Tagged With "children"
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Children to be Screened for Toxic Stress, Trauma Under new State Initiative [bakersfield.com]
By Stacey Shepard, Bakersfield.com, January 11, 2020 Children in Kern County and throughout California may be screened for childhood trauma and toxic stress during routine pediatrician visits starting this year. The screenings are part of a new state initiative to identify adverse childhood experiences, known as ACEs, which a growing body of research shows can significantly increase the risk of poor health outcomes later in life, ranging from suicide, alcohol addiction, depression and drug...
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Clinical Guidelines for COVID-19 Response [healsanfrancisco.org]
From Heal SF, April 2020 (See attached file for guidelines.) On behalf of Mayor Breed, Our Children Our Families Council, and all those most impacted by our COVID 19 response, I’d like to take a moment to thank you for your time, expertise, commitment and passion that you brought to the Heal SF Clinical Advisory Body. Without your gracious contributions, we would not have guidelines to support our first responders and those most impacted by this unprecedented circumstance. The guidelines...
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California takes a step toward banning spanking!
The California Democratic Committee pass resolution to ban spanking this August, 2019! Ending Physical/Corporal Punishment of Children RESOLUTION NUMBER 19-05.112 WHEREAS there is overwhelming evidence that spanking is harmful to children and families as it increases aggression and violence long term, impacts normal brain development, and is ineffective in teaching responsibility and self-control, and the rationale for spanking is the same that was accepted for men hitting women in recent...
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California Teachers Build a 'Nest' For Migrant Kids at the Border [kqed.org]
By Sasha Khokha, KQED, October 25, 2019 Classical music plays, silk curtains blow in the wind and comfy couches offer a place to curl up with a book. There are wooden toys, colorful magnetic blocks, and crayons organized by color in glass jars. Children use light projectors to make patterns and shapes on the walls. It may sound like a high-end early childhood education center in California, but this is Tijuana. The students and their parents have fled violence in Central America, or other...
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Calling all trauma nerds!
If you are on this site. you are probably familiar with ACES, the triune brain, and the resiliency zone. Are you ready to learn more? Come to Echo's one-day training Working with Childhood Trauma II to gain a more advanced understanding of the biology and psychology of childhood trauma - everything from how trauma impacts brain waves to microbiology, from a newly discovered stress hormone to the factors that lead to post-traumatic growth. Don't let your knowledge stagnate. In this...
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Center to Help Child Abuse Victims Coming to Downtown Redding [redding.com]
By David Benda, Record Searchlight, December 12, 2019 Plans for a center that will partner with six Shasta County agencies to help child abuse victims was unveiled Thursday morning in downtown Redding. The Children's Legacy Center will occupy a former real estate office on Shasta Street just as motorists come into downtown off Highway 44. Executive Director Kimberly Johnson said the goal is to have the center open by spring. [ Please click here to read more .]
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Handling Your Child’s Challenging Behaviors at Every Age: New Parenting Guide from Yolo Child Abuse Prevention Council/Yolo County Children's Alliance
The Yolo County Child Abuse Prevention Council (CAPC) and Yolo County Children’s Alliance (YCCA) are excited to share our new parenting guide: Handling Your Child’s Challenging Behaviors at Every Age. This resource for parents and caregivers provides positive discipline tips and resources to handle challenging behaviors in babies, toddlers, preschoolers, school-age children, and teenagers. Each age group page has: tips on how parents can connect with their child, some common challenging...
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Health care for 7 in 10 CA children funded by Medicaid or CHIP
Proposed cuts and changes to public health insurance programs would have a disproportionate effect on California kids compared with kids in the nation as a whole.
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Helping Children in Emergencies: Keep Your Child’s Developmental Stage and Temperament in Mind
By Karissa Luckett, RN, BSN, MSW Common reactions to stress will fade over time for most children. Let’s be honest: Your exploring, tactile toddler won’t suddenly start keeping their hands to themselves. Your continually forgetful preschooler won’t suddenly start hand-washing properly just because you’ve told them it’s important. Depending on their ages, stages and temperaments, some children will require more reassurance or more time to shift than others. This situation is unique, and so is...
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Hollister Resident Builds Beds for Children Without [benitolink.com]
By Carmel de Bertaut, Benito Link, December 26, 2019 After retiring as a detective with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, Hollister resident Steve Austin wanted to do something in service to others. He found that something while watching a segment of the “Today” show earlier this year. On the show, he saw Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs speak about the nonprofit Sleep in Heavenly Peace based in Twin Falls, Idaho. Rowe explained how the organization makes beds for underprivileged children who...
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How California's stay-at-home order disrupts services for young children [edsource.org]
By Zaidee Stavely, EdSource, April 23, 2020 The stay-at-home order has upended some of California’s most crucial educational and health services for infants and toddlers — home visits and early intervention services — at a time when families may need them the most. Home visiting programs send nurses, social workers and other trained professionals to the homes of low-income parents to give health and early education advice. They also help children meet milestones, like crawling, picking up...
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How COVID-19 Impacts Children’s Mental Health
Mental health among children and youth is already a concern. In 2018, there were 41,087 hospital discharges for mental health issues among California youth ages 5-19, a 38% increase in the last decade . With the emergence of COVID-19, children with existing mental health issues must endure the added burden of a pandemic. Children often rely on schools to provide mental health services, but school closures have made it difficult to access and preserve the quality of these services. Historical...
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How is California Supporting Kids
From The Children's Movement of California, February 2020 Join Children Now for a webinar about how you can use the 2020 California Children's Report Card to support kids in your community. The Report Card grades California on its ability to support better outcomes for kids, from prenatal to age 26. Each grade is based on the state’s progress (or lack thereof) on passing and implementing state-level policies and making investments in the supports and services needed for all kids to reach...
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How to Keep Children's Stress From Turning Into Trauma [nytimes.com]
By Stacy Steinberg, The New York Times, May 7, 2020 Children may be processing the disruptions in their lives right now in ways the adults around them do not expect: acting out, regressing, retreating or even seeming surprisingly content. Parents need to know that all of this is normal, experts say, and there are some things we can do to help. “Our natural response to scary things is biologically to release stress hormones,” said Dr. Nadine Burke Harris , a pediatrician and surgeon general...
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In rural California, children face isolation, hunger amid coronavirus school closures [latimes.com]
By Hailey Branson-Potts, Los Angeles Times, April 22, 2020 With schools closed because of the coronavirus, educators in vast stretches of rural California are struggling not only to teach their students but to reach them. From the mountain hamlets of Northern California to the farming communities of the Central Valley to the desert towns near the U.S.-Mexico border, small schools are grappling with how to serve far-flung, impoverished students with less access to at-home internet, spotty...
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Re: NEW BRIEF! Screening for Trauma Birth to 5
The attached article may fit in somewhere here. Please feel free tp pass it on.
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Re: NEW BRIEF! Screening for Trauma Birth to 5
Excellent brief which raises important issues! The document referred to below about screening young children for trauma is an excellent one. Please read if you can! The references that follow the document are great, too. The document asks California to step up to implement trauma-screening policies for our youngest children. Such policies can alleviate physical and mental health illnesses and help to prevent future trauma. We should consider how to implement resilience against trauma in our...
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Re: Helping Children in Emergencies: Keep Your Child’s Developmental Stage and Temperament in Mind
Jim, thanks for posting this nice article, and helping remind us that our first job as adults is to help children feel and be safe.
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Re: 5 Things to Know as California Starts Screening Children for Toxic Stress [californiahealthline.org]
And, after asking about these experiences, the asker (physician, screener, etc.) should be ready to refer the child to a skilled trauma therapist.
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Re: Action Alert! Campaign for restorative discipline in schools deadline TOMORROW!
Thank you for letting us know, Gail. I've signed, tweeted and shared on FB. ~Lisa
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Re: Action Alert! Campaign for restorative discipline in schools deadline TOMORROW!
Awesome, thank you so much!
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Re: Simple & Fun Yoga Lesson Plan
Jessie - thank you for sharing this! I re-posted it to the ACEs in Education , Practicing Resilience and ACEs and Child Care communities to share there as well. This can be used in many settings!
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Re: Simple & Fun Yoga Lesson Plan
Jessie - Your ideas are inspiring and so timely! As I read your description and overview this plan seems so do-able. I am wondering if you see any behavioral changes in the students following the yoga session(s)? I am also wondering if you may be aware of any preschool curriculum that has incorporated mindful practices such as yoga? This seems like such a great idea - I just wonder how mainstream these practices may be. Your work is inspiring! Please keep writing and sharing!! Karen
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Re: Preventing Violence in Our Homes [preventioninstitute.org]
Unfortunately this was posted after the webinar.... it was on the 14th.... do you know if there is a recording avail.? Julie Hatzell Trauma Specialist/Educator Domestic Violence Advocate Plumas Rural Services 711 Main Street Quincy, CA 95971 530 927-5873 On Thu, Apr 23, 2020 at 5:09 PM ACEsConnection < communitymanager@acesconnection.com> wrote:
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Re: Preventing Violence in Our Homes [preventioninstitute.org]
HI Julie- Thanks for pointing that out! Here is the link to the recording: http://www.preventconnect.org/...on-care-and-justice/
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Re: How to Keep Children's Stress From Turning Into Trauma [nytimes.com]
Yes! This is necessary information right now. Thank you
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Re: How to Keep Children's Stress From Turning Into Trauma [nytimes.com]
I really wish you would put some kind of warning or stop sharing articles that need a subscription. I get interested in an article, click to see the rest of it and I can't because I don't have a subscription to the New York Times or SF Chronicle. It wastes my time. Julie Hatzell Trauma Specialist/Educator Domestic Violence Advocate Plumas Rural Services 711 Main Street Quincy, CA 95971 530 927-5873 On Fri, May 8, 2020 at 8:16 AM ACEsConnection < communitymanager@acesconnection.com> wrote:
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Re: How to Keep Children's Stress From Turning Into Trauma [nytimes.com]
Hi, Julie: Since the NYTimes allows five free articles a month (in addition to the free COVID-19 coverage), it's impossible to know where any one person is in their monthly free article allocation. And every publication is different. It is beyond our capacity to track that. Our aim is to provide enough information in the headline and summary so that if the article is important to you, that at least you're notified of it and may be able to find a way to obtain it. All best, Jane
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Re: 5 Things to Know as California Starts Screening Children for Toxic Stress [californiahealthline.org]
As always, Dr. Finkelfor says things others might be too afraid to say: Here he points out that although it's a good thing to recognize the impact of adversities on child wellbeing, we are moving too fast and don't yet know what best practices are. He cautions that this could have "disastrous consequences.” It flies in the face of trauma informed care to possibly add injury to those already burdened with adversity.
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Re: 5 Things to Know as California Starts Screening Children for Toxic Stress [californiahealthline.org]
I am new to this community. I completely understand the worry for this overloading the current system. We are beginning a full fledged systems change for medical care, because the research demands that we pay attention to what we now know about ACEs, serious health risks and an attack on resiliency. We need everyone to be versed in trauma and resilience language and actions. My passion is in understanding and maximizing resiliency across the lifespan. I think Dr. Finkelfor is right, there...
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Re: California has Begun Screening for Early Childhood Trauma, But Critics Urge Caution [sciencemag.org]
Screenings alone won't prevent adverse childhood experiences. Physical, sexual, verbal, and psychological child abuse as well as a host of other parenting behaviors and practices generally recognized as not supporting and/or disrupting the healthy development of children are such a serious problem that the solution requires a public health approach that employs primary prevention...something Vincent Felitti, co-author of the ACE Study, has repeatedly called for.
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Re: California takes a step toward banning spanking!
Get ready for the parental rights argument, "don't tell me how to raise my kids, I was spanked and I turned out all right.." A spanking is not the same as being beaten with a belt, a tree branch or other objects. Then there's the misinterpretation of the Biblical proverb 13:24 about sparing the rod. The message that has to get out is simple: discipline is teaching, and even animal trainers don't hit their animals, they connect, establish trust, guide, praise and reward with love. Through...
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Hannah Sherfinski: Breaking the silence: Identifying youth in need through trauma screening [madison.com]
By Hannah Sherfinski, The Cap Times, June 1, 2020 For two months, our country has been enduring the effects of COVID-19. With over 1 million COVID-19 cases reported in the U.S. and over 30 million Americans filing for unemployment, many of us are panic-stricken about our future physical, mental, social and financial well-being. Worst of all, we must cope with these fears in isolation. These intense feelings of uncertainty and desolation may trigger the body’s instinctual fight, flight or...
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Opinion: More Than Ever, We Must Prioritize the Mental Health and Well-being of Children [stanfordchildrens.org]
By Rachel Velcoff and Steven Adelsheim, Stanford Children's Health, June 8, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the lives of families across the country and left many adults feeling stressed, anxious, and struggling to cope. It has also put the mental health of our youngest and most vulnerable at risk. Now, three months into the pandemic, youth are experiencing further stress and trauma, as our country grapples with another profound crisis: the murder of George Floyd and the...
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Opinion: We Need a Safety Net for Children Experiencing Toxic Stress [calhealthreport.org]
By Jim Hickman, California Health Report, June 8, 2020 We need to invest in the safety-net institutions that serve and support our most vulnerable now and during times of crisis. COVID-19 is decimating our fragile, unfunded and outdated safety net, and the vital links between families and their local economic, health and social supports. The pandemic has made “underlying conditions” the new code phrase for the social and health inequities disproportionately impacting black and brown...
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COVID-19 and Demands for Racial Justice Underscore the Urgent Need to Advance CalAIM's Children's Behavioral Health Reform Effort [cachildrenstrust.org]
By California Children's Trust and California Alliance, June 2020 Our nation is experiencing the rage, grief, fear, and uncertainty of the compounding crises of a global pandemic, economic recession, and response to deeply rooted racial injustice in this country, all of which creates trauma for youth and demands leadership and swift action to strengthen the systems foundational to their healing. While the public narrative has painted COVID-19 as a shared common trauma, the reality is that...
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Resources to Support Children's Emotional Well-Being Amid Anti-Black Racism, Racial Violence and Trauma [childtrends.org]
By Dominique Parris, Victor St. John, Jessica Dym Bartlett, Child Trends, June 23, 2020 Most Black children in the United States encounter racism in their daily lives. Ongoing individual and collective psychological or physical injuries due to exposure and re-exposure to race-based adversity, discrimination, and stress, referred to as racial trauma , is harmful to children’s development and well-being. Events that may cause racial trauma include threats of harm and injury, hate speech,...
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How a Pandemic Could Advance the Science of Early Adversity [jamanetwork.com]
By Danielle Roubinov, Nicole R. Bush, and W. Thomas Boyce, JAMA Pediatrics, July 27, 2020 The reach of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is global, a health crisis with a ubiquity never before experienced. While the physical health consequences of COVID-19 appear to affect proportionally fewer children compared with adults, its psychosocial consequences may be magnified within families who consistently weather a landscape of severe stressors or adverse childhood experiences...
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2020 Census Update – We’re Making Progress, but Our Work is Not Done! [childrennow.org]
WE HAVE THREE MONTHS LEFT: LET’S ENSURE EVERYONE IS COUNTED! Since our last 2020 Census update, there have been some new developments we are pleased to share. In April, our California Census response rate was 54 percent, and as of July 27th, 2020 , it is 63.9% . That is a nearly 10-percent increase during a once-in-a-century pandemic – which is amazing progress! Let’s keep the momentum going and increase the self-response numbers through October 31, 2020. The California Complete Count –...
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How the Pandemic Can Teach Kids About Compassion [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
By Maryam Abdullah, Greater Good Magazine, June 29, 2020 As a homebound parent with a preschooler, I’ve felt an array of emotions over the past few months during the coronavirus pandemic. I’ve felt sadness and worry about how many people are becoming ill, while being confounded by trying to juggle homeschooling and my own work responsibilities. But I’ve also felt a great deal of gratitude for the kindnesses that have punctuated so many of my days lately, like when a neighbor left herbs from...
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Children will pay long-term stress-related costs of COVID-19 unless we follow the science [statnews.com]
By Nadine Burke Harris, STAT, August 4, 2020 The world is learning more about the uncommon but puzzling ways Covid-19 can show up in kids, keeping worried parents on the lookout for symptoms of the disease. We should also be concerned about how toxic stress brought on by the pandemic, or made worse by it, will affect children’s developing brains and bodies and their future health. In millions of households, kids are experiencing an incredible amount of stress and anxiety. They’ve lost the...
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Hospital Injury Encounters of Children Identified by a Predictive Risk Model for Screening Child Maltreatment Referrals [jamanetwork.com]
By Rhema Vaithianathan, Emily Putnam-Hornstein, Alexandra Chouldechove, et al., JAMA Pediatrics, August 3, 2020 Key Points Question Do children reported as having experienced alleged maltreatment and classified by a predictive risk model to be at high risk of foster care placement show an increased risk of emergency department and inpatient hospitalizations for injuries? Findings In this cohort study, children who scored in the highest 5% risk group by the predictive risk model were more...
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Re: How the Pandemic Can Teach Kids About Compassion [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
Link to full article may be broken (at least I keep trying but can't open) so sharing the source. https://greatergood.berkeley.e...stressful%20moments. Thank you for making us aware of this article.
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Less stress, better grades: With schools closed, some kids thrive [latimes.com]
By Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, July 29, 2020 Those annoying puffy spots under the eyes of eighth-grader Natalie Alvarez began to disappear, followed by the 10 a.m. hunger bouts and the midafternoon yawns — much to the Carson girl’s delight and surprise. At first, Natalie, 14, had resisted the distance learning thrust upon her when schools closed amid the coronavirus emergency. “I was worried about the distractions of being home with my mom and my sister and doing extra chores,”...
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Childhood Maltreatment and Suicidality [jamanetwork.com]
By Brett Burstein and Brian Greenfield, JAMA Network Open, August 5, 2020 In JAMA Network Open, Angelakis et al have conducted an important exploration of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their association with suicide in the pediatric age group. The authors have undertaken a meta-analysis to quantify the association between ACEs and suicide ideation, attempts, and plans, offering odds ratios (ORs) to elucidate the relative contribution of several core ACEs to eventual suicidal...
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Parenting for Resilience by Kristin Beasley, PhD
Resilience, the ability to overcome adversity, is not an innate skill or genetic trait. Resilience is the ability to recover after adversity strike. None of us escape trauma, at some point in our lives, we will each face at least one overwhelming events that test our capacity to recover. Resilience is a quality that is develops from experiences where a person, even a baby, must deal with manageable stress and is supported enough to recover. It’s not a quality that you are born with, or...
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Looking for a supportive community? Join us! (Fee Free)
The Community of Practice (C of P) is an interdisciplinary, online platform for adults who are important to children. Among other topics, we explore how systems, environments, and documentation shape early childhood learning and wellness. We grow our ability to be curious about children's full-being, inherent wisdom by being curious about our own ways of knowing and inquiring. We are peer accompaniment with each other - support for the supporters of children, families, and communities. Join...
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An Essential Report to Help Children’s Mental Health Advocates Claim the Medi-Cal Entitlement
Dear Friends and Allies On behalf of the millions of California’s children entitled to mental health support and services, we are pleased to share this groundbreaking report: “ Meeting the Moment: Improving EPSDT Implementation in California to Address Growing Mental Health Needs .” READ THE REPORT Envisioned by the California Children’s Trust (CCT), and written by the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) and the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), the report offers advocates and...
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CCT maps out 2021 -- Hope and Healing on the Horizon
Dear Friends and Allies, As we emerge from a year of crisis and despair, we are lifted by the hope of a new administration and the growing state and national consensus that we must respond at scale to the social and emotional challenges facing children. Challenges clearly driven by structural racism, the stabilization of poverty, and a culture that equates wealth with value, and fame with merit. CCT and our allies are doubling down on our commitment to reimagine children’s mental health as a...
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The Path Forward for Telemental Health + Join Our Upcoming Webinars
NO GOING BACK: Providing Telemental Health Services to California Children and Youth After the Pandemic, is the first in a series of briefs outlining how technology can make mental health more accessible with concrete recommendations based on providers’ perspectives, and lessons learned during the pandemic. Read the Report When the shelter-in-place mandate started, California’s mental and behavioral health providers quickly pivoted to telehealth delivery for children and adolescents. Recent...