challenges to ELL students [PilotTribune]
photo by Liz/ CC2.0 Editor's note: This excerpt from an article in the Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune in Storm Lake, Iowa highlights how teachers in the Storm Lake School District are being trained in how to recognize trauma in their English Language Learners, which make up the majority of the student population . "With 63 percent of Storm Lake’s students being English language learners (ELL), cultural diversity is a given for teachers. But the trauma inherent with immigrants and refugees in...
Blog Post
Upstreamist in Action: In a Texas Clinic, Lawyers Are Health Care Providers [Health Begins]
Upstreamists are changemakers pioneering practices that improve health by blending medical and social care . In this series of profiles, HealthBegins highlights some of these bold leaders and their innovations, in settings large and small. Their stories show us that the journey upstream is not only necessary — it’s possible. The People’s partnership began in 2012, when two puzzle pieces clicked together. The clinic’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Louis Appel, a pediatrician with an interest in...
Blog Post
UT San Antonio Researchers Pilot Ways to Help Youth Deal with Trauma [expressnews.com]
(retrieved from https://www.expressnews.com/news/education/article/UT-San-Antonio-researchers-pilot-ways-to-help-15015016.php#photo-18954339 ) Before 12-year-old Rihanna Briseño started taking classes at Good Samaritan Community Services, she was quick to dislike people and get angry. The Rhodes Middle School sixth-grader didn’t know why, but sometimes her brain told her the right thing was to beat another kid up. “I would say those things that I’m not going to say now,” Rihanna told the...
Blog Post
Webinar covered how to build trauma-informed connections via telehealth
When Dr. Erika Roshanravan, a family physician with CommuniCare in Woodland, CA, thinks back to her patient visits prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, one way she drew their deep-seated concerns was to ask the reason for the visit and to interject throughout, “Is there anything else?” And it’s asking that question during phone and video visits that has also helped her understand the true reason for her patients’ needs now, she told people who attended an ACEs Aware webinar on April 29 entitled:...
Blog Post
Wellness and Resiliency Toolkit for Kids with Trauma
I'm excited to share a booklet created for youth in Oregon foster care at a Wellness camp this summer. Youth were provided with these quick, easy and effective (and evidence based) "Mindful Moments" exercises in their Wellness Toolkits and they were practiced throughout the day at camp so that they could be remembered in times of stress and dysregulation. The exercised are designed to quickly bring them back to a state of calm. The youth really enjoyed them, and found them easy and...
Blog Post
What Our Children Need Us to Know, Right Now
Teaching children how to better navigate crisis, right now.
Blog Post
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.
Blog Post
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,...
Blog Post
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.”
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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...
Ask the Community
ACEs-Savvy ADULT Primary Care Doc in Oakland or Richmond Kaiser?
Hi there -- I'm posting here on Ped community at the suggestion of a colleague who says this may be best way to find an adult primary care doc at Kaiser. I'm a passionate advocate for ACEs awareness, and a high-ACE-score kid who writes about childhood trauma. I'm also a Kaiser member in the Oakland/Richmond area, and I'm looking for a primary care doc who REALLY knows his/her stuff about emerging ACEs science. Happily, I am healthy today, but the health problems I've had in the past have...
Comment
Re: A plethora of journal articles on ACEs science
Hi Jennifer, Thanks for letting me know. I'll check that out right now. Best regards, Laurie
File
ACE cases.pptx
Comment
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.
Comment
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.
Comment
Re: WEBINAR - NPPC's Pilot Site Case Studies: Lessons Learned from ACEs Screening Implementation
I find it impossible to believe the necessary resources .are available through “tweeting” already available resources and systems. We do not have the resources needed for kids already identified to have mental health concerns much less for newly identified kids. I’m sure most doctors working for any period of time in low resource areas already know this. I guess my biggest concern is believing that what we do right now is all we really need to treat these severely and complexly traumatized...
Comment
Re: The Mother-Infant Interaction Picture Book
If you want to get a really good idea of how attachment in infancy goes right or goes wrong... this book is an excellent resource. I think it could really help some of us who are thinking about mother-infant relationship in Newborn Visits.
Comment
Re: California unveils ACEs Aware initiative to screen for trauma
Attached is a powerpoint I put together which has been helpful to get folks engaged in the CA Surgeon General's on line ACEs training. These are screen shots to make the process less confusing and show that the content is practical . Feel free to edit. Let us know if there is a similar guide officially available. Thank you
Reply
Re: ACE's questionnaire in Pediatric emergency room
I'm a pediatric neurologist at University of Alabama at Birmingham and Children's of Alabama. ACEs in the Peds ED: I've discussed ACE screening with some of my Peds ED colleagues (and there's interest) but that's as far as we've gotten.... ACE screening elsewhere: Is anyone doing ACEs in sub-specialty pediatrics? I am looking for help on "best practices" in this setting. Over the past few months I have been informally asking an unscientific sample of my parents in Peds Neurology clinic to...
Reply
Re: ACE's questionnaire in Pediatric emergency room
I’m kind of bad here because I didn’t read your entire reply but this area of somatic complaints and concerns over behavioral problems like ADHD - is really where I started asking the ACE questions mixed in with a bunch of other psychosocial questions - and the ACEs were always very high. I’ve been doing this since at least 2004. Rahil Briggs is awesome in this area as is NBHarris and they have a webinar coming up in a few days on integrating this into care. For Neurology - chronic...
Comment
Re: Course credit for "Childhood Adversity and Toxic Stress in Medical Care: Promoting Health and Healing Throughout the Lifespan"
Hi Carroll, Beth Grady is also a member of ACEs Connection. Perhaps reach out to her on this and she could point you in the right direction. Here's her member page details, including contact info.
File
ParentingBook.pdf
Blog Post
Op-Ed: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Don’t understand the protests? What you’re seeing is people pushed to the edge [LATimes.com]
Los Angeles Protesters were among those who turned out in cities across the U.S. on Saturday to protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) ...The black community is used to the institutional racism inherent in education, the justice system and jobs. And even though we do all the conventional things to raise public and political awareness — write articulate and insightful pieces in the Atlantic, explain the continued devastation on CNN,...
Blog Post
“I [STILL] can’t breathe”: Supporting kids of color amid racialized violence (www.embracerace.org)
Details about a webinar hosted by Embrace Race this Friday.
Comment
Re: Medical Authorities with Academic Blinders look the other Way: Reject ACES
No we should not be asking these ACEs in the Peds office. I don’t think that any of our patients should have their name, DOB, medicaid number and a billing code sent to the state documenting 4 or more or less than 4 ACEs. This HAS A REAL POSSIBILITY of misuse. We took an OATH to do no harm and this could cause real harm. Also your second “expert” is Dr. Nemeroff. He has been a real proponent for psychotropic use in kids. That right there is a red flag to me.