Tagged With "southern states"
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Strategies to combat trauma addressed in second of three congressional briefings
U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) (above) delivered a strong and passionate call to address childhood adversity to reap a “huge payback” in combating addiction, family violence, and poor education -- the “challenges that confront American families.” [For a video of the briefing, click here . It begins at 17:13 minutes with the first presentation by Andrea Blanch. The sound improves at 23:11 minutes when Sen. Heitkamp's remarks begin.] The July 14th event was the second of three...
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Study: Community Trauma from Gun Violence Results in Negative Health and Behavioral Outcomes (Violence Policy Center)
Research on trauma is frequently featured in mainstream news outlets, pointing to its connection to a range of behavioral and health outcomes. While trauma can have multiple interpretations, for the purposes of this report, it is the result of experiencing or witnessing chronic and sustained violence, or specific events that can have lasting effects on individuals. Researchers have identified 13 distinct types of trauma, including community violence. Community violence is an umbrella term...
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Telemedicine connects rural Nevadans to specialty care (modbee.com)
Visiting the doctor just got faster, easier and more useful in parts of rural Nevada. That's because of the Nevada Broadband Telemedicine Initiative, announced Sept. 18 at Desert View Regional Medical Center in Nye County. The $19.6 million federally funded initiative aims to increase access to specialty care, including psychiatric services, to residents in rural areas of the state. "That's huge for patient care," said Susan Davila, CEO of Desert View, one of the participating locations.
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The Michigan ACEs Initiative: Building Resilience, Healing Communities
The Michigan ACEs initiative hosted the largest convening of ACEs professionals in the state of Michigan. Dr. Robert Anda, Co-Principal Investigator of the original ACEs study, Co-Founder ACE Interface and also featured in RESILIENCE , opened the conference and introduced keynote speaker, Christina Bethell, PhD, MBA, MPH, Professor, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University and Director, Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative in Baltimore, MD, to an audience of...
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The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges has a variety of projects which intersect with research on adverse childhood experiences and trauma. Although many projects and training opportunities are designed for sitting judicial...
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These Shelters are Accepting Unexpected Family Members - the Four-Legged Ones - and it's Saving Lives (nationswell.com)
Multiple studies and surveys show a link between domestic abuse and pet abuse. Women in domestic shelters were 11 times more likely to report that their partner had hurt or killed pets compared to a control group of women. But even more alarming is the fact that women are refusing to seek shelter for fear of abandoning their pets. Surveys show that up to 40% of women report being unable to escape out of fear of what will happen to their pets. According to Sheltering Families and Animals...
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Top Trends in State Criminal Justice Reform, 2019 [sentencingproject.org]
From The Sentencing Project, January 2020 The United States is a world leader in incarceration and keeps nearly 7 million persons under criminal justice supervision. More than 2.2 million are in prison or jail, while 4.6 million are monitored in the community on probation or parole. More punitive sentencing laws and policies, not increases in crime rates, have produced this high rate of incarceration. Ending mass incarceration will require changing sentencing policies and practices, scaling...
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Trauma and ACEs missing in response to opioid crisis, says national organization
A new policy brief (attached) issued this week by the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) forcefully develops the case for trauma-informed approaches to address the opioid crisis—to prevent and treat addiction—based on strong evidence that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are at the root of the crisis. CTIPP is a national organization that advocates for trauma-informed prevention and treatment programs at the federal, state and local levels. Successful strategies to...
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Trauma-informed Care: It Takes More Than a Clipboard and a Questionnaire
California is about to launch an ambitious campaign to train tens of thousands of Medi-Cal providers to screen children and adults up to age 65 for trauma, starting on January 1, 2020. It is well-established that the early identification of trauma and providing the appropriate treatment are critical tools for reducing long-term health care costs for both children and adults. Research has shown that individuals who experienced a high number of traumatic childhood events are likely to die...
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Traumatic Experiences Widespread Among U.S. Youth, New Data Show
[This is a media release from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.] New national data show that at least 38 percent of children in every state have had at least one Adverse Childhood Experience or ACE, such as the death or incarceration of a parent, witnessing or being a victim of violence, or living with someone who has been suicidal or had a drug or alcohol problem. In 16 states, at least 25 percent of children have had two or more ACEs. Findings come from data in the 2016 National Survey...
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Tributes honor the life of Rep. Elijah Cummings of Baltimore
This is a recent photo of an image projected on a building of a younger Rep. Cummings taken on a street in his native Baltimore. From an unknown source, projected images and messages appear on the side of a building near my house in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of Washington, DC. When the news alert came across my cell phone on Thursday morning that Elijah Cummings had died, I felt overwhelming sadness for the loss of a powerful, eloquent, and soulful human who understood trauma in his...
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Trump Administration Announces $1.8 Billion in Funding to States to Continue Combating Opioid Crisis [hhs.gov]
By U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, September 4, 2019 Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced more than $1.8 billion in funding to states to continue the Trump administration’s efforts to combat the opioid crisis by expanding access to treatment and supporting near real-time data on the drug overdose crisis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced more than $900 million in new funding for a three-year cooperative agreement with...
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Trump Names Former SAMHSA Critic As Mental Health Czar: Dr. Ellie McCance-Katz
(4-21-17) The White House announced late tonight that it had chosen Dr. Ellie McCance-Katz, as the first Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse inside the Department of Health and Human Services ending months of speculation about who would be selected. The announcement came after much speculation that Dr. Michael Welner , a forensic psychiatrist, would be chosen. As early as yesterday, some of my sources in the Senate were saying that Welner had a “lock” on the job. He had...
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Trying to bite the 'elephant' of addiction [somdnews.com]
“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” That was the advice Dr. Jerome Adams, U.S. surgeon general, gave to public health and law enforcement officials Monday during his first visit to Southern Maryland as the nation’s top health official. The elephant in the room of Building B on the campus of College of Southern Maryland in Prince Frederick was the escalating opioid epidemic penetrating communities across the region, the state and the nation. [For more on this story by DANDAN...
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Two studies shed light on state legislators’ views on ACEs science and trauma policy
New and returning lawmakers take the oath of office on day one of Washington state's 2017 legislative session. — Jeanie Lindsay/Northwest News Network As advocates prepare to see how ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) science, trauma, and resilience play out in the 2020 state legislative sessions — many beginning in January — they are undoubtedly asking: “What does a legislator want?" It may be a stretch to play on Freud’s question: “What does a women want?", but the query captures how...
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U.S. Senate begins debate on bipartisan addiction and recovery legislation
Starting today, the U.S. Senate takes up the bipartisan Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA, S. 524) to address the national crisis of opioid drug addiction. The legislation—authored by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rob Portman (R-OH)—gives states tools to “prevent drug abuse, treat addiction, and reduce overdose deaths.” The prevention section of the bill calls for a “federal inter-agency task force to review, modify, and update best practices for pain management and...
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U.S. Senate champion on trauma, Heidi Heitkamp, provides inspired and hope-filled leadership
Last evening I posted a video of a June 5 congressional briefing that I attended on trauma and the opioid crisis with a plan to write a post about the event today. In the comfort of my living room, I played the beginning of the video, hoping to find a good screen shot to use with the article, but instead was surprisingly moved by the second listening of the words of U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) about why the issue of trauma is so important her: She says it gives her hope.
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U.S. Senate passes opioid legislation with trauma-related provisions
On Monday evening, the U.S. Senate approved 99-1 the Opioid Crisis Response Act (OCRA) of 2018 (Senator Mike Lee, R-UT was the lone “no” vote). The rare, multi-committee, bipartisan bill includes significant provisions taken from or aligned with the goals of the Heitkamp-Durbin Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act (S. 774) , including the creation of an interagency task force to identify trauma-informed best practices and grants for trauma-informed practices in schools. The...
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Unprecedented childhood trauma hearing in U.S. Congress on July 11 to feature data from new state fact sheets on ACEs prevalence, impacts
A hearing of unprecedented scope and depth (this link will take you to a list of witnesses and all of their statements plus an overview memo on the hearing from committee staff) on ACEs science and childhood trauma — " Identifying, Preventing, and Treating Childhood Trauma: A Pervasive Public Health Issue that Needs Greater Federal Attention " — will be held today in the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. You can watch the live stream at 10:00 am ET through this link . Nine witnesses...
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Update on Bumper Crop of State ACEs bills in 2017—46 bills in 20 states
The latest update of state legislation considered by state legislatures in 2017 reveals the growing interest by state policymakers across the country in addressing trauma across sectors. The attached “At-A-Glance” table shows 46 bills in twenty states reference Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) or trauma-informed policy and practice. Take a look at the attached “At-A-Glance” table and leave a comment if your state considered ACEs/trauma legislation that is not included here. A handful of...
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Utah passes resolution to encourage state policies and programs based on ACEs science
In the solidly red state of Utah, lawmakers approved and sent to Gov. Gary Herbert a resolution ( H.C.R. 10 ) on March 7 to encourage state policy and programs to incorporate ACEs science to address “severe emotional trauma and other adverse childhood experiences” in children and adults and implement evidence-based interventions to increase resiliency. Every recorded vote cast by Democrats and Republicans favored the resolution. A detailed context for the recommendations was included in the...
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‘We are just destroying these kids’: The foster children growing up inside detention centers [Washington Post]
Photo credit and caption: Heard leaves the courtroom at the Boone County Courthouse in Madison. He hopes to train to be a tattoo artist. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Dec. 30, 2019 Though he's never been convicted of a crime, Geard Mitchell spent part of his childhood in a juvenile detention center, at times sleeping on cement floors under harsh fluorescent lights left on through the night during lockdowns. He attended high school by clicking through online courses and had “no one to...
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Webinar Learning Series begins tomorrow: State Policy Approaches to Addressing Childhood Adversity, Wednesday, January 10, 10am PST (1:00 PM EST)
Reminder of tomorrow's ( Wednesday, January 10, 10am PST/1:00 PM EST) webinar on State Policy Approaches to Addressing Childhood Adversity Please join us for a three -part learning series hosted by the California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity and ACEs Connection . We'll hear from states that are making great strides towards adopting trauma-informed policies and practices. Three-Part Learning Series: Webinar 1: Overview of State Level Efforts to Address Childhood Adversity and...
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Webinar on Advancing Change to Support Trauma-Informed Initiatives and Build Evidence of Impacts [ASPE, US Depart. of HHS]
Overview of session: This webinar (December 11 th 1:00-2:30pm EST) will offer an opportunity to learn about ASPE’s (The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation advises the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on policy development in health, disability, human services, data, and science) investment in bringing together federal, state, and program leaders and stakeholders, as well as researchers to examine trauma-informed approaches across...
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What's Next? Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative Deepens Effort as Momentum Grows Across the State
It was more than a piece of parchment bearing the governor’s signature. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s resolution declaring May 15, 2019 as the state’s first Trauma-Informed Awareness Day marked a high-level recognition that, where state policy is concerned, trauma matters. The resolution and resulting proclamation Pritzker signed also calls for legislators to consider childhood brain development, early adversity and buffering relationships when making policy decisions; it urges all state...
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White House convenes federal, state, and local leaders to address trauma-informed approaches in schools
With just four months remaining in the Obama presidency, the White House assembled leaders from 14 states and the District of Columbia and key administration officials for a day-long conference, “ Trauma Informed Approaches in Schools: Supporting Girls of Color and Rethinking Discipline.” Last summer’s White House meeting, titled “Rethink School Discipline,” covered issues related to the CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study and trauma, but transforming schools through trauma-informed approaches...
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Wisconsin state agencies end year one of trauma-informed learning community; goal is to be first trauma-informed state
Here in California, many people think that it’s only liberal Democrats who have a corner on championing the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and putting it into practice. That might be because people who use ACEs science don’t expel or suspend students, even if they’re throwing chairs and hurling expletives at the teacher. They ask "What happened to you?" rather than "What's wrong with you?" as a frame when they create juvenile detention centers where kids don’t fight, reduce...
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WV Democrats Unveil Plan to Help Kids Having Adverse Childhood Experiences [wvnews.com]
By WV News Staff, West Virginia's News, February 3, 2020 Democratic members of both chambers of the West Virginia Legislature on Monday held a press conference to unveil their plan to help children in the state suffering from a variety of negative circumstances. The plan involves prioritizing children who are coping with poverty, drug abuse, parental separation and neglect — collectively referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, according to a press release issued following the...
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2019 Beyond Paper Tigers Conference Series - Why Take Course One and Course Two?
Community Resilience Initiative is officially launching a new series of blog posts, building to our 2019 Beyond Paper Tigers conference on June 25th - 27th. We’ll cover a range of topics relevant to conference material, events, and inspirations. In addition to the regular conference, CRI is offering two training add-on options on Tuesday June 25, 2019 prior to the conference: Resilience-Based Trainings, Course One and Two . https://criresilient.org/beyon...re-conference-event/ “A group of...
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5 Takeaways on America’s Increasing Suicide Rate (nytimes.com)
In a week when two celebrities, first the designer Kate Spade and then the chef and television host Anthony Bourdain , took their own lives, new federal data was released showing that suicide rates have been increasing for years in almost every state and across demographic lines. The escalating crisis has affected nearly every group and place , but the study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that some parts of the country have been hit especially hard. Here’s a...
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A comprehensive Trauma-Informed Care bill quietly introduced in the final days of the 114th Congress
In the final weeks of the 114 th Congress, Senators Heitkamp, Durbin, and Franken introduced The Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act (S. 3519)—a wide ranging bill that proposes new strategies to expand trauma-informed best practices and models, train clinicians, law enforcement officials, teachers and health care providers in trauma-informed approaches, and improve the understanding of trauma’s impact and prevalence. Despite the lack of fanfare around the bill’s introduction,...
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A Conversation with Phil Cass: Shifting the Healthcare Paradigm (conversations.org)
Phil: Physicians have become the #1 group of people who commit suicide in the United States. Up to 60%, and some studies showing up to 69%, of physicians are depressed. We had people tell us more than once that they’d attempted suicide. So we decided then that there were things we needed to do as an organization to change it. But what we did—I didn't think was sufficient. So at the end of my time there, with the help and support of the boards, we founded a mindfulness-based physician...
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A Healthy Early Childhood Action Plan: Policies for a Lifetime of Well-being[TFAH]
NOVEMBER 2015 A Healthy Early Childhood Action Plan: Policies for a Lifetime of Well-being highlights more than 40 policy target areas that are key to achieving national goals of reducing toxic stress and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)...
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A National Agenda to Address Adverse Childhood Experiences
What are ACEs and Why Do They Matter? In 2016 1 , nearly half of U.S. children – 34 million kids – had at least one Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) and more than 20 percent experienced two or more. The new brain sciences and science of human development explain how ACEs can have devastating, long-lasting effects on children’s health and wellbeing. These events resonate well beyond the individual child to have far-reaching consequences for families, neighborhoods, and communities. ACEs...
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Abortion. Transgender rights. Voting access. Polarizing issues could dominate statehouse agendas in 2020. [Washington Post]
Virginia House Del. Jeffrey M. Bourne, left, stands onstage with Lashrecse D. Aird, center, who won her House District 63 race, and Virginia state Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan at a Democratic election watch party at Hilton Richmond Downtown on Nov. 5. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) Republican-controlled state legislatures are gearing up to try to tighten abortion laws across the country, while some states controlled by Democrats are looking to enshrine the right to choose into law. It’s...
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ACEs Connection “Map the Movement” now includes an up-to-date section on laws and resolutions
Photo credit: Texasarchitects.org An updated map of laws and resolutions addressing ACEs science and trauma-informed policies is now available in the “Laws and Resolutions” section of Map the Movement (you can also find "Map the Movement" on the navigation bar on the ACEs Connection home page). The earliest law on the map was passed in the state of Washington in 2011, creating an ACEs science public-private partnership. The data base of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is...
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Action needed today by trauma advocates to urge Congress to address mental health and trauma in current COVID-19 legislation
The follow is a message from Dan Press, Legal Advisor to the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice ), about the need to contact Congress regarding a COVID 19 funding bill being considered this weekend. He is urging ACEs science/trauma advocates and leaders to send emails to their U.S. Senators and Representatives immediately to address the mental health and trauma implications of this pandemic. All – I hate to bother you on a Sunday, but we urgently need you to contact Congress to...
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Advocacy in the time of COVID-19—Lessons from New York to create a trauma-Informed legislature
Jenn O'Connor of Prevent Child Abuse New York and Senator George Borrello (R-NY57) Before the official start of her day on March 16— a virtual call with staff members of Prevent Child Abuse New York (PCANY) — Jenn O’Connor, director of policy and advocacy for the organization, and I spoke about how her personal life (suddenly becoming a parent who homeschools) and her worklife changed overnight. O’Connor is managing an ambitious effort to create a trauma-informed legislature in New York. She...
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Afterschool programs and a trauma-informed approach [Afterschool Alliance]
“A trauma-informed, culturally responsive lens must be a part of everything we do.” This statement by Laura Norton-Cruz, Director of the Alaska Resilience Initiative, sums up the key message of last week’s Senate Afterschool Caucus briefing for Congressional staff which focused on “Afterschool Programs and a Trauma-Informed Approach.” On Wednesday, Sept. 11, the Senate Afterschool Caucus* — in partnership with the Afterschool Alliance, Alaska Children’s Trust – Alaska Afterschool Network,...
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Alive and Well: Moving Missouri Toward Grass-Roots and System-Wide Change
On the eastern edge of Missouri, leaders of the Alive and Well network had generated a robust media campaign to help people understand the impact of trauma and toxic stress on health and well-being. There was a monthly column in an African-American newspaper, spots about toxic stress and resilience on urban radio stations and weekly public service features on the NBC affiliate, with physicians, clergy and teachers advocating ways to “be alive and well.” Two hundred and fifty miles to the...
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All Together Now: Working for Families in 2019 [ascend.aspeninstitute.org]
With historic demographic shifts in Congress this year, there is even more momentum to address broken policies that can improve the lives of families across our nation. The Aspen Family Prosperity Innovation Community (Family Prosperity) is bringing policy, practice, philanthropy, research, and private sector leaders together to capitalize on the energy and opportunities materializing at the local, state, and national levels to improve family-supportive policies. Family Prosperity is...
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APA President-elect Altha Stewart addresses trauma at mental health forum in Washington, DC
Dr. Altha Stewart is the president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association. Photo by Allen Gillespie/UTHSC __________________________________ At a July 18 forum “The State of Mental Health Care: Challenges and Solutions” in Washington, DC, Dr. Altha Stewart, president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, was the first speaker to raise the opioid crisis and quickly identified trauma as a root cause of the epidemic. Stewart assumes the presidency of the APA in May, becoming the...
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Apologizing To Patients Reduces Hospital Defense And Liability Costs (scienceblog.com)
Hospital staff and physicians who are willing to explain, apologize for and resolve adverse medical events significantly reduce legal defense and liability costs, according to a study led by Dr. Florence R. LeCraw, an Atlanta anesthesiologist and adjunct professor at Georgia State University. LeCraw and economist Thomas Mroz of Georgia State’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, health economist Daniel Montanera from the J. Mack Robinson College of Business and medical and risk management...
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Arizona ACE Consortium: Catalyzing a Statewide Movement [MARC.HealthFederation.org]
The elementary school principal routinely broke into tears. At Wednesday afternoon meetings of the Creating Trauma Sensitive Arizona Schools work group, a committee of the Arizona ACE Consortium , the leader of a high-need, inner-city K-5 school frequently wept as she talked about the trauma her students carried into the classroom and the ways it percolated throughout her campus: in lagging test scores, behavior problems, even teacher retention. The other committee members became her...
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Bi-partisan trauma resolution introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives
A bi-partisan resolution “Recognizing the importance and effectiveness of trauma-informed care” ( H. Res. 443 ) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on July 13 by Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and co-sponsor Danny K. Davis (D-IL). The impetus for the resolution resides with the First Lady of Wisconsin, Tonette Tonette Walker Walker, who has taken a strong leadership role in advancing trauma-informed policy and practice statewide through Fostering Futures and of late with the new...
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Bipartisan, bicameral trauma legislation provides support for community initiatives and workforce development
In the current polarized political environment, it is no small feat for a bill to be introduced with bipartisan support in both chambers—a fact that bodes well for the future of the “Resilience Investment, Support, and Expansion (RISE) from Trauma Act of 2019.” Identical bills titled “The RISE from Trauma Act of 2019” were introduced in the Senate and the House on June 10, with bipartisan support from members of Congress representing diverse states, districts, and constituencies. While...
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Bipartisan trauma resolution passes the House unanimously
In the late afternoon on Feb. 26, the House of Representatives unanimously passed H. Res. 443 , a resolution recognizing the importance and effectiveness of trauma-informed care and calling for a national trauma awareness month and trauma-informed awareness day. The impetus for the resolution resides with the First Lady of Wisconsin, Tonette Walker, who has taken a strong leadership role in advancing trauma-informed policy and practice statewide through Fostering Futures , and has elevated...
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BPC Releases First Comprehensive, Transparent Study of Federal Funding to Fight Opioid Epidemic [Bipartisan Policy Center]
Editor's note: In addition to an overview of how states are spending federal opioid dollars, the Bipartisan Policy Center report also includes 5 state in-depth briefs—Arizona, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Ohio and Tennessee. News release Tuesday, March 26, 2019 Washington, D.C. – In 2017, more than 70,000 people in the United States died from a drug overdose, with almost 50,000 of these deaths involving an opioid. Americans are now at greater risk of dying from an opioid overdose than a car...
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Briefing for U.S. Congress on trauma science to be held May 25
A congressional briefing on the Science of Trauma, organized by U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) and U.S. Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA), will be held at 2:30 pm, Wednesday, May 25, 2016, in 562 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC. The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) is sponsoring the event. CTIPP is a new organization comprising individuals and groups from all sectors and walks of life working together to create a better future by promoting trauma-informed...
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Building Community Resilience - Policy Guide & Webinar
Blog Written by Jeff Hild Policy Director, Redstone Center for Prevention and Wellness At the Building Community Resilience (BCR) collaborative and network — based at the Redstone Center for Prevention and Wellness , George Washington University School of Public Health — we are working to improve the health and wellbeing of children, families and communities across the country. We do this by working to align systems to address the “Pair of ACEs” — adverse childhood experiences in the...