Tagged With "trauma-informed parenting"
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Mental Health Is The Biggest Issue Teens Face Today, New Research Shows (bustle.com)
A new survey from the Pew Research Center found that seven-in-10 teens identified anxiety and depression as a major problem they face, The New York Times reported. While being a teenager has long been synonymous with angst, it's important to distinguish typical teen behavior from anxiety and depression, which are diagnosable mental health conditions . Though issues like bullying, substance use disorder, alcohol consumption , and gang violence were also cited as problems, mental health was...
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New Intervention Fact Sheet: Parent-Child Care [nctsn.org]
A 7-page fact sheet describing Parent-Child Care (PC-CARE) is now available. A dyadic psychotherapeutic intervention for enhancing the caregiver-child relationship and making behavior management more effective, PC-CARE combines teaching and coaching on how trauma exposure affects children’s mental health. Caregivers can be biological parents, relative caregivers, resource parents, grandparents, nannies, or anyone caring for a child. While caregivers play with the child, therapists coach...
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New Report Calls for Statewide Coordinated Response to Protect New Jersey's Children from Adverse Childhood Experiences [finance.yahoo.com]
By PR Newswire, Yahoo Finance, July 30, 2019 NEWARK, N.J., July 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report released today details the challenges New Jersey faces in addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and sets forth opportunities and actions for a coordinated statewide response to mitigate their lasting effects on children's health and well-being. ACEs are stressful or traumatic events, including abuse, neglect, domestic violence, household mental illness, household substance misuse,...
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New Resource for Teens and the Parents/Caregivers who Love Them
In popular culture, the moody adolescent is easily recognizable. Teens are often portrayed as dangerously risk-taking, obstinate, moody and at the mercy of their growing minds and bodies. This unflattering and inaccurate portrayal begins to shape parents’ understanding of adolescence with a skewed perspective, reinforcing the unhelpful belief that this is a stage in the parenting relationship that “must be survived”. At the same time, these low expectations are subversive to the adolescent's...
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Nominate a Trauma-Informed Care Champion: #TICchampion
Becoming a trauma-informed organization requires clear communication about the transformation process, and support from staff at all levels of an organization. Often these efforts are spearheaded by “trauma-informed care champions”— individuals committed to raising awareness regarding the health effects of trauma and toxic stress and improving care for people who have experienced trauma. This week, the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) invites you to recognize people around you who...
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Crisis in Care Report
The Greater Rochester Health Foundation convened the Commission on Children’s Behavioral Health in the Finger Lakes in spring 2015, in response to concerns from parents, child care providers, schools, pediatricians and children’s mental health clinicians. They consistently raised alarms about the shortfalls of our region’s children’s behavioral health system: the demands placed on it, its capacity, and in some cases, its quality.
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Parent Handouts: Understanding ACEs, Parenting to Prevent & Heal ACEs (English)
Please see the main post for these parent handouts in the ACEs Connection Resources Center. These two flyers ( Understanding ACEs and Parenting to Prevent & Heal ACEs ) can be downloaded, distributed, and used freely. One is brand new and the other is a revision. Both flyers were made with generous support from Family Hui, a Program of Lead for Tomorrow. Translations of these flyers are in progress and will be shared by Family Hui and updated on ACEs Connection when available.
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Parental Disengagement in Childhood and Adolescent Male Gun Carrying [pediatrics.aappublications.org]
OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between parental disengagement in childhood and adolescent gun carrying and determine whether this association is accounted for by externalizing problems and affiliation with delinquent peers during early adolescence. METHODS: The sample included 503 boys (55.7% African American, 40.6% white, 3.7% other) recruited from first-grade classrooms in Pittsburgh public schools. Multi-informant assessments were conducted regularly (semiannually then annually)...
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Parents who had severe trauma, stresses in childhood more likely to have kids with behavioral health problems [ScienceDaily.com]
A new study finds that severe childhood trauma and stresses early in parents' lives are linked to higher rates of behavioral health problems in their own children. The types of childhood hardships included divorce or separation of parents, death of or estrangement from a parent, emotional, physical or sexual abuse, witnessing violence in the home, exposure to substance abuse in the household or parental mental illness. "Previous research has looked at childhood trauma as a risk factor for...
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"PCEs" and "ACEs" Are Two Sides of the Same "Childhood Experiences" Coin
This collection of reports, shared with edited highlights, is posted in hopes of raising awareness of the importance of Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs). Please share widely on social media. 1. Seven Early Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) with Potential Benefits in Adulthood Below are the seven items on the positive childhood experience (PCEs) psychometric analysis. For each item, respondents are asked to respond "yes" or "no" to a prompt, "Before the age of 18, I was..." Able to...
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Police Need ACE Training to Better Understand Impact of Childhood Violence, Study Says [cypnow.co.uk]
Written by Nina Jacobs, Friday, May 1 2020 - Police officers should be trained in understanding the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on young people in order to tackle an increase in child to parent violence, new research suggests. The study was commissioned by Northumbria Police. A report commissioned by Northumbria Police, Policing Childhood Challenging Violent or Aggressive Behaviour: responding to vulnerable families , makes the recommendation as part of a wider strategy to...
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Positive Relationships Can Buffer Childhood Trauma and Toxic Stress, Researchers Say [bostonglobe.com]
By Kay Lazar, The Boston Globe, October 15, 2019 Traumatic events and toxic relationships during childhood can cast long shadows, often damaging mental health well into adulthood. But a growing body of research suggests sustained, positive relationships with caring adults can help mitigate the harmful effects of childhood trauma. And specialists say pediatricians, social workers, and others who work with kids should take steps to monitor and encourage those healthy relationships — just as...
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Recognizing and Attending to Intergenerational Trauma
A mother brings her 8-year-old son to the pediatrician after his teacher repeatedly asks her to have him evaluated for ADHD. The trauma-informed pediatrician knows that childhood trauma exposure can resemble hyperactivity associated with ADHD. The pediatrician asks the mother to privately complete an adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) questionnaire and asks to do one with the son as well. The questionnaire reveals that the son had witnessed his mom being physically abused by her last two...
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Reconnecting With Your Body After Trauma [theemotionmachine.com]
Our emotional experiences often have a physical component to them. When we’re nervous, we may feel a churning in our stomachs. When we’re disappointed, we may feel our hearts sink. And when we’re embarrassed, we may feel our faces flush. Our emotions don’t just exist in our minds, but also in our bodies. This is why it’s difficult to rationalize your emotions away, because they usually exist at a visceral level that is beyond thoughts or words. In The Body Keeps the Score the Dutch...
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Restoring Attachments using a Playbook from Treating the Traumatized Child: A Step-by-Step Family Systems Approach
For many boys, fathers, and grandfathers, a first step towards healing trauma can be found in the wilderness, “Where there are no deadlines, cell phones, or committee meetings. Where there is room for the soul and a quiet place to restore lost nurturance”, ( Wild at Heart , Eldridge, 2011). Glen and his father Darren are a great example of how this healing can take place. Dr. Sells uses the Wild at Heart Wound Playbook from Treating the Traumatized Child: A Step-by-Step Family Systems...
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School Grants for Healthy Kids
School Grants for Healthy Kids Link View Program Website Sponsor Action for Healthy Kids Deadlines Apr 5, 2019 Contact SchoolGrants@ActionforHealthyKids.org Purpose School Grants for Healthy Kids awards funding to implement school health and wellness practices that help students eat better, stay physically active, and be better prepared to learn. Funded schools will also receive technical assistance to help implement a successful project that leads to sustainable change. Priority areas...
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Sesame Street in Communities Takes on Trauma
Just this morning, Sesame Street in Communities announced its initiative to support foster children, foster parents, and the providers who serve foster care. Further, more trauma related topics will be addressed soon. The upcoming programing is detailed in today’s The Atlantic article “For-Now Parents’ and ‘Big Feelings’: How Sesame Street Talks About Trauma: ‘The Muppets can often do what humans can’t. They’ve got this special power.’ ” “ "Through its Sesame Street in Communities...
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Shifting the focus from trauma to compassion
photo: Rolf Schweitzer/CCO Dr. Arnd Herz, a self-described champion for ACEs science, would like nothing more than to witness a greater appreciation of how widespread adverse childhood experiences are. Herz, a pediatrician and director of Medi-Cal Strategy for the Greater Southern Alameda Area for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, would also like to encourage more people in health care to engage in a trauma-informed care approach, a change in practice that he says not only benefits...
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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Strengthening Families: Increasing positive outcomes for children and families [www.cssp.org]
We engage families, programs, and communities in building key protective factors. Children are more likely to thrive when their families have the support they need. By focusing on the five universal family strengths identified in the Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework , community leaders and service providers can better engage, support, and partner with parents in order to achieve the best outcomes for kids. How We Do It The Strengthening Families framework is a...
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Supporting Evidence Building in Child Welfare Project Evaluation Opportunity Announcement
The Supporting Evidence Building in Child Welfare Project , a five-year project of the Urban Institute, to support the Administration for Children and Families, is increasing the number of evidence-supported interventions for the child welfare population by conducting rigorous evaluations and supporting the field in moving toward rigorous evaluation. The project focuses on evaluating interventions that already have some evidence of effectiveness and are currently operating or those that will...
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Taking Action: Building Resilience
There are many ways to take action to become trauma responsive and build resiliency. Here are few examples to point you in the right direction: Attend the Raising Resilience Summit on January 9th, 2018 Join the Consortium on Trauma, Illness, and Grief In Schools (TIG) Learn more about Mental Health First Aid Visit TraumaSenstiveSchools.org Trauma Informed Care training offers the entire staff an opportunity to look deeply into an organization's culture in order to build a resilient staff and...
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The Healing Place Podcast: Barbara Rubel, MA, BCETS, D.A.A.E.T.S. - How to Help Suicide Loss Survivors & the Traumatic Impact of Suicide
Barbara Rubel is a suicide loss survivor and leading thanatologist. Thanatology is the scientific study of death. As a thanatologist, Barbara Rubel specializes in suicide loss survivor grief and educating professionals about traumatic loss. The third updated and revised edition of her book, But I Didn’t Say Goodbye: Helping families after a suicide, just launched on Amazon.
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The Many Faces of Grief
“…Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding…. And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy; much of your pain is self-chosen. It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self….” – From The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran There are many kinds of loss that we can encounter in life. However, losses surrounding addiction can be particularly confusing; they tend...
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The Rise of the Trauma-Informed Mothers
The next generation is less likely to wear predisposed shackles of trauma because as trauma-informed parents we are re-wiring the traumatically stressed DNA that was passed down to us.
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The Ten Books That Changed My Life - Healing ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and Building Resilience
Teri Wellbrock offers a list of those books that had a profound impact on her life and helped her create a life filled with tranquility and joy. While she may not have agreed with every word written, she did find powerful answers, delicious little tidbits, and inspirational guidance within each book.
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Therapist: Trauma Is An Experience Of The Body. And We're All Feeling It [wbur.org]
By Elissa Tosi, WBUR, May 14, 2020 As a psychotherapist, my work is all about connection. It’s about supporting my clients by cultivating an understanding of who they are and where they’ve been. But therapists are people, too, and we have our own issues. We fight with our partners, apologize to our kids for bad parenting moments, get sick, lose loved ones, the list goes on. We often have to put our stuff aside in order to focus on the client’s reality, and our ability to do that is a skill...
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Re: Finger Lakes Resiliency Network (FLRN)
Thank you for sharing this Brian, what a tremendous resource for the region! Looking forward to future updates about the work that schools and other organizations supported by the FLRN are doing to become trauma-informed.
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Tribal Communities: Advancing Trauma-Informed Care
New federal funding through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act includes critical funding for advancing trauma-informed care services in tribal communities. The devastating impact of historical, intergenerational and current traumas experienced by tribal communities has long overwhelmed chronically underfunded health care, education, mental health, social service and legal systems in Indian Country. The current impact and anticipated aftermath of the coronavirus...
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The Black Community, COVID-19 & Trauma [sdvoice.com]
By Latanya West, San Diego Voice, May 15, 2020 In January 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Dr. Nadine Burke Harris as California’s first-ever Surgeon General. An award-winning physician, researcher and advocate, Dr. Burke Harris’ career has been dedicated to serving vulnerable communities and combating the root causes of health disparities. Her work is equally dedicated to changing the way our society responds to one of the most serious, expensive and widespread public health crises of...
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"Addiction begins with solving a problem, the problem of human pain, emotional pain"
In his groundbreaking book , In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction , trauma and addiction expert Dr. Gabor Maté writes, “There are almost as many addictions as there are people.” ACEs Connection founder and publisher Jane Stevens read that quote as a springboard to asking Maté to define addiction and explain whether or not it is always rooted in adverse childhood experiences. Maté, along with filmmaker Michelle Esrick and Saturday Night Live star Darrell Hammond,...
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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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Greater Richmond Trauma Informed Community Network, first to join ACEs Cooperative of Communities, shows what it means to ROCK!
In 2012, Greater Richmond SCAN and five other community partners hatched a one-year plan to educate the Richmond, Virginia, community about ACEs science and to embed trauma-informed practices. Eight years later, the original group has evolved into the Greater Richmond Trauma-Informed Community Network (GRTICN) with 495 people and 170 organizations. And they're just scratching the surface.
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Family Well-being in Grandparent- Versus Parent-Headed Households [pediatrics.aappublications.org]
By Eli Rappaport, Nallammai Muthiah, Sarah A. Keim, and Andrew Adesman, Pediatrics, August 2020 Abstract BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Little is known about the 2% of US children being raised by their grandparents. We sought to characterize and compare grandparent- and parent-headed households with respect to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), child temperament, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and caregiver aggravation and coping. METHODS: Using a combined data set of...
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Childhood trauma can speed biological aging [news.harvard.edu]
By Manisha Aggarwal-Schiefellite, The Harvard Gazette, August 3, 2020 Experiencing adversity early in life has a direct effect on a person’s mental and physical health as they grow, and certain kinds of trauma can affect the pace of aging, according to new Harvard research. In addition to being risk factors for anxiety, depression, and stress, early life experiences like poverty, neglect, and violence are powerful predictors of physical health outcomes like cardiovascular disease, diabetes,...
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Post-Traumatic Growth: Hope Is a Strategy, Not a Feeling [Juvenile Justice Information Exchange]
When a young person experiences trauma, there is no single answer regarding how that experience may impact them in their later years. Two 12-year-olds experiencing the exact same kind of trauma, for example, may have two very different responses — one crumbles and the other rises. One processes it deeply and the other suppresses it. One becomes a powerful force for change in the community and the other struggles to make their place in the world. Furthermore, what may be considered traumatic...
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Healing Trauma Through Inner Child Work
So far, in this series on the inner child, we have discussed inner children, and how, when they are wounded, they can affect adult life. We learned that every person has an inner child that is part of our psyche, that is a childish self, inside all of us. There is a model of healing known as doing inner child work. In this article, we shall tackle this subject to understand how we can begin the healing process from having a wounded inner child. What is Inner Child Work? Inner child work is...
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Loving An Orchid: Understanding Child Abuse Trauma's Impact [psychologytoday.com]
By JoAnn Stevelos, Psychology Today, August 21, 2020 As a child, I was an orchid but lived like a dandelion. I have always prided myself on my resiliency, for surviving a long and painful childhood filled with abandonment, psychological, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse . Child abuse can do that to you—give you a false sense of self and what resiliency really looks like. Resiliency is not just surviving. This false narrative of resiliency can take years to undo. One approach is to try...
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Adversity in Early Childhood [americanprogress.org]
By Cristina Novoa and Taryn Morrissey, Center for American Progress, August 27, 2020 Since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020, the United States has seen a proliferation of cases, record-breaking unemployment, and economic instability. Meanwhile, many public health measures that severely restrict social interactions—including stay-at-home orders and school and child care closures, among others—have been prematurely lifted, with...
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Addressing students' social, emotional and behavioral stress -- not truama -- when they return to school [smartbrief.com]
By Howie Knoff, SmartBrief, August 31, 2020 Throughout this pandemic, the American public has sometimes had to choose between science and beliefs, between objective data and personal testimonials. And while the medical, social, economic and educational toll from the COVID-19 virus is unprecedented, some of the effects have been politicized by our leaders, and sensationalized by the press. Sadly, the latter has occurred when discussing the emotional status of our students as districts prepare...
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4 Simple Phrases to Halt Anxious Thoughts
Anxiety is a fact of life. There's much we can do to calm ourselves in the short and long-term. Here are some tips for immediate relief.
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'A Better Normal:' Can universal ACEs screening be equitable? -- Concerns and solutions
Can universal ACEs screening be equitable? A conversation about concerns and solutions. When: Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2-3:30 pm PDT/5-6:30 pm EDT This webinar explores what it takes to ensure that equity is built into the process of screening and providing support for families who have experienced trauma and want help. REGISTER HERE Background At the beginning of this year, California, through the ACEs Aware initiative began rolling out universal screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs),...
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A Recipe for Raising Resilient Children - Skills and Factors that Contribute to Resiliency
Suffering is an expected part of this journey because resilience is a muscle that we strengthen over time and experiences. However, developing this muscle is most effective when encouraged by warm, loving, and responsive caregiving.
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Protect your Child from Psychological Abuse in no Time
What is psychological abuse? Psychological violence is a form of influence of one person on another, in which the harm done is measured not in "physical units", but in psychological ones. The most common forms of psychological abuse include humiliation, insults, threats, intimidation, and they are not necessarily verbal. Violence is not always aggressive, even with a smile on your face you can humiliate a person. What can the psychological abuse of a child lead to? The consequences of...
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Attachment Trauma: The Unique Impact of ACEs in Infancy
"Attachment Trauma is the severe disruption or dysfunction of the infant-maternal bond. This can result from stress and dysfunction in the family, mental health problems in the mother, and/or extended separation from the mother. These are traumatic experiences regardless of when they occur during childhood. However, when they occur during the first 2 years of life they have a uniquely damaging impact, leading to Attachment Trauma." Originally posted at CPTSDFoundation.org: ...
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The most important thing you can do with your kids? Play with them! says Dr. Bruce Perry
“The most important thing you can do with your children is play with them!” said Dr. Bruce Perry, noted child psychiatrist and author. He was answering the question, “How do we prepare our children to go back to school next fall?” Perry, a brain expert specializing in how children are impacted by trauma, gave a presentation on his neuro-sequential model of brain development to more than 800 people at an Austin Ed Fund event Monday evening. The co-author, with Oprah Winfrey, of the new book...
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Criticizing ACEs in Peer Reviewed Professional Journals Impairs Child Abuse Treatment
Criticizing ACEs in Peer Reviewed Professional Journals Impairs Child Abuse Treatment Jeoffry B. Gordon, MD, MPH May 23, 2021 As a family doc practicing in San Diego I was privileged to hear Dr. Vincent Felitti talk about his inspired development of the ACEs questionnaire and its association with many adult mental and physical diseases directly from him only a few years after his original insight. Yet, although I had a lively clinic and learned how to manage a vast array of medical...
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Four Ways Self-Compassion Can Help You Fight for Social Justice [greatergoodberkeley.edu]
By Kristin Neff, Greater Good Magazine, June 14, 2021 How can we effectively bring about a more just world? Although it may not be obvious at first glance, self-compassion plays a key role in the quest to end sexism, racism, heterosexism, and other forms of oppression. By aiming compassion inward as well as outward, we can better confront the pain of injustice without being overwhelmed, and find the strength and energy to fight for what’s right. Self-compassion helps us cope by accepting our...
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A Child's Early Experiences & Brain Development [mountsinaiparenting.org]
A Child's Early Experiences & Brain Development As a primary care provider, promoting strong parent-child relationships and positive parenting behaviors is critical to your role. Research tells us that a child's early experiences, and the environment in which they are raised, dramatically affect how the brain, and thus the child, develops. See the following clip to learn more about early brain development from expert Dan Siegel, MD: From the Keystones of Development Secure Attachment...
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Pandemic Pressure Increase Incidence of Postpartum Depression [chcf.org]
By Heather Tirado Gilligan, California Health Care Foundation, August 9, 2021 Throughout her pregnancy, Altagracia Mejía was nagged by feelings of anxiety and depression. Mejía, who lives in the Panorama City neighborhood of Los Angeles, gave birth to her daughter Alexa in September 2020. Within two months, the new mother’s feelings shifted to thoughts of suicide. “In my most lucid moments, I ask myself over and over again what is happening to me ,” Mejía told Los Angeles Times reporter...