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Between 55 and 99 percent of women who attend addiction treatment and between 85 and 95 percent of women with a history of mental illness have a history of trauma. Among this trauma , the vast majority happened during childhood. Whether the trauma involves neglect, sexual assault, or dysfunction within the family, the need for trauma-informed care in both addiction treatment and in the mental health field is of great importance. When I found myself at a detox facility 1,300 miles away from...

Students start each day with meditation During her first year as principal of Suisun Elementary in Suisun City, Calif., in 2014 Ann Marie Neubert suspended 102 students — out of a student population of 550 —for disrupting their classes. It was a serious problem, but the school’s teachers didn’t know what to do. “[Teachers] felt like they were using all the tools in their toolbox and it wasn’t changing behavior,” she recalls. Ann Marie Neubert Too many students were spending too much time out...

I have avoided writing this blog because there is so much that needs to be addressed regarding the judicial system and trauma – the theme of this newsletter. But of course, it is this avoidance that I, we must resist because avoidance often perpetuates harm. To talk about the judicial system means we have to talk about racism, systemic oppression, power, economics, and trauma and that can feel overwhelming. Even what we call the system can lead to inaccurate assumptions and connections. For...

The Community Health Assessment (CHA), a comprehensive overview of the health of the Humboldt County community, was presented at the Board of Supervisors meeting this afternoon. The Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Public Health report looks at traditional public health measures of illness, mortality, nutrition and physical activity in the community. The CHA also includes data about income, housing status, community safety and access to care, as underlying...

Less then 5 years ago long-time trauma informed advocates, Sandra Bloom, MD and Andrea Blanch, PhD, brought together a small group of similarly-minded folks to talk about forming a new national organization focused on trauma informed policy and practice. Months later the Campaign for Trauma Informed Policy and Practice CTIPP was born. In May of 2019, CTIPP was selected by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to receive its Distinguished Service Award for meritorious service to the...

Laurel Morales, NPR, May 29, 2019. Neda Billie has been waiting to turn on lights in her home for 15 years. "We've been living off those propane lanterns," she says. "Now we don't have to have flashlights everywhere. All the kids have a flashlight so when they get up in the middle of the night like to use the restroom they have a flashlight to go to [the outhouse]." Billie, her husband and their five kids live in a tiny, one-room hogan, a traditional Navajo home. Their three sheep graze on...

By Jennifer Molina for EdSource Take a journey into rural Butte County, California where districts are confronting high rates of students missing school. [Read the accompanying article by David Washburn here. ]

As of May 2019, the California Evidence-Based Clearing House (CEBC) has reviewed and rated over 450 programs. These programs are organized across 47 unique topic area s and each topic area varies in the number of programs with published peer-reviewed research evidence. The topic areas with the smallest number of research-supported programs are listed in the first table below in order to illustrate where gaps in effective services exist for child welfare-involved populations. The second table...

Programs, organizations, and systems that make a commitment to implementation will differ in many ways–from the service context, to the motivation for change, to hoped-for outcomes, and resources available. Nonetheless, in a developmental way, implementation moves through a number of common steps that we’ve tried to reflect in the Road Map below. The Trauma Informed Care Screening Tool (found below the Road Map) builds on the Road Map by delving into each phase and offering a series of...

The new $32 million OLE Health Napa Valley Vintners South Napa Campus clinic is getting prepped to start receiving patients June 3. Located at 300 Hartle Court in the South Napa Century Center shopping venue, the federally qualified health center network's flagship location is set to serve 37,000 patients, including 8,000 children, by providing access to a wide range of health care services under one roof, the organization announced Wednesday. OLE Health operates several health center...

At-risk youth in Southwest Fresno can expect access to a new boxing ring, fitness equipment, meditation room and mentoring programs with help from Kaiser Permanente Fresno. With the ribbon cutting at the Cecil C. Hinton Community Center on Tuesday morning, Police Chief Jerry Dyer was in attendance, along with elected officials including Fresno Mayor Lee Brand, Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias, and Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp. Inside, they displayed some of the new...

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on May 22 on the challenges that states face in their efforts to support children affected by trauma. The findings were based in part on interviewing state and local officials in six states (Colorado, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, Washington, and Wisconsin) along with questionnaires to 16 states. The request for the report was made by two Illinois members of Congress, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin and Congressman Danny Davis, and...