Tagged With "community well-being"
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The Absence of Punishment in Our Schools
Where to begin... My heart is full of hope and joy as I watch the trauma-informed schools movement swell across our nation and planet. The science of ACEs is mind-bending to say the least and we are now able to open up a much deeper dialogue about human behavior and health. Ultimately this work is about healing… All. Of. Us. A new consciousness is taking root around ending the “us vs them” construct. The idea is growing that we’re all on this journey together and that no matter where our...
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The courageous fight to fix the NBA's mental health problem
Mental health in the NBA Our five-part series on mental health issues in the NBA: • The state of mental health in the NBA • Mental health in the NBA's black community • To medicate or not? A difficult decision • Behind the anxiety and anger of an NBA ref • The future of mental health in the NBA http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24382693/jackie-macmullan-kevin-love-paul-pierce-state-mental-health-nba ACE's HIGHLIGHT Parham, a psychologist and director of Loyola Marymount's School of...
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The scientific effort to protect babies from trauma before it happens [qz.com]
By Jenny Anderson, Quartz, June 22, 2019. For nearly 30 years, Javier Aceves worked as a pediatrician in Albuquerque, New Mexico, focusing primarily on disadvantaged families. His approach was holistic: along with treating children, he did outreach with teens, and helped children’s parents with everything from addiction to learning how to be a supportive caregiver. For all the programs he helped develop, the patterns he kept seeing haunted him. He could treat young kids’ medical problems,...
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TIC Take Five: Navigating through Grief: Supports for Ourselves and Others
Here's another in a little series we're posting over on the Lancaster County (PA) ACES & Resilience Connection site to promote a regular practice to "take five" (minutes) for self-care. Sharing with the wider ACES Connection community in case it's helpful. Peace. Be well, everyone. In an article last week in Harvard Business Review, titled “That Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief”, grief expert David Kessler names the multiple types of losses we’re experiencing in the midst of the...
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Trauma-Informed Social Justice: Q&A with Dr. Bukuloa Ogunkua
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...
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Welcome to Raising Resilient Oklahomans! Community
The Potts Family Foundation is passionate about improving the condition of Oklahoma’s future workforce: our children. While all children benefit from early and proven investments in character and cognitive development programs, economic studies have proven that children in lower socio-economic households benefit the most. Rates of return for these children can be in the double digits. More than one in five children in Oklahoma live in poverty . The families of these children face many...
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Whole People Series & Study Guide (www.pbs.org)
There's a fantastic five-part series, Whole People , done by PBS, " spotlighting the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) through personal and community stories. It explores the long-term costs to personal well-being and our society. While much work needs to be done, there are many innovative developments to prevent and treat ACES. We all play a role in becoming a whole people." It's amazing. The five topics covered are as follows: Childhood Trauma Healing Communities A New...
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Windows of Opportunity: Providing a Warm Handoff to Positive Services
As a follow-up to the " Are You OK? You Are Not Alone Anymore" Resource Poster , there have been important discussions in many local and statewide coalitions about "Windows of Opportunity" to build trust and provide a warm handoff to these critical services. However, as we know through research, individuals with untreated trauma may have difficulty trusting strangers, organizations or government agencies, even if they are wanting to help. Often times, these individuals are experiencing...
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Windows of Opportunity: Providing a Warm handoff to Services
As a follow-up to the " Are You OK? You Are Not Alone Anymore" Resource Poster , there have been important discussions in many local and statewide coalitions about "Windows of Opportunity" to build trust and provide a warm handoff to these critical services. However, as we know through research, individuals with untreated trauma may have difficulty trusting strangers, organizations or government agencies, even if they are wanting to help. Often times, these individuals are experiencing...
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Fogleman: Documentary, panel focuses on trauma, stress
The documentary Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope was shown to community members at High Plains Technology Center on Monday. The one hour video focused on the impact of trauma on children’s health and ways to help them and their families become resilient. After the film, a panel of local community leaders answered questions about how this research can be applied in the community. “This film is about the impact of trauma on development on your health and well being...
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Gilmore: OKCPD Implement New Youth Trauma Assistance Program
Oklahoma City Police are rolling out a new program to help young victims and witnesses of trauma. The program called the Handle with Care, was first used in West Virginia and now Oklahoma City Police officers say they're on board as well. The way it works is fairly simple according to police and doesn't cost anything to implement. When officers respond to calls involving children suffering from trauma, they'll now be able to click on a link in an email which provides basic information...
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Go Slow To Go Fast
As agencies, schools and communities move toward becoming Trauma Informed, we should all remember in order “to go faster we should slow down”. I often tell leadership that becoming trauma informed is similar to how great Redwood trees grow. I heard a story once that a person visited the great Redwood forest and part of the tour led the group through an area that had previously suffered from a forest fire. As the crowd looked at the small trees growing, the guide explained that the...
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Grassroots resilience: Rural communities tackle ACEs
Rt to left—Adrienne Coopey, DO, Billings Clinic, MT, Lorenzo Lewis, The Confess Project, Little Rock, Ark, and Mendy Spohn, MPH, public health administrator in several counties in Oklahoma ________________________________________________ The three presenters for the “Grassroots Resilience: Rural Communities Tackle ACEs” workshop brought to life the unique challenges of addressing ACEs and trauma in rural communities and shared some valuable lessons for communities of any size. Mendy Spohn, a...
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Guide - Creating Trauma-Informed Policies: A Practice Guide for School and Mental Health Leadership
Author, Leora Wolf-Prusan, EdD, School Mental Health lead for SAMHSA's Mental Health Technology Center Pacific Southwest http://mhttcnetwork.org/mhttc/mhttc-psw.html Creating compassionate policies is a cornerstone strategy of educational leadership. This guide provides a deep dive into developing, implementing, and evaluating trauma-informed and compassionate school policies. It highlights four "choice points" for education and mental health leadership: Choice Point 1: Names &...
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Harvard Infographic on ACEs and Toxic Stress
This was just posted by Harvard. I thought all of us could use access to it, for use in our schools and the settings we work in. The full image is on the attached PDF.
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Here's how educators are learning to empathetically foster resilience in children affected by trauma
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...
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Herner: The Weight of Adverse Childhood Experiences
Adverse childhood experiences are incredibly common, and a local organization is looking to spread the word about what are commonly referred to as ACEs. According to a Centers for Disease Control study conducted from 1995 to 1997, ACEs can affect not only a person’s behavior and physical health later in life, but also how their offspring are wired. The study looked at more than 17,000 Californians’ childhood experiences as compared to their health and behavior as adults, and it focused on 10...
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Hinton: 'Angels' needed to help children, families in crisis
The preacher speaking at the pulpit almost paused as a man walked into the church. The Rev. Darrell L. Armstrong was delivering the eulogy at his mother's funeral in 1998, and he was startled, then angered, to see his mother's longtime companion — a man who had abused her, as well as Armstrong and all three of his brothers, a man who had been with her when she fatally overdosed. Armstrong wanted to leap out of the pulpit and chase the villain out of the church. Only his grandmother's audible...
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Hinton: Conference offers clergy training in child trauma
Several faith organizations and other agencies are joining forces to offer a special clergy training conference. The "Faith Communities Protecting Children: Recognizing and Responding to Adverse Childhood Experiences Conference" is set for 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. April 2, 2019, at Metro Tech Business Conference Center, 1900 Springlake Drive. "We strongly believe that faith-based organizations can and do play an important role in the prevention and healing of children who have experienced trauma.
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Hofmeister: Moving beyond trauma to hope
‘Our future can be brighter than our past.” These words of hope are critical for hundreds of thousands of Oklahoma children impacted by trauma and the public educators who serve them. Science tells us that childhood experiences of abuse and neglect linger in the brains of young people — causing them to relive their most agonizing experiences in an endless feedback loop and propelling them into a subconscious, and recurring, state of fight or flight that disrupts their ability to learn.
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Hunt & Kendall: Healthier Communities Start With Kids
The small city of Hudson is nestled in Upstate New York and home to fewer than 7,000 people. The city was hit hard by deindustrialization in the late 20th century, facing economic decline as factories closed and industry jobs left. In recent years development has surged, with the opening of antique stores, restaurants and art galleries. The city has become a popular destination for tourists and second-home owners. While our town is often celebrated as a story of revival, development has not...
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John Gomperts: The Underrated Healing Power of a Healthy Relationship
F or centuries, religion and science have regularly found themselves at odds in defining the essential truths of our world—a debate that, of course, continues today. So, we should take note when distinguished leaders in those two, often-conflicting domains find themselves arriving at the same conclusion about a fundamental question: how do we put more struggling young people on a path toward success? The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity by Nadine Burke...
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Jones: Day 2: Soda, cigarettes and trauma: How Adverse Childhood Experiences alter brain chemistry, cultivate unhealthy habits and prompt premature death
Patients would carry soda into Dr. Gerard Clancy’s office, with cigarettes tucked away for after therapy. Often victims of abuse or violent crime, they would seek soothing but risky behaviors to cope. Overweight. Chronic pain. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Type II diabetes. His former patients will die younger than they should, he said. Clancy conducted therapy sessions until he became president of the University of Tulsa in 2016. At his psychiatry clinic, he saw firsthand how a...
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Klass: Getting Through, Making Memories and Being the Grown-Ups [NYTimes.com]
I’m not here to tell you what the “good thing” is about the coronavirus situation, because there is no good thing about a pandemic, not ever. That doesn’t mean there won’t be acts of heroism, because there will be, and heartwarming stories, because we’ll have those too, and even — if we’re lucky — moments of scientific brilliance. But we still have to get through the bad stuff. And getting through the bad stuff with your kids may be your act of heroism, your heartwarming story, and even your...
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Killman: Day 1: Breaking the cycle
T he science is well established and should come as no surprise: children who suffer rough childhoods have a greater likelihood of being adversely affected later in life. Studies have shown that children who incur adverse experiences are more likely to develop mental health issues, suffer chronic health problems and/or take part in risky behaviors such as smoking or drug abuse. Oklahoma children are not immune from this phenomena. In fact we are No. 1, according to various nationwide...
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Let's Go Upstream
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...
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Limited Dollars, Significant Influence: How We Advocate, Convene & Catalyze
So Your Grant $ Don’t Go Far? Then be little but loud! Using your voice with people of influence can move others to action. Be they business, foundation or policy makers; you have credibility (earned or not) just by virtue of being a foundation. You can provide a stronger voice for the cause represented by the nonprofits that do the work you care about. That voice can be through social media, through newspaper editorials, through presentations to civic groups, etc. You can involve volunteer...
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Looking at childhood experiences related to stress
April is Stress Awareness Month and Child Abuse Awareness Month. In recognition of both of themes of awareness, I want to raise cognizance of toxic stress and adverse childhood experiences (ACES). Both lifelong physical and mental health problems arise when children experience extreme stress (toxic stress) caused by ACEs. Daily many children in our community experience toxic stress related to adverse childhood experiences (ACE). ...
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More & more states are connecting family friendly workplace practices to early childhood development
In Oklahoma, we call it the Family Positive Workplace but the basics and premise are the same. Employers who implement even a few of these practices are contributing to reducing the stress on and improving the work - family life balance of their employees. In 2018, the Potts Family Foundation introduced the Oklahoma Certified Family Positive Workplace initiative and recognized 12 businesses across the state with the Certification. This year we will recognize 32 more businesses. The...
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New Community!!! Ardmore OK Behavioral Health Collaborative
I'm excited to announce the newest ACEs Connection geographic community for my region, the Midwest & TN: Ardmore OK Behavioral Health Collaborative . This community is a partnership of local organizations taking a trauma-informed stance on behavioral health in Carter County, OK. Their goal is to build a healthy, connected and resilient community. The community manager is Ashley Godwin . Ashley Godwin joined Ardmore Behavioral Health Collaborative in March 2017 as the Director where she...
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Newbigging: Key to lifelong good mental health – learn resilience in childhood
Poor mental health among young people is on the rise in the UK, while access to support and treatment remains patchy . There is now a pressing need to build resilience in young people to minimise their risk of poor mental health later on, as our latest report argues . There are 12.5m young people in England, and one in ten will experience poor mental health. Half of all lifelong mental health problems start before the age of 14 , but only one in four young people uses mental health services.
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Nothing Matters More Than Hope -- Including Resiliency
“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."
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Now that we know, how do we help?
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,...
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Parker | Manaugh: Oklahoma establishes Pyramid Model State Leadership Team (Joins 31 other states as Pyramid Model partners
O KLAHOMA CITY, OK ( April 29 , 20 20 ) — In its role as Oklahoma’s Early Chi ldhood State Advisory Council, t he Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness (OPSR) Board established the Pyramid Model State Leadership Team (PMSLT) on April 16 , 2020 . This important action was taken in response to the high number of children in Oklahoma who experience advers ity during their early years as well as a need to improve coordination across early childhood programs. Unaddressed , A dverse C hildhood...
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Perrin: Promotion of Mental Health as a Key Element of Pediatric Care
N umerous national surveys, cohort studies, and meta-analyses have documented the etiologic and experiential connections between childhood abuse, physical illness, and mental health disorders 1 , 2 spanning from childhood to adulthood. Yet pediatric training and practice typically focus primarily on the identification and treatment of physical health conditions. The recent advent of enthusiasm for integrated care is a welcome nod to the marked comorbidities that have been amply reported.
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Portell: Understanding Trauma-Informed Education
ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) have made their way into the mainstream over the past couple of years, even showing up in a segment that Oprah did for 60 Minutes . And because ACEs have a profound effect on children, the concept has been taken up in the world of education. Approaching education with an understanding of the physiological, social, emotional, and academic impacts of trauma and adversity on our students is driving changes in our systems. However, these changes are not...
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Positive Childhood Experiences offset ACEs: Q & A with Dr. Robert Sege about HOPE
Tufts University medical professor Dr. Robert Sege directs the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine and is nationally known for his research on effective health systems approaches that address social determinants of health. He is also the principal investigator for the HOPE framework (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences).The HOPE framework is based on research that shows how positive childhood experiences can mitigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences. Sege and colleagues...
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Positive Childhood Experiences offset ACEs: Q & A with Dr. Robert Sege about HOPE
Tufts University medical professor Dr. Robert Sege directs the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine and is nationally known for his research on effective health systems approaches that address social determinants of health. He is also the principal investigator for the HOPE framework (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences).The HOPE framework is based on research that shows how positive childhood experiences can mitigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences. Sege and colleagues...
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ELEVATE: Enhancing Security for Schools
BETHANY (June 2019) – School security has a new face in Bethany – a full-time school resource officer the kids affectionately call Officer Z. Zack Zamudio left his beat with the Bethany Police Department to walk the halls of Bethany Public Schools at the beginning of the last school year as part of several new measures designed to increase safety at the school. “We’re not policing the school; we’re securing the school,” Zamudio said. “Shutting off the police mode and switching to security...
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Racism Kills: What Community-Level Interventions Can Do About It [Rewire.news]
In the first two installments of this series, we addressed promising approaches for buffering the impact of racism on health—learning cognitive and emotional strategies, known as self-regulation , for coping with stress and building cultural connections that buffer the impacts of toxic stress. Both of those arenas are born out of social science research showing a connection between these elements and improved health outcomes, even in the face of significant adversity. But these individual...
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Rains: Ardmore community seeking ways to address childhood trauma amid low state rankings in well-being, high drug-related arrests
Most parents would never look at their child and say, ‘I can’t wait to mess you up.’ Instead, it’s often ‘I want better for you than I ever had,’ said Ardmore Behavioral Health Collaborative Director Ashely Godwin. However, within the last couple of years, Oklahoma has ranked in the bottom 10 states in the nation for child well-being and has been among the states with the highest recorded juvenile drug-related arrests. A report conducted by Greenhouse Treatment, a rehabilitation facility,...
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Reilly: An Initiative to Improve Health in Schools Puts Trauma Front and Center
A recent initiative from America’s Promise Alliance—an organization best known for its efforts to boost high school graduation rates—supports work with communities to improve health in schools. Addressing trauma will be a major focus of that work, which is backed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and reflects growing interest among funders and nonprofits in this area. The organization is working on six community-led projects to make schools more healthy. Communities identified their own...
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Resilience Milestone
Shortly after purchasing the documentary film Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope , the Potts Family Foundation (PFF) strategized how best to share the potential impact this film could have on policy makers and within individual communities across the state of Oklahoma. Discussions related to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their impact on children’s social, emotional and cognitive development, as well as the resultant poor health outcomes in adults, could be a...
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Resources from the 2018 Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Conference
In October, I attended the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Conference in San Francisco. It was really inspiring. Below please find share some of the books, videos, and resources that I learned about. All the best, Natalie BOOKS 1) The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity by Nadine Burke Harris, MD https://centerforyouthwellness.org/the-deepest-well/ 2) The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, MD...
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Roach: OK25by25 promotes resilience and family positive workplace
What’s the best way to improve the well-being of young children and their families in Oklahoma? The OK25by25 Early Childhood Coalition has focused its efforts on two major programs: Resilience and Family Positive Workplace. Both of these programs support the goal of improving the well-being of children, pre-birth to 5, and their families. The goal of OK25by25, a 10-year initiative managed by the Potts Family Foundation (PFF), is to move Oklahoma to the Top 25 states, by 2025, in selected...
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Seok, Murphey, Abdi: Children with special health care needs are more likely to have adverse childhood experiences
The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is higher among children and youth with special health care needs than among their peers without special health care needs, according to Child Trends’ analysis of data from the 2016-17 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). The survey asks parents or guardians to report whether their child has experienced any of nine ACEs. The percentage of children and youth with special health care needs who have had an incarcerated parent,...
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Simmons: Mental health scientists offer hope after sobering report on state's infants and toddlers
Data is being collected to support the theory that where a child grows up can have a large impact on the developing brain. Friday at the Stillwater Public Library, childhood development experts weighed in on the 2019 State of Babies report (stateofbabies.org) that graded each state, and showed a lot of room to grow for Oklahoma’s rural communities. Room to grow was a euphemism the program used to mean that things could be a lot better for infants and toddlers in Oklahoma. Resilient Payne...
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Starting & Growing Resilient Communities: Series Overview [Video]
The first session of the Starting & Growing Resilient Communities: Online & IRL (In Real Life) was a success. Over 100 ACEs Connection members tuned in despite some issues with registration. I have embedded the video in this post. You have also find the video on the ACEs Connection site here . If you have any questions about the series, please contact Ingrid Cockhren , TN & Midwest Community Facilitator.
Comment
Re: Are You OK? You Are Not Alone Anymore.
Love it- Glad there is a Spanish version as well! Thank you!
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12 Myths of the Science of ACEs
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...