January 2021

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 Tuesday to declare “racism a public health crisis,” passing policies to combat racism locally and create equitable response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Chair Nathan Fletcher and Vice Chair Nora Vargas introduced the resolution to address systemic racism last week. "In declaring racism as a public health crisis, we are acknowledging that racism underpins the health inequities throughout the region," said Fletcher. According to the supervisors,...

A national, ongoing survey explores deep-rooted views of those with low and middle incomes, with a focus on people of color, on health, equity and race. COVID-19 has upended the lives of people living in the United States, but some groups are facing more challenges than others. This ongoing survey from RAND Corporation attempts to understand the views and values of those who are most at risk to the adverse impacts of COVID-19 by surveying people with lower and middle incomes with a focus on...

(l to r) Elizabeth Smith and Peacetown board of directors: David, Amitiel, Jim aka Mr. Music, and Jasmine. Only eight years ago, Elizabeth Smith was experiencing severe chronic stress. Raising a young son on her own, she was employed as a technician at a county hospital in Northern California that had downsized staff and increased her workload , as well that of other staff. She was helping to raise the morale of her fellow workers and served as a liaison between staff and the administration,...

With the stressors that have mounted in the United States over the last year, the course, " Your Healing Narrative: Write-to-Heal with Neural Re-Narrating ", offered an oasis in the storm. I was fortunate to get a sneak peek last month, and think it's the bees' knees for what ails us, which is STRESS, STRESS, STRESS. Those of us in the ACEs community understand that our childhood trauma can magnify stress and/or reveal stressors that we've never thought about until they spring out of our...

Introducing 2 brand new virtual learning opportunities: Identifying and Dismantling Stigma in Recovery Services and Leading with Lived Experience: Building Capacity for Peer-run & Recovery Community Organizations ! Want to begin developing anti-stigma initiatives tailored to your organization and community? Are you part of a peer-run or recovery community organization looking for support in leading with the wisdom and strength of your own recovery experience and values? Join our amazing...

January is Positive Parenting Awareness Month!

An interactive tool, the Scorecard delivers data on how kids are doing in each of California’s 58 counties, and across the state. The Scorecard tracks 39 indicators of children’s well-being – over time, by race/ethnicity and relative to other counties – from prenatal to the transition to adulthood. The tool measures each indicator on a 0-100% scale, with 100% being the ideal rating, providing an accessible snapshot of children’s well-being. Each page, which features a single indicator, also...

Greetings Community Members! Here is this month’s recording: https://baymark.zoom.us/rec/share/L4kIHCu1ATCH-X0YHP83oFvcVVMESpKMsntDDIpCN-D0HvdbkdXDdFKrmyGe-mgW.zT-SvOIZKS8431dn I am looking forward to seeing you next month on the second Tuesday at 3:00pm! In health and fitness, Severine Hollingsworth

By Adele Peters, Fast Company, January 6, 2021 Bakersfield, California, struggled with extreme poverty and homelessness long before the pandemic, and when COVID hit, the challenges in fighting those issues only grew. But in 2020, the city and surrounding county still managed to achieve a goal that few other communities have: It reached “functional zero” for chronic homelessness, meaning that long-lasting and recurring homelessness were essentially eliminated. The city and county are part of...

By Jeremy Loudenback, The Imprint, January 7, 2021 For Pari Lucero , the path to escaping addiction and domestic violence started in a dependency courtroom three days after she gave birth to her daughter Beth. Wearing a new dress, she listened with dread that day in 2006, as a lawyer for Los Angeles County pushed to remove her children after she tested positive for drugs at the hospital. When the judge agreed, a dazed Lucero watched as three of her children — including her newborn — were...

SAVE THE DATE - JANUARY 2021 WEBINAR "ACEs Aware Network of Care " Wednesday, January 27, 2021 Noon – 1 p.m. Register for the Webinar This webinar will include a discussion and concrete example of a trauma-informed network of care , a group of interdisciplinary health, education, and human service professionals, community members, and organizations that support adults, children, and families by providing access to evidence-based “buffering” resources and supports that help to prevent, treat,...

By Mary Chris Jaklevic, JAMA, January 13, 2021 D aniel Hao, MD, wasn’t emotionally prepared for the crush of severely ill patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who came under his care in March 2020. Many were young, sedated, and dying alone. Sometimes while FaceTiming with their families, Hao saw very young children on the screen. “It was frightening,” Hao, an anesthesia resident at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said in an interview. “A lot of the things that we...