Blog

Check out this wonderful holiday resource developed by the Pittsburg County Trauma Task Force. Thanks to Stacy Williams and Carol Blansett for sharing. https://www.acesconnection.com/g/raising-resilient-oklahomans/clip/mcalester-aces-info-and-holiday-stress-tips-pdf

As I travel across communities, I find a range of different reactions to discussions surrounding Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Some people are completely confused and look at me with deer-in-the-headlights expressions having never heard this term before. However, those who are familiar with ACEs (and most likely have seen the movie Resilience ), ask me, “Now that we know about trauma, how do we help?” As knowledge about the impact of trauma on mental and physical health is spreading,...

An exciting and somewhat logical outgrowth that has followed the Resilience documentary screenings sponsored by the Potts Family Foundation has been the creation of multidisciplinary teams formed to think about and take next steps within their communities. Led by Resilient Payne County, formed over two years ago, other communities are following a similar path in bringing key leaders together to assess their community’s strengths and define community needs around mitigating and preventing the...

“In every published study of hope, every single one, hope is the single best predictor of well-being compared to any other measures of trauma recovery. This finding is consistently corroborated with other published studies from top universities showing that hope is the best predictor for a life well-lived."

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — The law regarding child abuse, including discipline taken to extreme, is considered outdated and open to interpretation. It hasn't been updated since the 1960s. Help In Crisis Forensic Interviewer Leah Moore operates the Cherokee County Children's Advocacy Center and the Multi-Disciplinary Team. There were 156 children, ages 3-17, served by the free-standing multidisciplinary child abuse team during fiscal year 2018 for Cherokee County. The Child Task Force works to...

By ESTELLE SLOOTMAKER | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2019, Published in Second Wave Michigan This article is part of State of Health, a series examining integrated care and its potential to improve Michiganders' health. It is made possible with funding from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund. Divorce, a parent's death or imprisonment, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and the daily experience of racism. They're all sadly common events, known as adverse childhood experiences or ACEs. But the...

The two biggest myths about ACEs science are: MYTH #1 — That it’s just about the 10 ACEs in the ACE Study — the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study . It’s about sooooo much more than that. MYTH #2 — And that it’s just about ACEs…adverse childhood experiences. These two myths are intertwined. The ACE Study issued the first of its 70+ publications in 1998, and for many people it was the lightning bolt, the grand “aha” moment, the unexpected doorway into a blazing new...

As the knowledge of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and trauma resilience begins to flow through Oklahoma and our nation, multiple programs, interventions and entire agencies are popping up to address the negative impact of trauma. As the river of knowledge flows faster and rises, the words of Desmond Tutu should inspire agencies and schools to take action. Desmond Tutu so brilliantly stated: There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go...

Resilience—understood as the set of personal resources that help individuals deal effectively with adversity, protecting them from the negative health effects of stress—is receiving increasing attention from researchers. However, it remains understudied in such a sensitive time of life as pregnancy. Previous studies have found that pregnancy is a crucial period during which exposure to stress can negatively affect the health of both mother and baby. Stress has been linked to a range of...

Cissy's Note: I work with people who challenge systems and policies, who reform or start non-profits, and who see hope and promise where others see despair or destruction. While some folks shake their heads or shrug indifferently in the face of injustice and suffering, others organize, mobilize, and channel their time and energy towards making a change. Maybe a physician hosts an annual conference bringing trauma-informed approaches to medical practice. Perhaps a woman shares ACEs 101...

In the last week, more than 30 people have died in three separate mass shootings in Gilroy , El Paso and Dayton, Ohio . We believe that analyzing and understanding data about who commits such massacres can help prevent more lives being lost. For two years, we’ve been studying the life histories of mass shooters in the United States for a project funded by the National Institute of Justice , the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. We’ve built a database dating back to 1966 of...

Usually when you read about childhood traumas in the United States, you read about extreme cases. Although these extreme cases are substantial and should be reported on, a lot of Americans miss the point when it comes to what an overwhelming amount of kids are actually dealing with when it comes to neglect. According to the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth , the number of child abuse and/or neglect reports in 2017 in Oklahoma was 79,310. Of those reports, 62,828 were investigated...