Tagged With "Structural Racism"
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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...
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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...
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Teaching 6-Year-Olds About Privilege and Power (kqed.org)
On a sunny day in April, I drove to Head-Royce School in the hills of Oakland, California, to join circle time in Bret Turner ’s first-grade classroom. I had asked Turner if I could sit in on some lessons after reading an article he wrote describing how he teaches about some surprising topics -- like race and class -- in an elementary school classroom. I wanted to see what that looked like and what kind of conversations first-graders at this private school would have around such complicated...
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The Connection between Asthma and Toxic Stress: Insights from the National Committee on Asthma and Toxic Stress
Children for whom ACEs and asthma co-occur may ultimately require different prevention and intervention strategies due to their ACEs-related physiology. As more pediatric clinics screen for ACEs, the field needs consensus and management guidelines that address the biological links between adversity and health outcomes. The National Committee on Asthma and Toxic Stress (NCATS), in partnership with the Center for Youth Wellness, the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at...
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The Impact of Racism on Child and Adolescent Health [pediatrics.aappublications.org]
By Maria Trent, Danielle G. Gooley, Jacqueline Douge, Pediatrics, August 31, 2019 Abstract The American Academy of Pediatrics is committed to addressing the factors that affect child and adolescent health with a focus on issues that may leave some children more vulnerable than others. Racism is a social determinant of health that has a profound impact on the health status of children, adolescents, emerging adults, and their families. Although progress has been made toward racial equality and...
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Those who separate immigrant children from parents might as well be beating them with truncheons
Many people who see reports of children separated from their parents might think that, because they’re not crying, that they’ve adjusted. Or, if they are crying, they’ll eventually stop and get over it. But, the reality is that those who participate in separating children from their parents and those who are caring for them in the detainment centers might as well be beating them with truncheons.
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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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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 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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ParentingBook.pdf
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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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CNN and 'Sesame Street' to Host a Town Hall Addressing Racism [cnn.com]
By Melissa Mahtani for CNN.com, on June 2nd 2020, As anger and heartbreak have swept across America over the killing of yet another black man at the hands of police, CNN and "Sesame Street" are refocusing their second town hall to address racism. The 60-minute special "Coming Together: Standing Up to Racism. A CNN/Sesame Street Town Hall for Kids and Families" will air on Saturday, June 6, at 10 a.m. ET. The show will talk to kids about racism, the recent nationwide protests, embracing...
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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,...
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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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Child Life specialists empower kids in hospitals, disasters and now the pandemic
In late May, Betsy Andersen’s 7-year-old son, Ezra, had a serious meltdown. He and his six-year-old sister Abby had been enjoying an online Zoom interaction with “Miss Eileen,” “Miss Savannah,” a couple of their colleagues, and a puppet. Betsy Andersen “I could see him trailing off and then he started crying,” says Andersen, who lives in Mundelein, Illinois. But before she swooped in, she heard Miss Eileen talking to him: “She was saying ‘Hey, I see you’re having some big emotions.” Speaking...
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Perinatal Equity Initiative [cdph.ca.gov]
From California Department of Public Health, July 2020 In 2018, recognizing an alarming statewide gap in Black infant mortality, the state Legislature passed the Budget Act of 2018 which included the establishment of the California Perinatal Equity Initiative (PEI) within the Department of Public Health. While declines in infant mortality have been achieved, the statewide mortality rate for Black infants continues to be two to four times higher than rates for other groups. The PEI aims to...
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Dozens of Prosecutors and Youth Corrections Officials Call to Close All Youth Prisons [imprintnews.com]
By Michael Fitzgerald, The Imprint, July 30, 2020 In a sign of the nation’s rapid rethinking of the justice system prompted by protests against racism and police brutality, dozens of elected prosecutors, corrections officials and probation chiefs have called for all youth prisons to be shut down. They described the lockups as “ineffective, inefficient and inhumane.” The open statement , posted online and announced at a virtual news conference Thursday, goes beyond pushing for “the closure of...
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Emergency departments look inward to deepen practices that support traumatized patients
An interdisciplinary team of clinicians from Brigham and Women’s Hospital had a bold idea in 2017. They would completely change the way things worked in their hospital’s emergency department so that the care provided to their patients was infused with a trauma-informed approach. That means recognizing how widespread trauma is and using a myriad of techniques to mitigate its harmful effects among patients, providers and staff. The realization of just how widespread trauma is came to light in...
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Back-to-School in a Pandemic? Questions, Concerns, and Discussion with School Nurse, Robin Cogan
Robin is a brilliant, passionate, and vocal school nurse with almost two decades of experience as a New Jersey school nurse in the Camden City School District. She is the Legislative Co-Chair for the New Jersey State School Nurses Association and she joined us last week for A Better Normal community discussion about back-to-school (or not) plans families are facing this school year. Robin serves as faculty in the School Nurse Certificate Program at Rutgers University-Camden School of Nursing...
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Wellness navigators in clinics screening for ACEs help prevent crises in patients' lives
A patient came into the Goleta location of the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics pleading with people at the front desk to speak to Mayra Garcia, a wellness navigator at the clinic, despite not having an appointment. The clinic is part of a network of four clinics in the Santa Barbara region of California that serve mainly patients on Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, or patients who are uninsured. Mayra Garcia “She was crying. Her husband had been deported. She couldn’t pay the rent,...
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ACEs research roundup: ACEs, racism, promoting equity and resilience
Racial /Ethnic Disparities in Health Care Access Are Associated with Adverse Childhood Experiences , Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Racism , Psycho-Social Stress, and Health-related Quality of Life International Journal of Maternal Child Health and AIDS Promoting equity and resilience: Wellness navigators' role in addressing adverse childhood experiences American Psychological Association Co‐Occurring Youth Profiles of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Protective Factors:...
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The Pandemics of Racism and COVID-19 [pediatrics.aappublications.org]
By Tina L. Cheng and Alison M. Conca-Cheng, Pediatrics, August 31, 2020 COVID-19 is a recent crisis. Racism is an enduring crisis which is inflamed in the presence of other crises. The Chinese word for "crisis” is composed of two characters, one signifying "danger" and the other, "opportunity." The pandemics of COVID-19 and racism present clear danger. Our duty is to make sense of the opportunity by learning, understanding, and taking action. In this issue of Pediatrics, Cheah et al.1...
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ACEs screening pilot in L.A. County pivots, troubleshoots barriers to remote visits
This story is part of an occasional series about California-based pediatricians who are incorporating ACEs screening into their practices. In the first installment published in May, which you can find here , Dr. Amy Shekarchi and other team members had just launched their ACEs screening by phone. A community health worker from a clinic affiliated with Los Angeles County’s Department of Health Care Services recently called a teenage patient to find out if she ever felt unsafe in her home or...
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Researchers Seek Reproductive Justice for Black Women [chcf.org]
By Vanessa Grubbs, California Health Care Foundation, September 25, 2020 Black mothers die in hospitals at nearly four times the rate of White mothers — an appalling disparity that has persisted for decades despite state and national quality improvement initiatives, clinical safety innovations, and technological advances. This disparity persists regardless of patient income, insurance, education, comorbid conditions, or prenatal care. The fact that many clinicians, decisionmakers, and...
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'A Better Normal:' Can universal ACEs screening be equitable? -- Concerns and solutions
Can universal ACEs screening be equitable? A conversation about concerns and solutions. When: Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2-3:30 pm PDT/5-6:30 pm EDT This webinar explores what it takes to ensure that equity is built into the process of screening and providing support for families who have experienced trauma and want help. REGISTER HERE Background At the beginning of this year, California, through the ACEs Aware initiative began rolling out universal screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs),...
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Dr. Rhea Boyd to present at the MBK Sacramento Trauma and Healing Learning Series
Dr. Rhea Boyd to present at the MBK Sacramento Trauma and Healing Learning Series on 10/29/20, 10:00 AM PST- 12:30 pm. Registration link and event flyer included in this post.
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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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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 New Hippocratic Oath Asks Doctors To Fight Racial Injustice And Misinformation [NPR]
First-year medical student Sean Sweat "didn't want to tiptoe around" issues of race when she sat down with 11 of her classmates to write a new version of the medical profession's venerable Hippocratic oath. "We start our medical journey amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and a national civil rights movement reinvigorated by the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery," begins the alternate version of the oath, rewritten for the class of 2024 at the University of Pittsburgh...
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We've got a $50,000 matching grant!
A very generous donor, who prefers to remain anonymous, has given ACEs Connection a $50,000 matching grant! If ACEs Connection’s members contribute $50,000 between now and the end of this year, our donor will match it with $50,000. "Changing the world — our culture of how we deal with people —is a huge task and takes a very large village, “ the anonymous donor says of the challenge grant. “ACEs Connection is a superb and effective leader of our village." This is our first concerted effort to...
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Sonoma County field nurses use ACEs science to educate families
Santa Rosa, CA, resident Lisa Marden watches her 15-month-old baby gleefully play with magic markers and relays how she’s been coping with feeling anxious. (We're using a pseudonym to protect the family's privacy.) “I’m just super stressed out with everything, and as soon as I eat anything, I get nauseous, so I’ve been eating snacks instead of meals,” she explains to Liz George, a field nurse with the Maternal/Child Field Nursing team of Sonoma County, CA, who has been seeing Marden on home...
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“They never saw a child”: Ruby Bridges and the Adultification of Black Girls [positiveexperience.org/blog]
Loren McCullough, 2/11/21, positiveexperience.org/blog In our last blog post , we introduced the Black History Month series we’ll be running on the HOPE blog, to highlight and honor the work of Black individuals in the fields of public health, education, and child welfare. Today, we reflect on Ruby Bridges and the harmful effects of racism against Black girls in education. In next week’s post, we will be releasing a new resource that walks you through four questions you can ask to begin...
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The Impact of ACEs on Black Maternal Health
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Want to empower youth in communities of color during COVID? Let them lead.
Widespread reporting has revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated many poor communities of color. Less widely known is how the pandemic has affected young people in those communities. “COVID-19 has had a particularly harsh impact on youth of color,” further traumatizing [juvenile-justice] system-impacted youth and their families already struggling with disproportionately high rates of disease, death, job loss and housing insecurity,” said Jim Keddy of Youth Forward . Keddy was...
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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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Join the movement: Significant new legislation and funding to find solutions to youth mental health crisis
There is unprecedented momentum to tackle the mental health crisis affecting our children. The universally felt isolation and suffering caused by the pandemic are helping to strip away the stigma of mental illness. In its place is an energized movement, led by advocates, that is transforming the way California provides mental health services for its most vulnerable children—the majority of whom are black and brown. This movement has captured the attention of state and local policymakers,...
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Local Organizations Join Together To Build HOPE and Resiliency in San Diego’s Children
April is National Month of Hope. While hope is something we all need right now as we surpass one year of the COVID pandemic, HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) means something different in our work as ACEs Aware grantees. The YMCA of San Diego County , San Diego State University Social Policy Institute , San Diego Accountable Community for Health (SDACH) and American Academy of Pediatrics – California Chapter 3 are combining efforts as ACEs Aware grantees to work with...
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Audrey Smolkin
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To solve the Black maternal mortality crisis, start with upending racist practices
It’s been all over the news for months: Black women in the United States are dying from complications during their pregnancies or in childbirth at alarming rates, and those deaths are preventable. Less well explored is how systemic racism and historical trauma have been at the core of what’s driven up these rates over several decades. A March 20 conference entitled The Impact of ACEs on Black Maternal Health took an in-depth look into why Black maternal mortality and complications during...
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Policing in schools: Redefining public safety to be supportive & healing, instead of punitive & criminalizing
A recent video , shared on the national news, shows a 16-year-old Florida student being slammed to the ground by a police officer working at her school. It’s one of many such incidents of school-based police violence against students captured in videos around the country. Some of the victims are as young as five years old. About 47% of U.S. schools employ armed police officers , known as school resource officers, who are there to keep students safe. But students who attend these schools...
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State of Babies Yearbook: 2021 (Zero to Three)
New analysis highlights how systemic racism and the pandemic have impacted young children’s well-being . For Zero to Three’s State of Babies report , Child Trends experts compiled and examined more than 60 policies and indicators related to infant and toddler well-being. Whenever possible, researchers disaggregated the data by race and ethnicity and examined indicators both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis highlights systemic inequities that families of color faced...
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Adverse Babyhood Experiences (ABEs): 10 New Categories of Adversity Before a Child's 3rd Birthday (Free Downloadable Journal Article)
Adverse babyhood experiences (ABEs) are a new construct derived from large bodies of evidence that identify a different group of risk factors from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). ABEs occur before a child’s 3rd birthday to influence infant and maternal morbidity and mortality. ABEs are also risk factors for chronic illnesses and other chronic conditions in the child as well as symptoms in parents.