Tagged With "foster care"
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Just Released: New App To Support Families During the Coronavirus Outbreak and Beyond
Families with young children are currently facing unprecedented challenges and need support now more than ever. To help parents and caregivers access much-needed resources, our friends/partners at the Early Learning Lab just released Stay Play Grow , a free app that provides a one-stop source of trusted resources curated by their team of child development experts, women, and working moms. Parents and caregivers can find tips, tools, and information across four key areas in English and...
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Webinar Recap: Fostering HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) during COVID-19 with Drs. Robert Sege and Dina Burstein
On June 16, 2020, the California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative held a webinar entitled, “Fostering HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) during COVID-19" and heard from special guest speakers, Drs. Robert Sege and Dina Burstein from the HOPE Project at Tufts Medical Center . Drs. Sege and Burstein presented research and data supporting the benefits and importance of Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs), background on the HOPE Project, and the relevance to ACEs...
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Webinar Recap: California’s Budget & Legislative Landscape Impact of a Pandemic on Child Wellbeing with Kelly Hardy
On June 11, 2020, the California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative held a webinar entitled, “California’s Budget & Legislative Landscape Impact of a Pandemic on Child Wellbeing” and heard from special guest speaker, Kelly Hardy, Senior Managing Director of Health & Research for Children Now . This interactive webinar provided an overview of the current legislative and budget situation in California, with a focus on child wellbeing. The state has quickly moved from an expected...
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Family Therapy is now a Medi-Cal Benefit
Medi-Cal has just published new policy making family therapy a covered benefit for children and adults with mental health disorders and for children who are at risk for mental health disorders. This will be especially relevant for children with ACEs. Under the guidance of the California Department of Health Care Services, the Medi-Cal fee-for-service program aims to provide health care services to about 13 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries. The Medi-Cal fee-for-service program adjudicates both...
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ACEs Aware Grantees By County
ACEs Connection will begin highlighting ACEs and Resilience initiatives by county. We're starting this effort off by listing the recent ACEs Aware grantees by county.
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Webinar Recap: Office of Child Abuse Prevention 2020-2025 Strategic Plan with Angela Ponivas
On July 15, 2020, the California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative held a webinar entitled, “Essentials for Childhood Initiative Webinar: OCAP 2020-2025 Strategic Plan” and heard from Angela Ponivas, Bureau Chief at the Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP) at the California Department of Social Services (CDSS). The OCAP, a backbone agency in the Essentials for Childhood Initiative, works collaboratively with partners at the federal, state, and county- level with communities,...
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New Resource: Trauma-Informed Nutrition Factsheet
A newly developed factsheet, “Trauma-Informed Nutrition: Recognizing the Relationship between Adversity, Chronic Disease, and Nutritional Health” has just been released. This factsheet is intended for Registered Dietitians (RDs) and was designed to support and describe the connection between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), the impacts of trauma and its relationship to chronic disease, and trauma-informed nutrition practices. This factsheet was developed through a collaborative...
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Meet the New Essentials for Childhood Initiative Team Member: Dr. Renay Bradley
Renay Bradley, Ph.D., is a psychologist/social scientist and educator who has focused her career on using data and research to promote wellness in children, families, and communities. Renay has expertise in applied research aimed at development, evaluation, and implementation of social services, programs/initiatives, and policies intended to contribute to health and well-being. She has worked with a variety of California state agencies, as well as local/state government entities across the...
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Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: One-Pager
Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: One-Pager
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Association of Childhood Maltreatment With Suicide Behaviors Among Young People [jamanetwork.com]
By Ioannis Angelakis, Jennifer L. Austin, and Patricia Gooding, JAMA Network Open, August 5, 2020 Key Points Español 中文 (Chinese) Question What is the association between experiences of childhood maltreatment and suicide behaviors in children and young adults? Findings This systematic review and meta-analysis was based on 79 individual studies with 337 185 unique participants found an association between core types of childhood maltreatment and suicide behaviors in children and young adults.
Comment
Re: Association of Childhood Maltreatment With Suicide Behaviors Among Young People [jamanetwork.com]
This comprehensive and significant presentation of this large data set dramatically documents the potentially tragic effects of child maltreatment. It also inherently and forcefully criticizes other narrow minded studies - still accepted in the professional literature - which are blinded by the fact that psychiatry in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) does not recognize "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Due to Child Abuse or Neglect" as a diagnosis. See the attached study of youth...
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ACEs Aware Seeking Applicants to Support Clinical Work [acesaware.org]
ACEs Aware Seeking Applicants to Support Clinical Work Apply by September 15, 2020 ACEs Aware , led by the Office of the California Surgeon General (CA-OSG) and the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), is hiring for three new positions to further the mission of supporting Medi-Cal providers across California with training, clinical protocols, and payment for screening children and adults for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Aurrera Health Group is the project management...
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Guidance for Distance Learning Released by CA Dept. of Social Services (CDSS) and Education (CDE)
The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) and California Department of Education (CDE) have jointly released a guidance document for educators conducting distance learning on recognizing the signs and symptoms of abuse. To read more, please see the attached document.
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CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY: Parental ACEs and Pediatrics: Transforming Well Care [avahealth.org]
CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY (CAA) , funded by ACEs Aware, is providing free online training to Medi-Cal providers and others featuring: Practical strategies for integrating trauma-informed health care into your team’s practice that improves patients’ well being and the productivity of your practice. Meet colleagues with experience and success providing trauma-informed health care in their practices. Learn from national and local experts. Talk to other professionals from your region in small...
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Expansion of School-Based Health Services in California: An Opportunity for More Trauma-Informed Care for Children
Expansion of School-Based Health Services in California: An Opportunity for More Trauma-Informed Care for Children , is a paper that describes a new opportunity for California to leverage federal funding to provide physical, mental, and behavioral health services in schools to Medicaid-enrolled students experiencing trauma and violence. It explains a newly approved Medicaid State Plan Amendment (SPA) that allows school districts – known as local education agencies (LEAs) – to access more...
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Making the Case for Love, Compassion, and Positive Childhood Experiences [positiveexperience.org/blog]
Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand and Chloe Yang, 10/14/20, positiveexperience.org/blog A growing body of work recognizes the important health effects of highlighting and creating positive childhood experiences. Today’s blog post makes the scientific case for this, based off of an interview with Dr. Kanwaljeet Anand, professor of pediatrics and anesthesiology at Stanford School of Medicine. Below, Dr. Anand details how positive childhood experiences buffer against adverse ones and explains the biological...
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Back to the Basics of HOPE [positiveexperience.org/blog]
By Dr. Bob Sege, 10/22/20, positiveexperience.org/blog [...] The spirit of HOPE is simple: children are not products to be graded, sorted, and labeled, and parents are complex human beings who love their children and do everything in their power to care for them. This sounds simple. However, we live in an age where accountability has been translated into systematic evaluation–including children’s physical and developmental progress, parents’ and caretakers’ mental health education and...
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New Report: ACEs BRFSS Data Report- An Overview of Adverse Childhood Experiences in California
A newly developed document titled “Adverse Childhood Experiences Data Report: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), 2011-2017: An Overview of Adverse Childhood Experiences in California” has just been released and can be found following link and attached to this blog post. The purpose of this resource is to report state and county prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in California; describe ACEs-related geographic and demographic disparities; and to offer details...
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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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The Impact of Coronavirus on Households Across America [rwjf.org]
From Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, November 2020 While billions of dollars have been appropriated by federal and state governments since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, a series of polls by NPR, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation find that a substantial share of households have not been protected from serious impacts of the pandemic across many areas of residents' lives. “The Impact of Coronavirus” poll series offers a national look...
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Apply Now: New ACEs Aware Grant Opportunity [acesaware.org]
New ACEs Aware Grant Opportunity to Support Trauma-Informed Networks of Care The Department of Health Care Services in partnership with Office of the California Surgeon General and the today released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a second round of ACEs Aware grants , with a submission deadline of December 21, 2020. The new grants will target California communities that want to build or execute a robust Network of Care to effectively respond to ACEs and toxic stress to meet the needs of...
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Register for the "Creating Compelling Messaging with California ACEs Data" 1/20/21 Webinar
The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Violence Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention (CDSS/OCAP)’s, Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative invites your participation in a webinar entitled, “Creating Compelling Messaging with California ACEs Data” on Wednesday, January 20 th from 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM. This webinar will feature presentations from Shaddai Martinez Cuestas, MPH, Strategic Communications...
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It's time we gave women and young children their due [edsource.org]
By Liz Simons, EdSource, December 17, 2020 California’s Master Plan for Early Learning and Care may seem at first glance like an overly forward-looking plan in this time of urgent need. But the plan is a template for a better life, not only for our youngest children, whose futures hinge on their access to quality early learning and care, but for women — working mothers and the early childhood workforce, almost all women, disproportionately women of color. Unfurled during a tidal wave of...
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WestEd Infographics Available: Barriers to Early Childhood Screening and Access to Resource
WestEd recently created three infographics related to workforce issues and access following screening of young children that were developed by the California State Screening Collaborative , with funding from California Department of Public Health and California Department of Developmental Services, Early Start . Please consider reviewing and sharing with your networks. The infographics are attached below.
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Creating Compelling Messaging with ACEs Data Webinar Recording Available
On January 20, 2021 the California Department of Public Health, Injury and Violence Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the C alifornia Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention (CDSS/OCAP)’s , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative hosted a webinar entitled, “Creating Compelling Messaging with ACEs Data”. This webinar featured presentations from Shaddai Martinez Cuestas, MPH, Strategic Communications Specialist at Berkeley Media Studies Group ; Donielle Prince, Ph.D,...
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Kidsdata: New Category on COVID-19 Pandemic
Kidsdata has introduced a new category to their site, COVID-19 Pandemic . This new category features data that describe child and family well-being in California during the pandemic. Kidsdata will regularly release new data over the coming weeks. Topics focused on are Education, Health Care, and Social Activities, Supportive Services, Positive Childhood Experiences, and other related topics. The data cover California and seven regions within California. At the state level, findings are...
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Family Urgent Response Outreach System launches March 1 [mendocinocasa.org]
On behalf of the CDSS FURS Implementation Team The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) is proud to announce the launch of: Family Urgent Response System (FURS) MARCH 1, 2021 at 8:00 a.m. FURS includes a 24/7 Statewide Hotline and a 24/7 County-based Mobile Response and Stabilization !! FURS will provide current and former foster youth (up to age 21) and their caregivers with immediate, trauma-informed support by caring and trained professionals when they need it. FURS is intended...
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Building Synergy and Connection Across the Essentials for Childhood Initiative Convening Summary and Presentation Slides
The Essentials for Childhood Initiative is pleased to share the Building Synergy and Connections Across the Essentials for Childhood Initiative Convening Summary and Presentation Slides. The Convening Summary contains a detailed overview of the information shared and the feedback provided by the participants during the convening. You will find these documents attached below. The EfC Initiative team appreciates the speakers and coalition chairs that served as panelists and the attendees who...
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Advancing California’s Trauma Informed Systems (ACTS) is Currently Recruiting
The Advancing California’s Trauma Informed Systems (ACTS) project is a collaboration between the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), Office of Child Abuse and Prevention (OCAP) and the Chadwick Center at Rady Children’s Hospital . The ACTS Project team is looking to expand their network of trauma-informed Child Welfare county system partners. Currently the ACTS network includes nine counties from across the state and we have openings for new partners now and also have a great...
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New Resource: Strategies for Trauma-Informed School Communities
The California Essentials for Childhood Initiative is excited to share a newly developed attached, “Strategies for Trauma-Informed School Communities: Practices to Improve Resiliency in School-Aged Children and Address Adverse Childhood Experiences”. This new resource is intended to assist state and local public health programs, child-serving systems, non-profits, and philanthropic organizations in their efforts to educate about the need for trauma-informed school policies and practices that...
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Planting Prevention Seeds: Santa Cruz and Father Engagement
Planting Prevention Seeds: Santa Cruz and Father Engagement Engaging fathers as early as possible prior to child welfare or during the child welfare process can be a critical prevention strategy to keep children and youth from entering the foster care system. In this context, Santa Cruz County Family and Children’s Services (FCS) embarked on an ambitious initiative to increase father engagement. To make this happen, the FCS implemented the following: invited male line staff in FCS to join...
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CDSS/OCAP Child Abuse Prevention Month Webinar Series: 4/14 "Power of Connection" at 11 AM
The California Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention (CDSS/OCAP) are hosting a webinar speaker series for Child Abuse Prevention month. Please see the attached for information on the webinars in the series, presenters, and the links to registration. Tomorrow, there will be a special presentation from Kevin Campbell on the topic of the “Power of Connection” at 11 AM. Kevin Campbell is an American Child Protection and Children’s Mental Health Innovator and the founder...
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Webinar Recap: Family Experiences During COVID-19 Pandemic Data Webinar with Drs. Robert Sege and Lori Turk-Bicakci
On April 29, 2021, the California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative held a webinar entitled, “Family Experiences During COVID-19 Pandemic Data.” The purpose of this webinar was to share findings from wave 1 of the Family Experiences During COVID-19 Pandemic Questionnaire that was administered in November 2020. Drs. Robert Sege from the HOPE Project at Tufts Medical Center and Lori Turk-Bicakci from the KidsData program at PRB provided an overview of the questionnaire, summarized...
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NIHCM Newsletter on Maternal Health and COVID-19
The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Newsletter highlighted how COVID-19 has affected maternal health: Maternal Health and COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating concerns about maternal health in the United States, which has the highest maternal mortality rate of industrialized countries and is the only nation where the rate is rising . New studies highlight the pandemic’s impact on the physical and mental health of pregnant individuals. Black Maternal Mortality...
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Register Now: Crisis as Opportunity: Building Community Bridges to Address Trauma Webinar
Date and Time: Thursday, May 20 2020 from 12:00 PM EST - 1:00 PM EST Register Here: https://webinar.ringcentral.com/webinar/register/WN_MrB1u-CqTzmDsSIELKfsGA Session Description from the TRANSFORM Research Center: The Translational Research that Adopts New Science For Maltreatment prevention (TRANSFORM) Research Center recognizes that our communities have been struggling with many challenges highlighted over the past year. Across the United States, communities have been suffering from the...
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New Article: "Money can lead to better pandemic parenting, study finds"
A study released last year from researchers at the University of Chicago found that a parent’s ability to nurture and care for their children is not severely impacted during stresses including job loss as long as they have a means of supporting their families, such as through unemployment insurance. RAPID-EC found that stimulus payments and unemployment relief provided during the pandemic were critical for families with young children more than 61 percent of households surveyed used stimulus...
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New Resource: Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic One-Pager (English & Spanish!)
The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , ACEs Connection , and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance have co-created a newly developed resource, “Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in both English and Spanish. This material is intended for Californian families experiencing the severe economic...
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Advancing California's Trauma-Informed Systems is Recruiting
The Advancing California's Trauma-Informed Systems (ACTS) Project's mission is to support systems in planning for, implementing, and sustaining trauma-informed change that aligns with best practice and science. We work with organizations to identify individualized areas for Trauma Informed Change (TIC) and provide in-depth resource sharing through the ACTS Project. The ACTS Project also offers workforce and leader-focused trainings on different aspects of TIC and time-limited Technical...