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Four years ago, Dr. Leslie Dempsey would never have talked about ACEs — adverse childhood experiences — with her patients. Now ACEs is a common topic. “Just as I don’t feel awkward asking someone if they smoke or do intravenous drugs, I don’t really feel awkward talking about their childhood traumas in a way that it relates to their health. It’s just integrated into obtaining background and social history,” she says. Dr. Leslie Dempsey Dempsey is a physician in obstetrics who oversees a team...

By Stephanie James, Napa Valley Register, January 2, 2020 California’s juvenile justice system has evolved as we have learned more about brain development, the effects of adverse childhood experiences and social, emotional, and mental health needs of our young people. While ensuring community safety, we have moved away from the old norms of an overly punitive system to one that follows research and science to fulfill the statutorily stated mission of juvenile justice: rehabilitation. I have...

Nearly two years ago, a team of colleagues at LifeLong Medical Clinics jumped at the opportunity to integrate practices based on ACEs science to prevent and heal trauma in their patients when it joined a two-year learning collaborative known as the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative (RBC). A few months after training began, the staff realized they had to put on the brakes.

By Bay City News and Mountain View Voice Staff, Mountain View Voice, December 11, 2019 Santa Clara County Supervisors Tuesday allocated $200,000 to a new pilot program to help domestic violence victims whose partner tried to strangle them. The county will partner with the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office and the Santa Clara Police Department to respond to victims who are 12 years old and older. Law enforcement officers will ask victims if they consent to a hospital visit, and will be...

The Department of Health Care Services and the California Office of the Surgeon General are hosting a webinar of the Trauma-Informed Care Implementation Advisory Committee’s Provider Education and Engagement Subcommittee. Subcommittee members will discuss a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) released for public comment as part of the ACEs Aware initiative. The draft RFP invites external organizations to apply for grants to support provider training activities, provider engagement activities...

For Dr. Mercie Digangi, a pediatrician at Kaiser Southern California in Downey, CA, ACEs screening provided a crystal clear before-and-after in how she changed treatment plans for her pediatric patients, she explained to attendees of a December 2 webinar organized by the National Pediatric Practice Community on ACEs (NPPC) and cosponsored by ACEs Connection. Dr. Mercie Digangi One case that turned ACEs screening into a never-go-back moment for her was a three-year-old who was speech-delayed.

Dr. Melissa Merrick, president & CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America, provides four key takeaways from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest Vital Signs/ACEs report , of which she is the lead author. Merrick also identifies several practical solutions for creating the conditions for safe, stable and nurturing relationships and environments for all children, families and communities, which are fundamental to preventing ACEs. Among these solutions is strengthening economic...

Click HERE to learn more. Description The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Centers for Mental Health Services (CMHS) and Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), are accepting applications for the fiscal year (FY) 2020 Tribal Behavioral Health Grant Program (Short Title: Native Connections). The purpose of this program is to prevent suicide and substance misuse, reduce the impact of trauma, and promote mental health among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN)...

Attendees at the San Mateo event participate in ice-breaking exercise When you’re working with people who've had a lot of childhood and adult adversity, it’s hard for you to believe that anyone else can have a bad day, says Laura van Dernoot Lipsky. “Your neighbor or your best friend says: ‘I’ve had a bad day.’ And you think, ‘Oh, I’m sorry you had a bad day; were you sex trafficked today? No, you were not!'” Laura van Dernoot Lipsky Van Dernoot Lipsky, the author of Trauma Stewardship: An...

"And Now, Love," is an award-winning documentary memoir on the life and work of Dr. Bernard W. Bail, a highly decorated World War II American Jewish veteran who was captured by the Nazis and rescued by a secret love affair with his German nurse. After the war, Bail came to believe that all wars are the manifestation of the wars within ourselves. Dedicated to healing mental anguish, he became a doctor and psychoanalyst who developed a theory called the “mother’s imprint,” focusing on...

By Anna Maria Barry-Jester, California Healthline, October 28, 2019 Farm laborers in yellow safety vests walked through neatly arranged rows of grapes Friday, harvesting the last of the deep purple bundles that hung from the vines, even as the sky behind them was dark with soot. Over the hill just behind them, firetrucks and first responders raced back and forth from a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection staging area, working to contain a wildfire raging through the rugged...

Last week, three pediatricians — with a combined experience of 15 years integrating ACEs science into their practices — reflected on the urgency they felt several years ago that prompted them to begin screening patients for childhood adversity and resilience when there was practically no guidance at all. Along their journey , they accumulated a list of lessons learned for other pediatricians and family clinics to use. The three pediatricians participated in the ACEs Connection webinar,...