Tagged With "Early childhood systems"
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Building Resilience in Foster Children: The Role of the Child's Advocate [repository.law.umich.edu]
Children who enter the foster care system often suffer from the effects of traumatic stress. The sources of their trauma may vary: they may be the victims of physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect-or they may be exposed to violence in their homes or communities. Similarly, many children who enter the child welfare system have experienced the loss of one or more significant adults in their lives, often through death or abandonment. Although the removal of a child from an abusive or...
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California has Begun Screening for Early Childhood Trauma, But Critics Urge Caution [sciencemag.org]
By Emily Underwood, Science, January 29, 2020 On 1 January, California became the first U.S. state to screen for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)—early life hardships such as abuse, neglect, and poverty, which can have devastating health consequences in later life. The project is not just a public health initiative, but a vast experiment. State officials aim to cut the health impacts of early life adversity by as much as half within a generation. But critics say the health benefits of...
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Can a Separate Department Reinvigorate Chid Welfare? [uwcita.org]
Early in December an article from realchangenews.org was shared with the group about Washington State merging children and family services into one Department. As with many States, leaders in Washington State are looking to advances in brain-science, trauma-informed practices, the impacts of ACEs, and focus on the developing child to provide scaffolding for the framework of this new Department. Click here to download the final report and read more about the Blue Ribbon Commission – the group...
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Can We Please Fix the Interstate Placement of Children in Foster Care? [ChronicleOfSocialChange.org]
Consider, for a moment , this story I recently discovered in court transcripts. A paternal grandmother living in New York City learns that her 1-year-old grandson is in Michigan’s foster care system. Days after the child’s removal, she immediately contacts the child’s foster care worker, travels to Michigan, attends the court hearing and requests that the child be placed with her, instead of strangers. It turns out that she raised the child for the first few months of his life, and the...
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Caring adult relationships can make the difference for children in trauma [register-herald.com]
CHARLESTON — Social workers, law enforcement officers and other children’s advocates gathered Wednesday for the first day of the West Virginia Children’s Justice “Handle With Care” Conference to learn more about child trauma, intervention and ways to help children become successful. In a state that leads the nation for opioid overdose deaths and babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, West Virginia children are often witnesses to and victims of trauma. The West Virginia Defending...
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Caring adult relationships can make the difference for children in trauma [register-herald.com]
Social workers, law enforcement officers and other children’s advocates gathered Wednesday for the first day of the West Virginia Children’s Justice “Handle With Care” Conference to learn more about child trauma, intervention and ways to help children become successful. In a state that leads the nation for opioid overdose deaths and babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, West Virginia children are often witnesses to and victims of trauma. The West Virginia Defending Childhood...
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Casey Seeks New Partners for its Evidence2Sucess Framework [aecf.org]
The Casey Foundation is seeking proposals from communities interested in implementing Evidence2Success , a framework that brings public system and resident leaders together to improve child well-being. The Foundation will select up to three new sites to join Providence, Rhode Island , Mobile and Selma , Alabama, and Kearns Township in Salt Lake County, Utah , which are already carrying out the framework. Among other eligibility requirements, communities must have a population of at least...
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‘Catching a Case: Inequality and Fear in New York City’s Child Welfare System’ [youthtoday.org]
Anthropologist Tina Lee immersed herself in the exotic culture of a child welfare agency, its folkways, “clients,” employees and contractors. She has returned with an eye-opening report. Anthropologists describe, not prescribe. Their expeditions yield close-up views of the rituals and radically different practices of far-away societies. With their help, we can reflect: Would we like to live like the Melanesians? How about the hunter-gatherer lifestyle? The tribes that Professor Lee studied...
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Changing Organizational Culture [uwcita.org]
As child welfare agencies look introspectively at organizational culture, change, and reform, it's important leaders examine the systemic aspects of organizational culture that promote high workloads, turnover, and unintentional abuse of the workforce. Dee Wilson offers some thought provoking solutions to accompany his analysis of the organizational culture of child welfare systems across the county in his latest blog post for the Court Improvement Training Academy at the University of...
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Child maltreatment not a clear path to adult crime
Research has found a significant link between childhood abuse and neglect and crime in adulthood. But a recent University of Washington study finds that link all but disappears when accounting for other life factors. “We find that...
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Child Welfare and Human Trafficking - Connections Rooted in Trauma
Recently in Washington State, there has been a massive, multi-pronged coordinated effort to address Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) across systems. As this effort made its reach to child welfare, I was reminded of a documentary I watched years ago about two girls who were swept into a life of sexual exploitation, kept from their families and everything familiar. One of the girls was in and out of foster care and group homes, the other had run away from her family home, both...
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Child Welfare Ideas from the Experts #11: Connecting Aging-Out Youth to Behavioral Health Services [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
The Chronicle of Social Change is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 12 former foster youths who have completed congressional internships. The program is overseen each summer by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Each of the FYI participants crafted a policy recommendation during their time in Washington, D.C. Today we highlight the recommendation of Justin Abbasi, a...
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Child Welfare is Not Exempt from Structural Racism and Implicit Bias [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
Social workers and social scientists have a duty to educate, clarify and raise consciousness when empirically unfounded conclusions that can be harmful to marginalized populations are promoted as fact. Some may read Naomi Schafer Riley’s blog for the American Enterprise Institute – No, The Child Welfare System Isn’t Racist – and deem it as just another piece written from a shortsighted perspective steeped in white privilege. Others, however, may become even more convinced that implicit bias...
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Child Welfare System Increasingly Relying on Relatives to Raise Children Exposed to Trauma [prnewswire.com]
Washington, DC "Thirty percent (127,819) of children in foster care are being raised by grandparents or other relatives, a six percent increase since 2008. In the wake of the opioid epidemic, that number is even more dramatic in the states hardest hit by the opioid epidemic like Ohio, which saw a 62 percent increase in the number of children placed with relatives in foster care since 2010. For each child in foster care with a relative, there are 20 children outside of the system with a...
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Child Welfare Systems Grapple with How to Translate Brain Science into Practice [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
Some of you may have already read this piece published earlier this month by the Chronicle of Social Change, I first read it when it slid into my inbox as a link in a recent ACEs Connection Daily Digest. It wasn’t until having some downtime over the holiday weekend that I could read more about the programs referenced in this article. I learned about two exciting initiatives, inclusive of partnerships across both state and international boarders, “grappling” with how to translate the language...
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Childhood Trauma, Addiction, and Eating Disorders (Psychology Today)
By Carolyn C. Ross M.D., M.P.H. April 29, 2020, Real Healing. What Native American, African Americans, and Holocaust survivors have in common. Have you ever thought about traumatic experiences as having their roots in the lives of your parents or grandparents? Trauma can be defined as the loss of an essential part of ourselves — a sense of safety, of trust or security. Trauma ultimately has the ability to define our behaviors, actions, and sense of self. More and more research is also...
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Childhood Trauma pt 4, Dr. Susan Esquilin, Clinical Psychologist, University of Chicago
Lecture detailing practices for understanding and treating children with trauma. http://youtu.be/lf7RSTzci-c
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Children in Care can Recover from Adversity with the Right Adoptive Environment, Research Finds [medicalxpress.com]
By Cardiff University, Medical Xpress, July 31, 2019 Research on adoptive family life in Wales has revealed the levels of adversity many children have experienced. Academics from Cardiff University analysed social services records of a cohort of children in Wales who were adopted in the same year. Adoptive parents also completed surveys about the children over a four-year period after the placement began, commenting annually on any difficulties the child was having and their parenting. The...
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Children in foster care: How to address their mental health needs [philly.com]
There is an urgency to ensure each child’s needs are addressed when he or she enters foster care. Children in this system have greater health needs and frequently suffer from higher rates of behavioral and learning problems that are often misdiagnosed as ADHD. Fortunately, we now have a guide on how to get these children in foster care the care they need. Recently, at a meeting sponsored by CMS Health Care Payment and Learning Action Network on how to pay for quality health care, reports...
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Children of imprisoned parents get Oregon bill of rights [streetroots.org]
"The first state law of its kind..." reads the article! A big thanks to Oregon law makers for pioneering law supporting the rights of children of incarcerated parents. On Tuesday September 19 th , Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed into law a bill of rights for Oregon's children requiring the Oregon Department of Corrections to develop and sustain policies and procedures supporting the needs of families, and protecting the rights of children, when parents are incarcerated. This legislation is...
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Children of the Opioid Epidemic Are Flooding Foster Homes. America Is Turning a Blind Eye. (motherjones.com)
The scourge of addiction to painkillers, heroin, and fentanyl sweeping the country has produced a flood of bewildered children who, having lost their parents to drug use or overdose, are now living with foster families or relatives. In Ashtabula County, in Ohio's northeast corner, the number of children in court custody quadrupled from 69 in 2014 to 279 last year . "I can't remember the last time I removed a kid and it didn't have to do with drugs," says Mongenel, a quick-witted redhead.
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Chronicle investigation spurs calls to close foster care shelters (sfgate.com)
The state attorney general's office is looking into hundreds of dubious arrests at California's shelters for abused and neglected children that were detailed last week in a San Francisco Chronicle investigative report . A County officials have called for immediate reviews of the newspaper's findings that shelter staff contacted the sheriff an average of nine times a day last year, with children booked at juvenile hall nearly 200 times in 2015 and 2016. The county shelters are the first stop...
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Come Chat with Dr. Claudia M. Gold: An ACE-Informed Pediatrician
Date: July 11th Time: 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST Location: Parenting with ACEs Group , Online Flyer: Attached below. Please share. Dr. Claudia M. Gold has practiced general and behavioral pediatrics for 25 years and specializes in early childhood mental health. She is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts, Boston Infant-Parent Mental Health program, William James College, and the Austen Riggs Center where she is a Human Development consultant. Dr. Gold is author of the following...
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Comfort in Chaos: Understanding Trauma Brain
I make no bones about it, as a foster child, I don’t think I was an easy person to get along with and I certainly wasn’t trying to make bonds or connections with those around me. I went into foster care at the age of 13. My life prior to entering the system was one of immense dysfunction, and I had practically raised myself. My mom was rarely around, and when she was it was usually to tell me that we were moving. We moved over 50 times and I went to more than 35 schools in my life before the...
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Coming Together to Create the Child Welfare System We All Want [ChronicleOfSocialChange.org]
Our nation’s future vitality depends upon all children having the opportunity to grow into healthy, successful, socially and civically engaged adults. Essential to that process is ensuring that children have access to stable, nurturing relationships and the resources needed to support their development. The Family First Prevention Services Act , which was signed into law as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act on February 9, 2018, is an important step toward realizing this goal. For child...
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Commentary: A fresh start for former foster-care youths [philly.com]
This piece is a wonderful commentary showcasing a solution story out of Philledelphia where a coffee shop is creating a sense of community, job-skills, and life-skills for young adults formerly placed in foster care. The Monkey and the Elephant is a shining example of doing right by foster alumni, and bringing hope to ending intergenerational cycles of trauma and adversity. Sherreiff McCrae was 5 years old when he was placed in the care of a neighbor. Not long after, the Department of Human...
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Committee Votes to Establish Kansas Foster Care Task Force [kansaspublicradio.org]
A Kansas House committee voted without dissent today (TUE) to establish a new task force to improve the state's foster care system. Foster parents, law enforcement, and court officials have all been testifying that they struggle to get information and services for children in state custody. That, plus high caseloads and turnover among social workers has meant that more Kansas children are waiting to go home or be adopted. Republican Linda Gallagher, Vice Chair of the Children and Seniors...
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Community Buffers Help Children in Foster Care Thrive [hometownsource.com]
By Sheila McCoy, Morrison County Record, February 2, 2020 Children who are placed in foster care or are adopted often carry trauma and other mental health issues with them. It is a natural response to their experiences. While many receive counseling and other mental health services, there are several ways the community can help the children to build resiliency to their adverse childhood experiences. Examples of adverse childhood experiences are emotional, physical and sexual abuse,...
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Conyngham woman testifies about need for change in foster care system
HARRISBURG — A young woman who grew up in the foster care system in Luzerne County testified before a state House Committee on Monday about her experiences and why changes to state laws are so desperately needed. Brittany Bullock, 20, now...
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Countywide birthday party sparks hope for girls aging out of foster care [Seattle Weekly]
By Olivia Sullivan, July 17, 209 for Seattle Weekly ‘EVERY ONE OF THEIR STORIES IS DIFFERENT’ Celebrate 18! was held by nonprofit Eileen & Callie’s Place on Saturday. Sitting under a balloon arch surrounded by colorfully wrapped birthday presents, 17-year-old Kathie Nguyen beamed as she explained why this was the first birthday in her lifetime that she actually enjoyed. Nguyen, along with other girls from the South King County area, received more than just birthday wishes at Celebrate...
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Crow Wing Energized: Growing Resilience [brainerddispatch.com]
The focus of community education on Adverse Childhood Experiences has been to understand their long-term impact and to protect young people from as many of these events as possible. But what do we do to help those who have experienced adversity or are currently being impacted by one of life's really tough experiences? The answer is to help them build resilience. The answer is correct, but usually neglects to tell how, and knowing how makes all the difference. This is the first of a series of...
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Data Sharing Tool Helps Educators and Caseworkers Focus on Foster Youth Success (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
As California continues to work to address educational disparities for foster students, an increasing number of counties in the state are buying into a homegrown data-sharing system designed to improve academic outcomes for the state’s foster youth. Since its rollout in 2000, 41 of California’s 58 counties have integrated Foster Focus, a web-based program that helps bridge the data gap between the education, child welfare and probation officials who share responsibility for the state’s...
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DCYF Director Says N.H. More Focused on Keeping Families Together [nhpr.org]
By Rick Ganley and Mary McIntyre, New Hampshire Public Radio, October 17, 2019 Reports of child abuse and neglect reached a record high in New Hampshire during the last fiscal year. That's according to data released last week by the Division for Children, Youth and Families, the state's child welfare system. NHPR's Morning Edition Host Rick Ganley spoke with the DCYF director Joe Ribsam about what this data mean for measuring the agency's progress and how DCYF plans to do better. [ Please...
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Defang ACEs: End toxic stress by developing resilience through physician-community partnerships [Pediatrics]
" When I was 12, my parents became part of the Maryland foster care system. Over many years, we took care of a total of 6 boys who had been placed in foster care. Some had suffered from physical and sexual abuse, others from neglect. Often, their parents struggled with mental health and substance use disorders. The traumas my siblings had experienced had clear impacts on their immediate mental and physical health. What we did not know was that these adverse experiences could also have...
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Defining Moments: Finding Peace After Foster Care [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
“Maya Angelou’s book, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ was definitely that pivotal moment for me,” Sharrica said. “I think about how she responded to the tragedy in her life by turning in. It was profound to me because when you don’t have anything or anybody else – you can turn in.” How does one find peace within themselves? There is a lot of discussion right now about mindful meditation, communing with nature and that old standby, the power of positive thinking. But sometimes it’s hard to...
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Defining Moments: How the Foster Care System Can Be a Stepping Stone [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
“I told them we were being taken and I didn’t know where we were going and when we were coming back.” That’s how Kaysie, then 14, recalls telling her friends about the fact that she and her siblings were headed to foster care. What was supposed to be a weekend stay turned into seven years in the system. The words strength and resilience are often used to characterize youth in care. They got through it because they are tough, they’re successful because they have grit. We want to find reasons...
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Demonizing ‘Crack Mothers,’ Victimizing Their Children [nytimes.com]
I am humbly honored to have been featured in “ Slandering the Unborn ” (“A Woman’s Rights” editorial series, nytimes.com, Dec. 28). As one of the mothers who suffered during the 1990s crack epidemic, I want to thank The New York Times for its apology for how it demonized mothers like me and for its brilliant journalism. The apology is welcomed, and it gives me hope. I want to apologize as well — to society, the media, my family and my children. My child welfare case happened because of my...
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Despite Gains, the Emotional Lives of Children Often Forgotten by Our Medical System [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
By A.K. Whitney, Center for Health Journalism, November 11, 2019 I don’t remember the date, or even the time of year, though the medical records tell me it was 1977. I was 6. But I will always remember that day: the gloomy, wood-paneled exam room at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, the hard, high table I sat on, the doctor looming above me as he muttered about swan necks and hammers, though there were no birds or tools in sight. He didn’t bother making eye contact with me. I’m not sure he...
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Developing Super Powers: Using Resilience Strategies to Cope with Negative Experiences. Introducing CRI's Newest Book!
“I believe that everyone, especially a child, deserves to know how their brains are shaped by environment, to then understand their capacity for building proactive protective factors. We all deserve to be super heroes as we do the best we can to consciously live life well. ” - Teri Barila The superheroes we learn about in comics, movies, and TV shows swoop in to save the world with their incredible powers, to shield people from harm. But in our world, no matter how much we wish to protect...
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Dewayne ‘The Foster Care Rock’ Johnson [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
Dewayne Johnson might not have the worldwide fan following of the similarly named pro wrestler-turned-movie star. But, in his way, he has become a true rock for kids in need. Johnson, 48, is a social worker with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), home to the largest local population of foster kids in the nation. He’s also a bit of a unicorn. Born into foster care himself, Johnson spent his childhood moving from house to house, relative to relative. One...
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Disrupt the cycle of adversity, disease [courier-journal)
“Imagine a community where all children are happy and healthy.” The beginning of the New Year provides the perfect opportunity to dream big dreams like this — when virtually anything is possible. A recent series of meetings convened by “BRICK,” a group of Louisville leaders committed to B uilding R esilience I n our C ommunity’s K ids, invited participants to imagine how to make this wish come true for Louisville by exploring new ways of approaching historically vexing problems. The result...
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Documentary on Florida's troubled foster care system draws big St. Pete crowd [floridapolitics.com]
A new film focusing on Florida’s troubled foster care system drew a large crowd at a screening in Gulfport Wednesday night. ‘ Foster Shock ’ is a documentary highlighting the ills of the state’s child welfare system showed how a government body had completely turned over the responsibility and care of children to contracted, for-profit companies, who, in turn, contract out the work to other companies, exposing minors to dangers such as violence, drugs, sex trafficking and criminalization.
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“Does Anyone Want the Child?”: Mom’s Viral Response to the Question That Destroyed Her Boy Is Too Powerful to Ignore [faithit.com]
It is said that if just ONE family in every single church across America agreed to take in ONE foster child, there would be nobody left in the system. Think about that for a minute. How many families do you have at your church? How many churches do you have in your town? It would take just ONE of those families from each of those churches to close what seems like an impossible revolving door. Sarah and her husband learned of the overwhelming foster care needs while researching adoption...
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Donna Jackson Nakazawa Chats Live with Jane Stevens & You: Nov. 14th
Featured Guest: @Donna Jackson Nakazawa Topic: Well-Being, Self-Care & ACEs Date: November 14th, 2017 Time: 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST Where: Here / Chats Donna Jackson Nakazawa is an winning researcher, writer and public speaker on health and family issues. She explores the intersection between neuroscience, immunology, and the deepest inner workings of the human heart. Her most recent book, Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal , examines...
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Dr. Gabor Maté & Full-Potential Parenting, Even When It Is Hard
Note: Allison Morris had dozens of experts in her summit series through Full-Potential Parenting. I took notes only on those by Donna Jackson Nakazawa , Gabe Maté and Sebern Fisher (coming later this month). Though the audios are no longer available, for free, they can be purchased for $100. or less (depending on the year), here. Forgive me for sounding like an advertisement, I don't know Allison personally. I am a huge fan of all parent-led resources and wish I discovered this series...
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Early childhood programs can reduce the effects of trauma [missoulian.com]
Connecting very young children who've experienced adversity with high quality early childhood programs can provide both the child and the family with the tools, support, protective factors, and resources to address the effects of trauma on the child and the family. I've seen first hand the benefits early childhood programs can bring to families and communities. Often times, families who encounter child welfare don't need an extensive, court-involved child welfare intervention, and can be...
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Eunju Lee's Research on Kinship Care: Informing a Community-based ACE Response
Eunju Lee, assistant professor at the University at Albany, is a leading contributor to a body of research focusing on kinship care. Kinship care occurs when children cannot safely stay in the care of their parents due to child maltreatment, parental substance abuse, parental mental health issues or other reasons. In these cases, relatives, or family friends in some jurisdictions, take over the care of the children. Kinship care is often utilized by child welfare services as a diversion from...
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Explaining behavior: Professional seek to address students' trauma [thenotebook.org]
Professionals from multiple disciplines working with children and families came together earlier this month in Philadelphia for a three-day conference on trauma-informed practice – the Greater Philadelphia Trauma Training . … About 360 people from the Philadelphia area and across the Eastern seaboard attended, she said, and about of 100 of them work with K-12 students. The first two days of the conference emphasized the basics of trauma-informed work with children from the vantage points of...