Tagged With "mental health"
Blog Post
Healing in place: Game on to flip the COVID19 threat into a positive experience for our children
As I was considering the children sheltering-in-place this morning and reflecting on lessons from my own childhood, I wondered: Can we heal-in-place too? I was born after the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, another collective trauma affecting everyone. Yet, it was nevertheless passed on to me by the adults in my life in the form of constant reminders that the U.S. could be blown into bits any second. When I started school, there were constant “hide under the chair” earthquake drills I took to be...
Blog Post
Health Equity Policy Platform for COVID-19 Response and Recovery
From Human Impact Parters: A COVID-19 Public Health Response & Recovery Policy Platform Decades of underinvestment in our public infrastructure and neoliberal policies that gutted protections for working people, our healthcare, and our wider safety net are vividly exposing their consequences. People of color — most harshly Black, Latinx, and Native people — are disproportionately experiencing the consequences of these conditions. In this context, directly impacted communities are naming...
Blog Post
Helping Health Care Workers Cope with COVID-19-Related Trauma [anxietycanada.com]
The COVID-19 pandemic will put many healthcare workers around the world in an unprecedented situation. How can healthcare workers cope during this time? Here are a few suggestions. Thanks to Scientific Advisory Committee members Carmen McLean and Katy Kamkar for creating this resource. Healthcare staff will likely be exposed to many potentially traumatic events and events leading to significant distress and moral suffering. As frontline workers, they are highly exposed to the virus itself.
Blog Post
How California’s stay-at-home order disrupts services for young children [edsource.org]
ZAIDEE STAVELY , April 23, 2020 The stay-at-home order has upended some of California’s most crucial educational and health services for infants and toddlers — home visits and early intervention services — at a time when families may need them the most. Home visiting programs send nurses, social workers and other trained professionals to the homes of low-income parents to give health and early education advice. They also help children meet milestones, like crawling, picking up objects,...
Blog Post
How Closed Schools Are Creating More Trauma For Students [kqed.org]
By Cory Turner Apr 21 The high school senior sitting across from Franciene Sabens was in tears over the abrupt amputation of her social life and turmoil at home. Because of the coronavirus, there will be no prom, no traditional send-off or ceremony for the graduates of Carbondale Community High School in Carbondale, Ill. And Sabens, one of the school's counselors, could not give the girl the one thing Sabens' gut told her the teen needed most. "I want to hug them all, but I really wanted to...
Blog Post
How collaboration helps clinic in San Mateo County, CA, tackle ACEs in children
Dr. Elizabeth Grady is a pediatrician at the South San Francisco Clinic, a community clinic of San Mateo Medical Center. She and Susana Flores , a senior public health nurse with San Mateo County Health, spoke with me about how the clinic and other health agencies in San Mateo have been able to craft ways to work together to prevent and heal toxic stress in children. Grady also talked about how she and Flores have been working with the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative (RBC), a group of...
Blog Post
How do these pediatricians do ACEs screening? Early adopters tell all.
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,...
Blog Post
How to Implement Trauma-informed Care to Build Resilience to Childhood Trauma [ChildTrends.org]
Children who are exposed to traumatic life events are at significant risk for developing serious and long-lasting problems across multiple areas of development. [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] However, children are far more likely to exhibit resilience to childhood trauma when child-serving programs, institutions, and service systems understand the impact of childhood trauma, share common ways to talk and think about trauma, and thoroughly integrate effective practices and policies to address it—an...
Blog Post
“I’m Terrified”: Pregnant Health Care Workers at Risk for Coronavirus Are Being Forced to Keep Working [propublica.org]
by Nina Martin and Bernice Yeung April 1, 1:30 p.m. EDT Pregnant nurses and doctors say they are being forced to go to work with no formal accommodations or extra protections to keep them safe from the coronavirus, even though they are immunocompromised and data is still emerging about the risks of fetal transmission. Dozens of pregnant medical workers reached out to ProPublica, saying they were weighing whether to stay in jobs they view as dangerous or quit, which could add to the burdens...
Blog Post
Immigrant teens, parents explore ACEs, resilience in 5-week course with family doc
Dr. Angela Bymaster, a family doctor in San Jose, Calif., was determined to find a way to teach ACEs science to her patients. Teens would come to the Washington Neighborhood Clinic clearly depressed by a range of problems at home that were contributing to risky sexual behavior and marijuana use, as well as preventable health problems like extreme obesity.
Blog Post
In ACEs Connection webinar, physicians talk trauma, offer tips for helping pediatric immigrant patients
Dr. Raul Gutierrez, a pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay Area, said he and his fellow clinicians see constant fear and its health consequences every single day among the largely immigrant and Latino population they serve. It’s all the result of anti-immigrant policies and the news cycle that feeds the fear. Dr. Raul Gutierrez “It is almost inescapable with the repercussions of immigration policy on the radio, television, social media and from friends and family,” Gutierrez told the 69...
Blog Post
Interactive training on nature and health for health care providers, Oakland, Ca
October 27, 2018 8:45 AM 5:00 PM PDT Calling all health care providers! Save the date! Saturday October 27th, 2018 Join The Center for Nature and Health and Primary Care Clinic, UCSF Benioff's Children's Hospital: When: Saturday, October 27th, 2018, 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. (Outdoor time included!) Where: CHORI Library, 5700 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland, Ca Register now: www.bitly.com/ucsf- nature2018 Featured speakers: Daphne Miller, MD, Physician and author Jose Gonzalez, Founder, Latino...
Blog Post
INVITE: Mental Wellness Micro Healing Pop-up -- Mental Health Awareness Day - May 10
In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Day , please stop by our Trauma Transformed Healing Pop-up at the T2 Center in Oakland, CA. WHEN: Thursday, May 10th TIME: 12:00pm – 4:00pm WHERE: Trauma Transformed Center, 1035 22nd Avenue, #14, Oakland, CA. Please consider carpooling as parking is limited at times. WHAT: Healing and wellness activities DIY crafting "Spa" inspired snacks and drinks And more! Drop in and stay as long as you like between 12-4pm. RSVP: ...
Blog Post
Job Post: Senior Manager of Communications & External Relations for Lucille Packard Foundation
The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health is seeking a Senior Manager of Communications & External Relations.
Blog Post
Join Feb. 18th webinar on addressing ACEs in public policy
Please join this ACEs Connection co-sponsored webinar "Making Meaningful Change: Addressing ACEs through Public Policy" on Feb. 18 (11:30 am-1:00 pm ET) presented by the Health Federation of Philadelphia and MARC (Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities). In this webinar, three nationally recognized experts will discuss policy and advocacy strategies on a local, state, and national level using evidence from studies they have conducted with legislators and the general public. Speakers...
Blog Post
Kaiser family medicine clinic launches 4-question ACE survey pilot for adults
In July, medical residents in family medicine at Kaiser Permanente in San Jose, CA, began screening adult patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). But it’s an ACE survey with a twist: it’s shorter, not the 10-question survey of the original CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study , according to Dr. Kathryn Ridout who is leading the pilot along with Dr. Francis Chu and Dr. Alec Uy . Why a shorter ACE survey? Dr. Kathryn Ridout “When we were doing our initial discussions with stakeholders in...
Blog Post
KQED CA Report asks: "Should Police Violence Be Viewed as a Public Health Issue?"
Framed by the story of Mario Woods' grieving mother, this California Report article includes perspectives from Palo Alto pediatrician Rhea Boyd and community leaders in San Francisco and Alameda counties, on how police violence contributes to traumatization. What is the public health solution?
Blog Post
KQED Forum: Breaking the Link Between Childhood Trauma and Poor Health
On January 30th, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, founder and CEO, Center for Youth Wellness; author, “The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity”, was a guest on the KQED Radio program, Forum. Click here to hear the 52 minute audio segment
Blog Post
Kris Perry to speak at the 4CA Policymaker Education Day (May 1) - Still time to register!
Kris Perry to speak at Policymaker Education Day- Still time to register!
Blog Post
Leaders in SF public housing deal with their own and community trauma head on
Sengthong Sithounnolat, Jeris Woodson, Donald Greene, Ashley Blanco On a recent Saturday, 10 people gather around a table at the offices of Trauma Transformed in Oakland, Calif., where quotes from figures like Frederick Douglas, Nelson Mandela, and Coretta Scott King grace one wall as light streams in from a skylight above. The group is known as the Resident Warriors, which meets weekly. One participant talks of her recovery from addiction and her mother’s murder. Another mentions being...
Blog Post
Lesson learned integrating ACEs science into health clinics: Staff first, THEN patients
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.
Blog Post
Looking for a way to explain the link between trauma and the current immigration child separations? Check out these articles from a host of experts
Here is a roundup of a few articles by experts in various fields that provide context and detail to the understanding that child separations are more than a saddening inconvenience- they are detrimental to the emotional and physical well-being of young people.
Blog Post
Marin Community Clinics in California screen babies for ACEs, provide support in effort to prevent trauma
When Marin Community Clinics (MCC) first considered screening their patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) they already had decided that if they were going to prevent children from acquiring ACEs, they had to take a radical approach.
Blog Post
Mark your calendar for March 10 tweet chat on CA ACEs screening!
Hey ACEs Connection communities! Please join us for a boisterous tweet chat about ACEs screening in California on March 10 at 10 am Pacific/ 1 pm Eastern for #SaludTues, hosted by @saludamerica and co-hosted by @CYWSanFrancisco, @acesconnection and @CHCShealth. Get your thumbs ready, and spread the word! What: Tweet chat Who: Salud America, co-hosted by Center for Youth Wellness, ACEs Connection and Center for Health Care Strategies. When: Tuesday, March 10, 10am Pacific/ 1 pm Eastern Why:...
Blog Post
Maternal and Child Health Journal Call for Papers: The ACE Study: Implications for MCH Policy and Practice
Findings of the ACE Study have had a swift and substantial impact on MCH policy, practice and research. This issue of the journal is intended to provide a forum to enhance knowledge of the Study and its implications across the field. Topics of interest include: The aims and findings of the ACE Study, The implications of the Study and use of Study findings to shape MCH practice in clinical, program and policy settings, The import of the Study in relation to life course theory and the social...
Blog Post
May Revise Budget Impacts to ACEs Aware [acesaware.org]
By ACEs Aware, May 20, 2020 Dear Stakeholders: The state of California is facing an unprecedented budget shortfall due to the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 emergency. The state must make difficult budgetary decisions to protect access to vital services and programs, including Medi-Cal. While we are all facing these significant budget changes together, we also know that Californians are experiencing increased levels of stress. That stress, combined with disruptions to accessing...
Blog Post
Learning How to Convince Leaders to Create Trauma-Informed Programs, Systems and Environments.
How do you build a narrative around ACEs science, bolster it with data and convince your leadership that integrating it is critical for the community you serve? Representatives from San Francisco Bay Area health and social service agencies had an opportunity on December 5 to learn about ACEs science, find data sets to help them make a case for supporting ACEs education and resiliency programs, and then role play ways to deliver powerful messages. Donielle Prince, ACEs Connection Network’s...
Blog Post
Mental Health Care Could Get Easier for New Moms Under New California Rules [capradio.org]
By Sammy Caiola, Capital Public Radio, December 18, 2019 When Susan Yee Kearns brought her son home from the hospital a year and a half ago, she started worrying about him almost immediately. She woke up thinking he might have died. She was afraid to be away from him. “There was a lot of anxiety,” the Sacramento mom said. So she sought mental health help through her Medi-Cal insurance. But Yee Kearns' provider told her that Medi-Cal would only cover 60 days of treatment. When it was over,...
Blog Post
Middle school tackles everybody's trauma; result is calmer, happier kids, teachers and big drop in suspensions
Sixth grader Cayla White (right) helps lead class meditation with Niroga Institute’s Lauren Banister (photo: Laurie Udesky) ________________________________ During the 2014/2015 school year, things were looking grim at Park Middle School in Antioch, CA. At the time, staff couldn’t corral student disruptions. Teacher morale was plummeting. By the end of February 2015, 192 kids of the 997 students had been suspended -- 19.2 percent of the student population. “I was watching really good people...
Blog Post
More than 70 4CA participants converge on Sacramento, talk ACEs to power
Mai Le, an ACEs champion and program associate with First 5 San Mateo, wasted no time getting to the point of why she was asking lawmakers to support legislation that would help prevent adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). “When I was a child, my father had a psychotic break and was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia,” she said in a conversation with Eric Dietz, a staff member for State Senator John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa). L-R: Eric Dietz, Richa Sharma, Mai Le “I’m a high achiever,...
Blog Post
New Brief on Play & Trauma Available
Bay Area Early Childhood Funders have released a new brief, “The Power of Play for Addressing Trauma in Early Years,” available in both English and Spanish . The brief provides families, teachers and caregivers an easy-to-read, one-page online brief about the importance of play for addressing trauma in young children and tips for helping children cope. Additional materials on the importance of play are available here .
Blog Post
New Grant Opportunity & Program for Bay Area Health Centers: Resilient Beginnings Collaborative
In partnership with Genentech Charitable Giving, the Center for Care Innovations is excited to launch the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative . We’ll select 5-7 Bay Area organizations to participate in this 24-month learning and action community dedicated to addressing childhood adversity in pediatric safety net care settings. We’ll provide access to technical expertise, in-person convenings, site visits to exemplars, and coaching, as well as $80,000 grants to each participating team. If you...
Blog Post
New organization calls all pediatricians to end crisis that's "hiding in plain sight"
When the question of screening patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) was first raised a couple of years ago, Santa Barbara pediatrician Andria Ruth had mixed feelings about it.
Blog Post
New Publication in Health Promotion Practice Journal Provides a Framework for Action on ACEs
Advocates, leaders, and professionals in the child health and well-being space have identified a need for concrete steps for building resilience to prevent ACEs. Current frameworks focused on ACEs fall short of including a multilevel approach, considering the role of health equity in well-being, and providing concrete, tangible steps for implementation across the life span. The empower action model addresses childhood adversity as a root cause of disease by building resilience across...
Blog Post
No ACEs, low resilience worse than high ACE and resilience scores, study finds
What does measuring resilience tell us about pregnant women who have experienced ACEs? For one thing, it affirms that understanding how a mom-to-be weathers difficult experiences gives greater meaning to her ACE score and what it might mean for her children. That was one of the takeaways from a recent study in the Journal of Women’s Health entitled “ Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mental and Behavioral Health Conditions During Pregnancy: The Role of Resilience ,” says Dr. Carey Watson,...
Blog Post
Not 'Just in Your Head': California Rolls Out Mental Health Guides for Coping With Coronavirus [kqed.org]
By Marisa Lagos Apr 7 Gov. Gavin Newsom opened his daily briefing Tuesday on the status of the coronavirus pandemic in California a bit differently than normal: With a mantra he says his mother used to repeat. "She said, 'Stand guard at the door of your mind,'" Newsom said. "Honestly, it took me a decade-plus to figure out what she was ultimately saying. But she was focused on, more than anything else, our capacity to be resilient and to meet challenges head-on, our capacity as human beings...
Blog Post
Notes from the inaugural meeting of the new ACN community, for those who live/work/recreate/love in Berkeley
Title Photo: (L) Donielle Prince, post author and ACN Bay Area Community Facilitator; (R) Nicole Powell, Branch Librarian at North Branch, Berkeley Public Library at the first gathering for an ACN trauma informed community collaborative in Berkeley. Meeting notes and future plans are described in this post.
Blog Post
NPPC shares lessons learned and results from ACEs screening pilot sites
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.
Blog Post
Oakland, CA, trying out model used in Baltimore to reduce trauma, increase resilience
Oakland BSC activity: Photo/ Courtesy of Trauma Transformed/East Bay Agency for Children When a group of community organizations in Baltimore came together in 2015, they already knew trauma figured large in many lives. There was violence in the community, in schools, and in community members’ homes. Police brutality occurred. Many suffered the loss of loved ones to incarceration or death. There were house fires and homelessness. Much of the dysfunction was systemic and rooted in racism,...
Blog Post
Oakland, CA, youth organization takes next step in systems change to heal trauma
In a room in East Oakland, Calif., photos of children are projected on a screen. “Who is that?” asks Briana Moore, a licensed clinical social worker in private practice and a master trainer for the East Bay Agency for Children’s Trauma Transformed program. “Bill Clinton,” responds one of the 20 employees of the East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC).
Blog Post
The important role of policy in addressing childhood trauma during COVID-19 and beyond
Over the past few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused everyone to grapple with uncertainty and manage new stressors at home, at work, and in our communities. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll indicated that 45% of Americans report that the current crisis is harming their mental health. We are facing unprecedented disruption in our daily lives and navigating a world of school and business closures, job losses, social distancing, food access and housing constraints, and other types...
Blog Post
"Addiction begins with solving a problem, the problem of human pain, emotional pain"
In his groundbreaking book , In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction , trauma and addiction expert Dr. Gabor Maté writes, “There are almost as many addictions as there are people.” ACEs Connection founder and publisher Jane Stevens read that quote as a springboard to asking Maté to define addiction and explain whether or not it is always rooted in adverse childhood experiences. Maté, along with filmmaker Michelle Esrick and Saturday Night Live star Darrell Hammond,...
Blog Post
Anthology: Reflecting on Mental Health [yli.org]
Youth Leadership Institute, in partnership with San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, is hoping to change the narrative around mental health by collecting stories, poetry, mini-autobiographies, interviews, and artwork centered around what it means to understand your mental health. The goal of the anthology is to highlight the mental health experiences of all people in San Mateo County, especially highlighting transition-aged youth (15 - 25), and make space for people to...
Blog Post
Trauma Transformed is seeking a new Center Director!
View job description for the Trauma Transformed Center Director position, and link to an ACEs Connection story about the center's impact.
Blog Post
Opinion: More Than Ever, We Must Prioritize the Mental Health and Well-being of Children [stanfordchildrens.org]
By Rachel Velcoff and Steven Adelsheim, Stanford Children's Health, June 8, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the lives of families across the country and left many adults feeling stressed, anxious, and struggling to cope. It has also put the mental health of our youngest and most vulnerable at risk. Now, three months into the pandemic, youth are experiencing further stress and trauma, as our country grapples with another profound crisis: the murder of George Floyd and the...
Blog Post
"We are here for you" Cards [smchealth.org]
From San Mateo County Health: We are here to help you through any emotions that you may have in light of COVID-19. Please use these printable cards to remind yourself of ways to support your mental health and keep these crisis and non-crisis mental health lines near if you'd like to call for help for you or a loved one. Available in English, Chinese, Spanish, Russian and Tagalog. English: https://www.smchealth.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/smc_covid-19_mh_rcs_card.pdf?1591833586...
Blog Post
Just Released: New App To Support Families During the Coronavirus Outbreak and Beyond
Families with young children are currently facing unprecedented challenges and need support now more than ever. To help parents and caregivers access much-needed resources, our friends/partners at the Early Learning Lab just released Stay Play Grow , a free app that provides a one-stop source of trusted resources curated by their team of child development experts, women, and working moms. Parents and caregivers can find tips, tools, and information across four key areas in English and...
Blog Post
Self Care GROUNDing Practice [beam.community]
From BEAM (Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective) : To our Black Men & Masculine Folks! In a time of such action, emotion, and movement, it's so important that we practice self care and ground ourselves. Take a look at our GROUNDing tool and prompts to practice presence and connection with yourself.🙏🏽 To see how we use this tool, be sure to join our Black Masculinity (Re)Imagined Community Care Check-In tomorrow as we center ourselves and support each other. This is an inclusive...