Tagged With "child development"
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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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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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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 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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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: Screening for childhood adversity: the what and when of identifying individuals at risk for lifespan health disparities [Journal of Behavioral Medicine]
never mind. found it at the library! thanks for sharing! great forum! As a Principal Investigator on an NIHCD funded grant to develop a screening instrument for children at risk this is especially timely! working on first paper for our tool now- happy to share more if folks are interested. anyone working internationally on screening kids? I'd love to chat. contact me at cj@artemisassoc.com Carmela
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Re: Dr. Claudia Gold: Empathy & Listening as ACE-Informed Practice
What a refreshing hope-filled read! I love this message - how it supports the development of the parent's self-efficacy and encourages them to develop confidence in their natural intuition. As a public health nurse, I've met many parents who were motivated to parent well- but who did not have role models that they could lean on or learn from. It is these parents who would benefit so much from this holistic approach. Thank you for sharing!
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aces_agenda.pdf
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Re: All hands on deck (from a distance): remote care for traumatized moms and babies
I would like to see infant mental health folks comment on this because what you are proposing is very serious and can have serious lifelong adverse consequences. How about any of the Pediatric Doctors out of Ed Tronick’s UMass program? How about anyone from that program or similar programs comment here? What would Dr. Brazelton think? There is so much you can do face to face with the mother and baby that you just cannot do on a screen because it is the actual feeling of presence and...
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Re: Nobel Winner’s Research Shows Home Nurse Visits for New Moms Boost Children’s Cognitive Skills [The74Million.org]
I love, LOVE this guy! Dr. Heckman is my public policy hero - I never thought I'd say that about an economist! Dr. Heckman is so well regarded, his research is impeccable, and the data has the potential to powerfully transform public policy with the end result of better lifelong outcomes for children and parents. AND in addition to cognitive skills, he recognizes " the importance of socioemotional skills, physical and mental health, perseverance, attention, motivation, and self-confidence .
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ParentingBook.pdf
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ChildrenACEs.pdf
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ACEs Research Corner — May 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. Thank you, Harise!! -- Jane Stevens] Williams AB, Smith ER, Trujillo MA, et. al. Common health problems in safety-net primary care: Modeling the roles of trauma history and mental health. J Clin...
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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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Re: Medical Authorities with Academic Blinders look the other Way: Reject ACES
Thank you for being so concerned and so passionate. As an advocate for good medicine and good therapy and for helping traumatized kids, I recognize some of your concerns, but others, in my experience, are not as significant as you think. (1) There is a lot of family violence, We have to do everything we can to prevent it and to treat its effects. (2) CYW is definitely not the government, Dr. BH may be part of government now but I see that as a great success in changing public policy to deal...
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Re: Medical Authorities with Academic Blinders look the other Way: Reject ACES
Is it Social Justice to take disadvantaged kids (or any kids) and to collect their Name, DOB, Medicaid Number and a Billing Code representing 4 or more ACES or Less than 4 ACES and send that information to the state? Can you tell me Jeff please; is that your idea of Social Justice? It is not my idea of Social Justice and all I have seen from the California community is getting a score - nothing about how to talk to parents about the score or anything.... Just GET THAT SCORE DOCTOR. This does...
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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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Re: ACEs screening is about building relationships, says early adopter
I have been thinking a lot about the current lively conversation. We have now known about the problem of the endemic of child abuse and neglect with the resulting traumatic stress contributing to mental and physical disease for a generation, but medicine has not yet dealt with it adequately. Taking a broad view I see we are having an enthusiastic dialogue among 3 groups of clinicians about how to deal with this problem and the 4th group. The fourth group is by far the largest - maybe 80 % of...
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ACEs Research Corner — July 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 will post the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs. Thank you, Harise!! — Jane Stevens] Heim CM, Entringer S, Buss C. Translating basic research knowledge on the biological embedding of early-life stress into novel approaches for the developmental...
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Behavioral Health Telehealth Funding Opportunity
Providers, do you need more laptops, desktops, software licenses, webcams, cell phones, or PPE for your telehealth outreach? If so, check out this request for applications (PDF) from the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). The state is using federal grant funding to help organizations develop, enhance and/or expand their facility’s telehealth infrastructure to address the needs of safety net patients with substance use disorder and/or mental health disorders. The deadline...
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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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Why the dean of early childhood experts wants to get beyond the brain [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
By Ryan White, Center for Health Journalism, July 23, 2020 Harvard’s Jack Shonkoff, a luminary in the field of early childhood, has spent years showing that events in the earliest years of life have profound implications for how budding brains develop, and in turn, shape a child’s later potential at school and work. Now, Shonkoff says it’s time to connect the brain to the rest of the body. “The message now is to say that there is a revolution going on in molecular biology and genomics and 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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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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'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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New Grant Opportunity/Request for Applications — Virtual Care Innovation Network
The Virtual Care Innovation Network aims to bring together safety net organizations across nine states to redesign care so that virtual care models continue after the COVID-19 pandemic abates and beyond. The program will enable participants to learn from peers and experts, test new approaches, accelerate the work they have already started, and develop ways to sustain virtual care as an essential component for how care is delivered into the future. Check out the application to learn more...
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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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New California preventive mental health coverage puts ACEs science front and center
A mother, frantic with worry, brought her newborn in for a checkup at the pediatric clinic at San Francisco General Hospital. But there wasn’t anything wrong with the baby. And over the next several months, no amount of reassurance could convince the mom that her child was eating, sleeping and growing just fine. If anything, the mother’s worry led to behavior that raised alarm bells for her health care providers. Dr. Kate Margolis “[The family] wasn’t returning calls from the provider, and...
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New nonprofit breast milk bank launches in San Diego (sandiegouniontribune.com)
San Diego — Every year, about 260 of the tiniest premature babies in California hospitals develop an often-fatal bowel disease known as necrotizing enterocolitis, or NEC. Nobody knows what causes NEC, but a common factor in many cases is the use of formula to feed these very low-birth-weight babies because the mother’s breast milk is not available. Replacing that formula with pasteurized breast milk in every California hospital newborn intensive care unit could be a positive step in reducing...
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From Wildfires to Childhood Trauma, a Resilience Cooperative Transformed the Way Clinics Face the Unthinkable
What helped Sonoma health center staffers navigate one catastrophe after another was what they had learned about trauma in the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative.
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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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Berger, Dalton & Miller: How Much More Data Do We Need? Making the Case for Investing in Our Children
Child maltreatment is well recognized as one of the most significant contributors to pediatric morbidity and mortality throughout the world. 1 , 2 The effect of child maltreatment on morbidity and mortality in older adults has been documented for >20 years as demonstrated by the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study. 3 The impact of maltreatment on teenage suicide and other mental health diagnoses is also well known. 4 , 5 To date, however, a direct relationship between maltreatment...
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COVID-19 cases, new syndrome on the rise among children, especially Latino children (calmatters.org)
“We are at a critical time because the overall number of cases of COVID are increasing so much,” said Dr. Jackie Szmuszkovicz, pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “We are seeing more children with MIS-C the last few weeks following that big increase (of cases) in the community.” MIS-C , or Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, is the name of a new inflammatory syndrome that afflicts a small number of kids three to six weeks after they experienced coronavirus,...
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Research article on ACEs and immune cell gene expression in children
Sharing our recent publication of pilot data on ACEs (assessed using the Whole Child Assessment) and immune cell gene expression in children age 5-11 years old
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The Voices Of Youth Locked In San Francisco's Soon-To-Be-Shuttered Juvenile Hall
By Taylor Walker, WitnessLA, February 22, 2021 On Tuesday, June 4, 2019, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted in favor of legislation to shutter the local juvenile hall by December 2021. The ordinance, which SF supes authored in partnership with the Young Women’s Freedom Center (YWFC), made SF the first major urban jurisdiction to choose to abolish juvenile incarceration. The city-county’s lone 150-bed youth lockup is already so close to empty — on August 15, 2020, there were 13...
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Protective Factors & ACEs: Meeting Families with Hope and Healing
Please join us for an interactive, virtual session to learn about the Five Protective Factors Framework and how to leverage a healing approach in the context of screening for Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs). REGISTER TODAY! *CME Credit Available SUMMARY This session will build the capacity of providers serving families with young children (physicians, behavioral health clinicians, social workers, case managers) to approach family interactions with a protective factors framework. As...
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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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Re: Research article on ACEs and immune cell gene expression in children
Thank you for sharing