Tagged With "systemic racism"
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May 22nd as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Resilience Awareness Day by Sacramento County Board of Supervisors
In preparation for the proclamation being presented today at the Sacramento Board of Supervisors meeting May 21st at 9:30 AM, I sent the attached news release to the Sacramento Bee and Capital Radio. Please feel free to share with the community. Dear....... I wanted to let you know about an important event that is coming up next week and see if you could help me spread the word. On May 21st Supervisor Patrick Kennedy and the Sacramento Board of Supervisors are going to declare May 22nd as A...
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Medi-Cal Healthier California for All [cachildrenstrust.org]
By Alex Briscoe, California Children's Trust, January 23, 2020 Since mid 2018, with your guidance and support, we have raised awareness and achieved a consensus about the need to address the escalating youth mental health crisis in California. In over 100 presentations across the state, we have made clear our position that solutions to this crisis must be centered on equity and justice and a reimagining of how we fund, define, deliver, and measure the social and emotional health of children...
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Learning How to Convince Leaders to Create Trauma-Informed Programs, Systems and Environments.
How do you build a narrative around ACEs science, bolster it with data and convince your leadership that integrating it is critical for the community you serve? Representatives from San Francisco Bay Area health and social service agencies had an opportunity on December 5 to learn about ACEs science, find data sets to help them make a case for supporting ACEs education and resiliency programs, and then role play ways to deliver powerful messages. Donielle Prince, ACEs Connection Network’s...
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Millions Unclaimed: Behind California's Troubled Mental Health Care Funding System [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Claudia Boyd-Barrett, The Chronicle of Social Change, October 9, 2019 Alex Briscoe didn’t know much about how local governments pay for mental health care when he joined Alameda County’s Health Care Services Agency in 2004. But he knew there was a problem. Briscoe had come from a job at Children’s Hospital Oakland where he saw kids routinely turn up in the emergency room in serious psychological distress. These children had nowhere else to go. There was no support system to help kids...
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Moving Equity to the Center - Part 2 (How I was inspired)
This past Friday, December 6, I attended the "Moving Equity to the Center - Part 2" forum in Fresno, CA. The morning began with the usual networking and acquiring of refreshments. The conversations were enlightening and engaging. I was able to meet several individuals who work in the Fresno community, and provided valuable insight to how issues are being confronted and addressed in Fresno County. Once, we sat down we were addressed by Linda Gleason the founding Director of The Children's...
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New organization calls all pediatricians to end crisis that's "hiding in plain sight"
When the question of screening patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) was first raised a couple of years ago, Santa Barbara pediatrician Andria Ruth had mixed feelings about it.
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New Resources from the Mycelium Youth Network [myceliumyouthnetwork.org]
By Mycelium Youth Network, May 2020 Mycelium Youth Network prepares youth in the Bay Area -- who are most vulnerable to and already feeling the effects of environmental racism -- for climate change. We use a merger of indigenous environmental traditions that emphasize youth environmental stewardship and relationship building alongside a rigorous STEAM curriculum that focuses on practical hands-on skills for climate resilience and mitigation that youth create and implement in their homes and...
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Next "A Better Normal" community discussion series: April 2, 2020/ Secondary Traumatic Stress and Caregivers
Our next COVID-19 "Better Normal" community discussion is Thursday, April 2, with Vic Compher and Rodney Whittenberg, producers of CAREGIVERS (Portraits of Professional CAREgivers: Their Passion, Their Pain). These wonderful folks are bringing an entire team of people from the secondary traumatic stress committees from the Philadelphia ACE Task Force (PATF).
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Next "A Better Normal" community discussion series: April 3, 2020/ Maternal health and pediatrics in the time of COVID-19
Steve Sack • Star Tribune The "Better Normal" community discussion for Friday, April 3, 2020, features two wonderful staff members from ACEs Connection: Karen Clemmer, community facilitator for the Northwest, Far Northern California, Alaska and Hawaii; and reporter Laurie Udesky, who is also community manager for the ACEs in Pediatrics community on ACEsConnection.com. Karen Clemmer Join them at noon PT/ 1 pm MT/ 2 pm CT/ 3 pm ET and share your thoughts, ideas, questions, concerns, and...
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Next "A Better Normal" community discussion series: May 5, 7 and 8, 2020
"COVID-19 hits countries with preexisting conditions harder...USA — Inequality, callousness, racism, selfishness, profit over people." John Darkow, Missourian Tuesday, May 5, 2020 — Family ACEs (aka domestic violence) This pandemic gives us an opportunity to shift the focus from the traditional narrative of a violent man, a woman victim, and an abused child to…something else that looks at the family as a whole, at interventions that are inclusive, that are gentle, that nurture and heal, and...
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One year after release of PI framework, communities use it to address community trauma, promote resilience (PreventionInstitute.org)
In San Diego, a group is using the ACE|R framework as part of PI’s Making Connections for Mental Health and Wellbeing among Men and Boys initiative , funded by the Movember Foundation. Jama Mohamed, Program Coordinator for the San Diego initiative, describes how community environments can produce and exacerbate trauma among refugees: “When you look at a community that has actually experienced trauma, and you put them in an environment like this, it’s not for us to question their behaviors,”...
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Opinion: All Doctors Should Practice Trauma-Informed Care [calhealthreport.org]
By Bob Erlenbusch and Drew Factor, California Health Report, November 21, 2019 “Adverse childhood experiences are the single greatest unaddressed public health threat facing our nation today,” Dr. Robert Block, former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has been widely quoted as saying. According to the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, conducted in the 1990’s by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and Kaiser Permanente, adverse childhood experiences are common,...
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Personal stories from witnesses, U.S. representatives provided an emotional wallop to House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on childhood trauma
Room erupts in applause for the grandmother of witness William Kellibrew during July 11 House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing. The power of personal stories from witnesses and committee members fueled the July 11 hearing on childhood trauma in the House Oversight and Reform Committee* throughout the nearly four hours of often emotional and searing testimony and member questions and statements (Click here for 3:47 hour video). The hearing was organized into a two panels—testimony from...
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Program offers hundreds of young men, boys safe space to heal from ACEs
Dennis McCollins recounts some of the experiences that caused him to harden against the world as a teenager. “There were times I went to more funerals than birthdays,” says McCollins, who is the clinical director of the School Based Health Center at Greenwood Academy in Richmond, Calif. And it took its toll: “I spent time homeless. I got expelled [from school]. I was so angry and upset and mad,” he says. Dennis McCollins Then a man that he met when he was sent to Job Corps as a teen turned...
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Racism as Trauma: Clinical Perspectives from Social Work and Psychology
Last Friday, February 26, 800 people filled the Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center in the beautiful Twin Peaks area of San Francisco. They were there for a Black History Month event coordinated by the San Francisco Health Network. The event featured presentations from two outstanding clinicians: Dr. Joy DeGruy, researcher, educator, and author of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome : America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing; and Dr. Ken Hardy, professor at Drexel University...
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Registration Open - 2019 Families and Fathers Conference Early Rate and Hotel Discount Closing
In 48 days, we open our 20th convening of a powerful conference focused on strengthening families, improving outcomes for children, and strategies to engage families: the 20th Annual Families and Fathers Conference hosted by Fathers and Families Coalition of America. Sponsorships allow the extended early rate for an exceptional experience in Los Angeles, California, from March 4th (pre-conference institute credential) through the main conference dates of March 5th - 7th. Please share this...
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Report reveals how foster care, juvenile and adult justice systems traumatize youth, calls for policy shifts
YWFC sponsored Sister Warriors meeting When she was 15 years old, Lucero Herrera was put in a rehab program by San Francisco’s Juvenile Court because she was getting drunk regularly. And in doing so, the court failed to explore the root of her drinking. Had they done so, she said, they would have found that anger and trauma were lurking underneath, driven by her ACEs: adverse childhood experiences. Lucero Herrera "Why did they put me in a drug program when I had an anger problem? I went...
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Child Trauma Advocates Grapple with Historical Trauma (socialjusticesolutions.org)
In recent years, the idea of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has gained traction in child-serving organizations as a way to understand behavioral issues and poor health outcomes faced by children with traumatic life experiences, such as abuse, neglect or household dysfunction, like having an incarcerated parent. The growth of trauma-informed services is part of a continuing push to help children overcome these experiences. But some advocates say that until communities and individuals...
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Children Now is hiring (in Sacramento)!
https://www.childrennow.org/portfolio-posts/healthpolicyassociate/ Health Policy Associate/Senior Associate (Sacramento) Children Now is a nonpartisan whole-child research, policy development, and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting children’s health, education and well‐being in California. Children Now also leads The Children’s Movement of California , a grassroots network of more than 3,000 business, education, parent, civil rights, faith, and community‐based organizations, as...
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Children with special health care needs are more likely to have adverse childhood experiences [ChildTrends.org]
Authors: Deborah Seok, David Murphey, Fadumo M. Abdi Publication Date: December 10, 2019 The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is higher among children and youth with special health care needs than among their peers without special health care needs, according to Child Trends’ analysis of data from the 2016-17 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). The survey asks parents or guardians to report whether their child has experienced any of nine ACEs. The percentage of...
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COVID-19 and Boys and Men of Color, Their Families and Communities: A Spotlight on Health Disparities [shfcenter.org]
From Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, May 11, 2020 Alliance for Boys and Men of Color in partnership with California Funders for Boys and Men of Color and Executives’ Alliance for Boys and Men of Color invite you to join a video conversation. Join advocates on the front lines and philanthropy for an in-depth look at how leaders are working to mitigate health disparities during COVID-19 and are addressing the systemic racism that has led to the harrowing inequities our communities are...
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California's 1st Surgeon General Spotlights Health Risks Of Childhood Adversity (npr.org)
In an interview last year, after her book , The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity, was published, Burke Harris told NPR's Cory Turner, "We all need to be part of the solution. If we each take ... our little piece, it's nuts how far we'll be able to go, together as a society, in terms of solving this problem. California Gov. Gavin Newsom took Burke Harris up on her challenge, appointing her the first-ever surgeon general of California. Newsom cites the toxic...
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CDC: Childhood Trauma Is A Public Health Issue And We Can Do More To Prevent It
Yesterday, NPR published the following story: CLICK HERE "Childhood trauma causes serious health repercussions throughout life and is a public health issue that calls for concerted prevention efforts. That's the takeaway of a report published Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experiencing traumatic things as a child puts you at risk for lifelong health effects, according to a body of research. The CDC's new report confirms this, finding that Americans who had...
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Changing Minds and Creating Trauma-Informed Communities Convenings - South and North
Last week, on two separate days in Los Angeles and in San Francisco, about 150 people (total) convened to listen and brainstorm about creating trauma-informed communities. Futures Without Violence, which is rolling out its Changing Minds campaign later this year, hosted both events. Some very interesting and important themes emerged from the two days: Residents with lived experiences should participate in the decision-making bodies of service providers and vested...
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Health Care System Accepting New Math: Housing = Health [chcf.org]
By Xenia Shih Bion, California Health Care Foundation, November 18, 2019 In the course of a single year, a homeless man named Steve in Phoenix, Arizona, visited the emergency room 81 times. Only 54 years old, Steve is coping with a daunting array of medical conditions: multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, heart disease, and diabetes. Because of his health and reliance on emergency rooms, his medical costs averaged about $13,000 per month that year. Thanks to an innovative housing program run...
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Heyman Oo integrates ACEs science as foundation of pediatric care
Dr. Heyman Oo, a 34-year-old primary care pediatrician, first learned about the science of adverse childhood experiences in medical school at a grand rounds held around 2012 at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, which she attended from 2009 to 2014. The presenter was none other than Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, a pediatrician who went on to become California’s first Surgeon General. The founder and former director of the Center for Youth Wellness drew millions of views for her TED talk on...
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Homelessness in Los Angeles County is a result of ‘racism in America,’ report says [dailynews.com]
In a report that treats Los Angeles’s homelessness crisis as a symptom of racism, city and county officials this week pointed to the high number of black people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles and the need to address the disparity in order to address the crisis. Black people have long been overrepresented among Los Angeles County’s homeless population. In a 2017 survey, black people made up one in 10 people in the county, but were 40 percent of the homeless population, according to...
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How collaboration helps clinic in San Mateo County, CA, tackle ACEs in children
Dr. Elizabeth Grady is a pediatrician at the South San Francisco Clinic, a community clinic of San Mateo Medical Center. She and Susana Flores , a senior public health nurse with San Mateo County Health, spoke with me about how the clinic and other health agencies in San Mateo have been able to craft ways to work together to prevent and heal toxic stress in children. Grady also talked about how she and Flores have been working with the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative (RBC), a group of...
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How do these pediatricians do ACEs screening? Early adopters tell all.
Last week, three pediatricians — with a combined experience of 15 years integrating ACEs science into their practices — reflected on the urgency they felt several years ago that prompted them to begin screening patients for childhood adversity and resilience when there was practically no guidance at all. Along their journey , they accumulated a list of lessons learned for other pediatricians and family clinics to use. The three pediatricians participated in the ACEs Connection webinar,...
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How Does Racism Affect Health? California Doctors Speak Out (calhealthreport.org)
Medical providers in California and nationwide are increasingly recognizing that racism and discrimination affect children’s health, and they’re seeking to tackle the problem. Last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued its first policy statement on how racism affects the health and development of children and teens. The academy called racism a “socially transmitted disease” with historical origins that continue to affect the circumstances children grow up in, how they’re treated...
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In ACEs Connection webinar, physicians talk trauma, offer tips for helping pediatric immigrant patients
Dr. Raul Gutierrez, a pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay Area, said he and his fellow clinicians see constant fear and its health consequences every single day among the largely immigrant and Latino population they serve. It’s all the result of anti-immigrant policies and the news cycle that feeds the fear. Dr. Raul Gutierrez “It is almost inescapable with the repercussions of immigration policy on the radio, television, social media and from friends and family,” Gutierrez told the 69...
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ITRC 2018 California Conference: Preparing People for Climate Change in California
To See the Conference Agenda, List of All-Star Speakers, and To Register Click Here Why Should Californians Attend This Unique Conference ? From high levels of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), to job and financial struggles, racism and other forms of inequity and injustice, traumatic stress is epidemic today. Climate change will aggravate all of these existing adversities, and add many new ones as well. Yet, California is leading the U.S. in finding innovative new ways to address...
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ITRC 2018 California Conference: Preparing People for Climate Change in California
To See the Conference Agenda, List of All-Star Speakers, and To Register Click Here Why Should Californians Attend This Unique Conference ? From high levels of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), to job and financial struggles, racism and other forms of inequity and injustice, traumatic stress is epidemic today. Climate change will aggravate all of these existing adversities, and add many new ones as well. Yet, California is leading the U.S. in finding innovative new ways to address...
Comment
Re: Survey: Healthcare providers, community organizations weigh in on California's ACEs screening program
Thank you for writing this article, and sharing the results of the survey. I was disappointed however to not see any mention of the potential perpetuation of structural and systemic racism as a result of conducting screenings. It is widely understood that the adult ACEs screening tool does not work well for all populations and may result in inaccurate findings for people of color. And, what about the requirement that providers include the label "toxic physiology" in patient files if their...
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Re: Prepped to Change: Towards Healing Organizations - Ken Epstein and Community Panel with Special Guests!
Here is a link to his presentation (which i uploaded into the video resources) and I also attach his slides.
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Re: Whole People Series & Study Guide (www.pbs.org)
Thanks for posting this Cissy! Watched the first episode and it's great! Has clear, easy to grasp concepts and a diverse mix of people in various roles. Some other materials get "stuck" on the original ten ACEs and don't effectively address racism, historical trauma, etc. This one blends the two, showing how our understanding of trauma is still evolving. Already thinking about where and how to use them!
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Re: Understanding and Addressing Childhood Adversity in California: Recap of Department of Health Care Services Learning Series Event
To find slides (attached) and the recording of the presentation go here: https://zoom.us/recording/shar...pmqa0hO-mwIumekTziMw
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America! "Oh, Say Can You See?" [blackvoicenews.com]
By S.E. Williams and Chuck Bibbs, Black Voice News, May 20, 2020 The COVID-19 Pandemic shined a brighter spotlight on the unorthodox leadership of this nation and revealed an unprepared healthcare system. In the process, it also exposed a grim, denigrating and devastating reality regarding people of color and the poor, particularly Black people. The health vulnerabilities these communities have lived with for generations, left them dangerously vulnerable to this deadly virus. Now, they are...
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Advancing Racial Equity Webinar Series [apha.org]
By Tia Taylor Williams, American Public Health Association, May 2020 Alarming disparities within the COVID-19 pandemic — such as higher hospitalizations and death rates among African Americans — are sadly predictable and highlight the urgent need to address the root causes of health inequities. APHA is hosting this four-part webinar series to give an in-depth look at racism as a driving force of the social determinants of health and equity. The series will explore efforts to address systems,...
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How I Can Offer Reparations in Direct Proportion to My White Privilege (yesmagazine.org)
I had a fascinating breakfast conversation with my 11-year-old daughter a few days back. The nigh before I had a fitful dream - one that was short on plot and imagery, but chock-full of emotion. In this case, the feeling was of a deep, immovable sorrow. When I awoke, it didn't take long to recognize that the article I'd been working on - this article - was definitely working on me, too. During breakfast I knew my daughter could tell I wasn’t on solid ground. She’s a sensitive soul, and I...
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'A turning point': California education leaders speak out about racism and police brutality [edsource.org]
By Carolyn Jones, EdSource, June 1, 2020 After George Floyd, an African-American man, died last week in Minneapolis after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a white police officer, protests and rage erupted throughout the U.S. On Monday, education leaders across California spoke out about systemic inequities and current crises facing young people. Here’s a summary: “It has been difficult for me to make sense of how a man can beg and plead for his life and still have his life...
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Health Advisory: Prioritizing Populations with Structural Barriers to Health in COVID-19 Care Response (SFDPH)
Public health advisory concerning COVID-19 has been posted on the San Francisco Department of Public Health, Disease Prevention & Control Website at: https://www.sfcdcp.org/health-alerts-emergencies/health-alerts/ . Copied from advisory: SITUATIONAL UPDATE Emerging data indicates populations experiencing structural oppression bear a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 disease and death, have a higher prevalence of predisposing co-morbidities, and are more likely to experience conditions...
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Emotional schools chief Tony Thurmond vows to address racism in public education [edsource.org]
By Dana Lambert, EdSource, June 1, 2020 California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond’s voice broke as he recounted the last moments of George Floyd’s life as he lay dying on a Minneapolis street. “I am haunted by the sound of his voice, begging to breathe, begging for life and we must address that trauma head on,” Thurmond said during an address on Facebook Monday. “We must have hard conversations.” Floyd, an African American man, was asphyxiated by a white police officer...
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The Struggle to Overcome Racism [ssir.org]
By SSIR Editors, Stanford Social Innovation Review, June 1, 2020 The killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers has ignited protests and focused the national discourse on institutional racism and how to eradicate it. SSIR's editors have assembled a list of resources to help leaders of social change and activists trying to put an end to this intractable American scourge. Racism in the United States has been a longstanding crisis that the COVID-19 pandemic has cast into an even...
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The California Children's Trust Foundation + Belief Statement [cachildrenstrust.org]
By California Children's Trust, June 4, 2020 Behavioral health needs affect children from every social position, background, and location in California. However, access to behavioral health resources and participation in behavioral health systems are stratified by caregiver income, insurance status, access to education, opportunity, and social power. In a state where nearly 60% of its children live in poverty, this leaves too many children and families without the support they need to reach...
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Anti-Racist Resources from Greater Good [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
From Greater Good Magazine, June 3, 2020 Our mission at the Greater Good Science Center is to elevate the human potential for compassion. But that does not mean we deny or dismiss the human potential for violence, particularly toward marginalized or dehumanized groups. or centuries, African Americans and other communities of color have been subject to this physical and structural violence, denied their humanity and often their basic right to exist. That’s why we are gathering Greater Good...
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10% Happier LIVE - Mindfulness for Working Against Racism — Rhonda V. Magee
Gail's comments: I have been listening to daily The 10% Happier Live Guided Meditations as often as possible (Dan Harris and 10% started offering LIVE meditations at noon every work day when we all went to shelter in place during COVID-19.) Today was an amazing episode with Rhonda McGee from University of San Franciso. It was just what I needed - a thought-provoking and insightful 10 minute talk and a wonderful meditation that helped me find my breath, ground myself and feel a sense of hope...
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Racism Fuels Double Crisis: Police Violence and COVID-19 Disparities [chcf.org]
By Xenia Shih Bion, California Health Care Foundation, June 8, 2020 Across the US, two public health crises — one new and one ages old — have merged into a devastating tandem. Systemic racism undergirds COVID-19 health disparities and the plague of police violence, both of which kill Black Americans at disproportionately high rates. As protesters have taken to the streets to march against police brutality and to remember George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other unarmed Black people who have...
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Dear White People…10 Ways You Can Show Up for your Black Friends and Colleagues [colorlines.com]
An open letter to my people who are White and sincerely want to show up in their inter-cultural relationships during this time. SUNSHINE MUSE JUN 9, 2020 10:15AM ET Dear friends who are white and privileged by virtue of that categorization (not necessarily because of wealth, intention or ethnic background), If you are receiving this it’s because we have gone through some beautiful things together and/or we have been a significant support for each other as a friend or colleague. This is...
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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...