Seventeenth Edition: Preventing ACEs | Healing Adversity | Promoting Resilience | Georgia PACEs Connection (GA)

Aligning Resources Across Georgia To Support Resiliency

To Our Resilient Georgia Partners and Stakeholders:

Please mark your calendars for our upcoming Resilient Georgia General Meeting focused on Teen Mental Health on June 10th, from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm. We will have several experts share leading practices & exciting efforts underway to bolster teen mental health across the state. Please use this link to register, and access the meeting agenda and materials on our General Meeting webpage soon. We look forward to your attendance!

Join Resilient Middle Georgia's Jill Vanderhoek and Dr. Andrea Meyer Stinson on May 20, 6-7pm & May 24, 3-4pm as they explore the impact that relationships have on our lives. By providing an overview of the ACE's study, Connect Now aims to teach community members how to build connections that improve resiliency, prevent childhood trauma, and support those affected by trauma.

We are so proud to highlight the work our talented Resilient Georgia partner, storyteller, creator, and staunch mental health advocate, Chrishaunda Lee Perez is doing to advance the conversation around the critical need for more doctors, mental health providers, and health care advocates of color. In Episode 8 of The Young & Woke show, Chrishaunda sits down with medical physicians and mental health entrepreneurs with dynamic programs and support platforms to encourage the Black community as a whole to prioritize their physical and mental health care needs.

This episode also features our inspiring colleague Christina Guilbeau's vital mental health work for underserved youth and their families! Christina is the Founder of Hopebound – a Resilient Georgia partner that works with schools and community programs in Georgia and New Jersey to provide under-resourced adolescents the mental health support they deserve.

We are excited to promote the incredible work Resilient Georgia's Athens Northeast Georgia regional coalition is doing across 6 counties in our spotlight section!

We would also like to highlight several resources and news updates:

Register for the 2021 Embark Georgia Virtual Leadership Conference on May 24 – 26, 2021 from 8:45 to 11:30 AM. Hear from the state and national practitioners on serving students who experienced foster care and homelessness during the pandemic.
Please join the White County Family Connection for a screening and brief discussion of the documentary “All Rise: For the Good of the Children” on Friday, May 21st at 11:00 AM at Mountain Education Charter High School’s Transportation Building [4356 Helen Highway, Cleveland, GA 30528].
Join Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network and Self Discovery: Pain, Positioning & Purpose, Inc. on June 23 & 24 for a free personalized Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) training. Register here by June 4th.
Bookmark this round-up of mental health resources compiled by The Lily answering the most commonly asked questions about therapy.
Read more about the top issues for children and families from the 2021 Legislative Session compiled by Voices for Georgia's Children.
Finally, NAMI Georgia in partnership with GaDOE is offering a free three-day Mental Health Awareness Training symposium, on June 2-4. View the training schedule and register here!

May is also Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month -- a celebration recognizing the contributions and influence of the AAPI community to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States! In honor of this month, the Cobb County Library system has compiled a booklist by and about Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans for all ages. AAPIs have the lowest mental health help-seeking rate of any racial/ethnic group, with only 23.3% of AAPI adults with a mental illness receiving treatment in 2019 (SAMHSA National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2020). Mental Health America's AAPI webpage provides data on mental health and issues that affect AAPI communities, and a list of helpful resources and partnerships.

Resilient Georgia continues to be here to support you and share as many helpful resources as possible. Continue to take good care of yourselves, so that you can in turn keep taking care of others. Thank you for all that you are doing to prevent ACEs, heal adversity and promote resiliency amongst Georgia's children and families! We look forward to seeing you all at our 'Teen Mental Health' General Meeting on June 10th!

Sincerely,

Brenda Fitzgerald, MD

Executive Board Chair

Emily Anne Vall, PhD

Executive Director

Regional Coalition Spotlight

Can you give us a brief description of Athens Northeast Georgia regional coalition ?

The Athens Northeast Georgia regional coalition prioritizes a trauma-informed behavioral health continuum of care. The coalition focuses its evidence-based efforts on urban, suburban, and rural areas in the Northeast Georgia region.

Athens Northeast Georgia

Coalition Geographic Service Area: Barrow, Clarke,

Jackson, Madison, Oconee, Oglethorpe

What are some of the innovative partnerships that have helped address the behavioral health needs of the region?

The Athens Area Community Foundation, Athens

Wellbeing Project, Envision Athens, and the University of

Georgia are the four cornerstones of institutional support that

ensure the stewardship and success of various objectives

to improve birth to 26 trauma-informed practices in the

Northeast Georgia region.

What are some accomplishments you would like to highlight?

Athens Northeast Georgia has successfully hosted multiple community trainings including two virtual Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) trainings.
They have also conducted a region-wide behavioral health needs assessment that assesses the behavioral health provider-side challenges and needs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and provides a snapshot of the behavioral health infrastructure of Northeast Georgia.

Click here to read more about the amazing work the Athens Northeast Georgia regional coalition is doing to address the needs of its community.

Websites: http://www.athenswellbeingproject.org/ https://envisionathens.com/ https://athensareacf.org/

Teen Mental Health

Worsening adolescent mental health continues to make the headlines. This New York Times opinion piece cites the statistic that "46 percent of parents say their teenagers’ mental health has declined during the pandemic." Similarly, the percentage of emergency room visits for 12-to-17-year-olds also rose 31 percent from 2019 to 2020.

Another recent New York Times article documents the overarching feelings of isolation and emotional distress amongst high school sophomores in 2020. Students report high levels of disconnection with their school work and personal relationships which resulted in failing grades. Read how educators like Mrs. E.K., an A.P. World teacher, are working tirelessly to restore a bit of normalcy and support the students emotionally and academically.

Psychologist, Emily Esfahani Smith echoes this in a guest essay, where she also highlights that there's an increase in students' stress and anxiety levels. She further attributes this increase not to the lockdown but rather to the "pressure to succeed at school". Her advice to parents and caregivers is to "emphasize different benchmarks for achievement" and to praise children for their loving relationships and altruism rather than just for getting good grades or gaining admission to a top university.

On a positive note, psychiatrist and neurobiology expert, Dr. Richard Friedman reminds us in his guest essay that while the pandemic has had a real impact on mental health, this impact will not be permanent for most people. "[H]umans are more resilient than we realize. We can bounce back."

Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences (PACEs)

A new study by Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy quantified the health-care cost of women in Arizona who experienced trauma as children and estimates that ACEs cost Medicare at least $260 million in 2019. The authors hope that the study "can facilitate discussion[s] on reducing ACEs" and an extra incentive to invest in creating "buffering" positive experiences.

Two new national resources working towards the goal of reducing ACEs and increasing PCEs are Number Story, the first ACEs National Public Health Campaign, and a collaborative book by Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Bruce Perry, 'What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing' -

Understanding the story behind one’s ACEs score can empower and support people and families, which is what NumberStory.org is designed to do. The campaign, funded through private philanthropy, is a creation of the ACE Resource Network. With an Advisory Council helmed by California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, the ACE Resource Network was established to increase ACEs awareness and education, promote healing and prevention, and to disrupt the transmission of ACEs to future generations.
To learn more about Dr. Perry & Oprah Winfrey's new book, listen to this podcast interview with Dr. Brene Brown where they define trauma and ACEs, talk about why big and small traumas activate our stress response systems and create emotional, physical, and social consequences, and how we can find the path to healing.

Finally, the Savannah Police Department and the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) are partnering on a new program, 'Handle with Care' aimed at helping students who have been exposed to trauma. The program will put in place a system for law enforcement to formally notify school districts when a child has been exposed to trauma and violence, and the schools in turn will be able to connect the student with appropriate resources at school in a timely and supportive manner.

COVID-19 Resources

Lyft and United Way 2-1-1 of Greater Atlanta have partnered to provide FREE Lyft Rides to Vaccine Appointments. Individuals and organizations in need of vaccine transportation can dial 2-1-1 or 404-614-1000 to receive a free ride!

The FDA has authorized the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 12 to 15. To help parents make an informed decision, hear Children's Healthcare of Atlanta pediatric infectious disease specialists answer your most common questions.

Emory University & Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta are participating in a clinical trial testing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 6 mths to 12 yrs old . Listen to Dr. Evan Anderson, PI for the KidCOVE study at Emory Children’s Clinic, discuss the study on WABE's Closer Look on May 18.

Racial Equity Resources

What Happens When Children Witness Anti-Asian Racist Attacks & What Can We Do About It? Sheknows is a digital mommy magazine that provides expert informed answers, including how to model being an upstander rather than a bystander.

Read more about how gentrification is making homeownership out of reach for low-income communities of color, and how the Atlanta Land Trust, has developed an innovative community solution to create, protect and preserve affordable housing forever for low-income buyers.