Tagged With "Center on the Developing Child"
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Re: Two studies shed light on state legislators’ views on ACEs science and trauma policy
Where might I find an update on which states have enacted mandatory trauma informed trainings in their schools, and is there an updated snapshot of what types of trauma-informed trainings are required in different states? We (About Child Trauma Foundation) offer 8 Pennsylvania Dept of Ed approved trauma-informed courses, and I'm wondering if we cover what other states' departments of education are requiring. Thank you! Lark Eshleman, PhD, Former School Principal and Psychologist E.D. About...
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Re: Indiana ACEs Groups
I live in Terre Haute. I have a private counseling practice where I use EMDR and Theraplay for resolving complex trauma. I'm also the national research director for Theraplay, and am president of the Association of Child & Adolescent Counseling. I would love to join any statewide efforts that others might begin. I've written a lot about early relational trauma and development, and would be open to doing training or consultation for agencies or schools if needed. I really hope IN gets...
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I learned the impact of prolonged exposure to stress from my foster child [washingtonpost.com]
By Jenn O'Connor, The Washington Post, June 6, 2020 You know what stress is, right? You’re late for work, your car won’t start, gas costs more than you expected. We’ve all been there, and it’s not pleasant, that palm-sweating, heart-racing anxiety. Luckily, it’s not long-lasting — not toxic. What is toxic stress? It’s prolonged adversity and/or abuse — not having enough to eat or being exposed to violence. It’s the kind of stress that puts you on edge and keeps you there, day after day after...
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U.S. Southeast trauma leaders share successes, challenges in making changes
Leaders in ACEs/trauma/resilience movements from 10 states in the Southeast U.S. met for a networking call on May 21, 2020, to learn about flexible funding opportunities for states under the CARES Act, ways to get involved in advocacy, and how to share their successes and challenges in building statewide coalitions. The meeting of leaders was organized by ACEs Connection and the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) in response to COVID-19 and the growing interest in...
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America the Unhealthy: Inequality kills (knowablemagazine.org)
We are the only country that systematically collects data by race; race is not a biological construct, so what is race? So to compare the US with other countries you have to get at the question indirectly. Brazil, the United States and Cuba are countries in which the largest segment of the population is white, but each has a relatively large black population. There was a study done by a Harvard professor in the 1990s that looked at life expectancy differences among blacks and whites in each...
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2020 KIDS COUNT Data Book [aecf.org]
2020 State Trends in Child Well-Being By the Annie E. Casey Foundation on June 22, 2020 The 31st edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT® Data Book describes how children across the United States were faring before the coronavirus pandemic began. This year’s publication continues to deliver the Foundation’s annual state rankings and the latest available data on child well-being. It also identifies multi-year trends — comparing statistics from 2010 to 2018. As always,...
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Invitation to July 28 Webinar On The Urgent Need, Methods, and Benefits of Enacting the New ITRC Mental Wellness and Resilience Policy
You are invited to join a free 1 hr. webinar on Tuesday , July 28 from 12:30-1:30 pm Pacific Time (3:30-4:30 pm ET) on the new ITRC Mental Wellness and Resilience Policy Click here to register for the free webinar What is the Need for a New Climate Change Mental Wellness and Resilience Policy? Climate science indicates that global temperatures will, in the not too distant future, rise above the 2.7-degree F. temperature threshold that unleashes civilization-changing impacts. The U.S. is...
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Congress urged to address trauma in the 4th COVID bill
Now that the July 4 th congressional recess has ended, negotiations around the fourth major COVID relief bill are underway between the Congress and the Administration. How the chasm between Congress and the White House will be bridged is a path uncertain, with massive differences between the House and Senate complicating the work. As the pandemic rages across the U.S., there is now at least a consensus that action is needed. But no agreement exists on a payroll tax cut, unemployment...
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Wolf Administration Releases ‘Trauma-Informed PA’ Plan with Recommendations and Steps for the Commonwealth and Providers to Become Trauma-Informed [PA Governor Tom Wolf Press Release]
July 27, 2020 As a companion to Governor Tom Wolf’s multi-agency effort and anti-stigma initiative, Reach Out PA: Your Mental Health Matters, the Office of Advocacy and Reform (OAR) is releasing the “Trauma-Informed PA” plan to guide the commonwealth and service providers statewide on what it means to be trauma-informed and healing-centered in PA. This plan is the result of four months of work from OAR and the Trauma-Informed PA Think Tank, formed in February. The think tank was made up of...
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Bill introduced in US House of Representatives to substantially increase "Safe Babies" courts
Rep. Rosa DeLauro speaks to students at John Lyman Elementary School, Middlefield, CT A bipartisan bill ( H.R. 7868 )—Strengthening America’s Families Act (SAFA)— was introduced Friday, July 30 by lead sponsors Representatives Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL). The bill provides seed money to states to develop and enhance infant-toddler court teams (ITCTs, aka Safe Babies Court Teams) and authorizes a national resource center to guide state and local programs to develop their...
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Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: One-Pager
Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: One-Pager
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Massachusetts Prepares for Children's Mental Health Needs During Covid
Months into the pandemic, we know the Covid-19 virus doesn’t just pose a threat to our physical health: it has serious repercussions for our individual and collective mental health too. Given ACEs Connection members’ interest in trauma-informed initiatives that support the needs of children, the Massachusetts Childhood Trauma Task Force (CTTF) wants to share its recent report on Covid-19 and children’s mental health.
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Standing on the shoulders of giants: Trauma-Informed Pennsylvania builds on a foundation of early leadership and many community initiatives
Governor Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania When Governor Tom Wolf’s office announced the release of “Trauma-Informed PA: A Plan to Make Pennsylvania a Trauma-Informed, Healing-Centered State” on July 27, it was a significant milestone in the state becoming trauma-informed but only one of many over the long and storied history of addressing childhood adversity in the state. In 2005, Dr. Sandra Bloom and her Philadelphia colleagues began their pioneering work on the Sanctuary model (see Sanctuary...
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Does VP Candidate Kamala Harris know about ACEs? You bet!
Nadine Burke Harris, California’s Surgeon General, has a lot in common with the vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris—Jamaican heritage, surname, home state—and a commitment to addressing ACEs and toxic stress. As reported in the New Yorker article by Paul Tough, “The Poverty Clinic,” Dr. Harris told Kamala Harris, then San Francisco district attorney, about ACEs in 2008 and in response, she offered to help. District Attorney Harris then introduced her to professor of child and...
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Adversity in Early Childhood [americanprogress.org]
By Cristina Novoa and Taryn Morrissey, Center for American Progress, August 27, 2020 Since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020, the United States has seen a proliferation of cases, record-breaking unemployment, and economic instability. Meanwhile, many public health measures that severely restrict social interactions—including stay-at-home orders and school and child care closures, among others—have been prematurely lifted, with...
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Mobilizing ACEs, Trauma and Resilience Networks to Support and Strengthen Pandemic Response Efforts
“What are your signs of stress?” asked the leaders of a recent mindfulness webinar hosted by the Philadelphia ACE Task Force (PATF), held during the week that U.S. cases of COVID-19 neared half a million and more than sixty Philadelphians had died of the disease. Participants spilled their responses into the chat box: “headache…teeth grinding…can’t think clearly…nervous stomach…ruminating thoughts…muscle pain…itchiness…bad dreams.” [ At left: #TakeCarePHL during COVID-19 #StayHome #StaySafe.
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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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"It's All Connected": NJEA ACEs Task Force Reaches Beyond Educators
The March meeting of the New Jersey Education Association’s ACEs Task Force opened without an agenda. It was a virtual gathering with more than 50 people—educators, social workers, professionals in pediatrics, juvenile justice and child abuse prevention. The pandemic had landed emphatically close to home, with a governor’s order to close all schools on March 18, and participants were grappling with what that meant for their students, their families and themselves. So ACEs Task Force co-chair...
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From Awareness to Action, with Voices of Lived Experience: Wisconsin’s Collective Impact Initiative
Perhaps it wasn’t the optimum time to update the network’s vision and values statements: a virtual meeting held in the midst of a global pandemic. But a record number of people—51, compared to the typical 30—tuned in for the May 1 Wisconsin Office of Children’s Mental Health (OCMH) Collective Impact Council, and they gave the new values statement, which highlights inclusivity and collaboration, an enthusiastic thumbs-up. At the virtual table were members from key state departments—Children...
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Local Affiliates Accelerate ACEs-and-Resilience Movement in Montana
In Toole County, Montana, deputy sheriffs call a school counselor, from their patrol cars, after responding to a traumatic incident—a domestic abuse call, an overdose, an arrest—that involves a child. “Handle with care,” they tell the counselor, and they give the child’s name. The counselor passes that information to teachers: a quiet heads-up that the student might be hungry or sleepy, tearful, angry or distracted by whatever happened at home. “My teachers love it,” says Mary Miller, chair...
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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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MERKLEY, COLLEAGUES ANNOUNCE LEGISLATION TO CONFRONT THE PUBLIC HEALTH IMPACTS OF STRUCTURAL RACISM
Press Release, Thursday, September 3, 2020. The Anti-Racism in Public Health Act would create a Center on Anti-Racism in Health at the CDC, improving the federal government's ability to develop anti-racist health policy WASHINGTON— United States Senator Jeff Merkley today announced a bicameral bill to confront the public health impacts of structural racism through two bold new programs within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Mazie K.
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Children's Health Is Too Often Ignored in Elections - Here Is Evidence to Help Change That [jamanetwork.com]
By Alison A. Galbraith and Aaron E. Carroll, JAMA Pediatrics, October 5, 2020 When elections focus on health policy, children are too often ignored. This is as true during the present election cycle as any other. Because children do not vote, are disproportionately poor and disenfranchised, and usually incur lower health care costs than older adults, their health issues are given less attention in public policy debates. Very few Democratic Congressional campaign websites discuss pediatric...
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The Best for our Children: Considering ACEs in Voter Engagement.
The presidential race is a big-ticket item, but hundreds of other state and local races will impact critical issues like school funding, childcare and early education, nutrition programs, and health care. Every seat in the NC General Assembly is on the ballot, along with the Governor’s race, a US Senate seat, congressional races, and more. When it comes to elevating the importance of racial equity, voting is vital to make marginalized voices heard. Policies and systems can be changed by our...
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AG Grewal and Education Commissioner Dehmer Announce Statewide “Handle With Care” Program [Insider NJ]
AG Grewal and Education Commissioner Dehmer Announce Statewide “Handle With Care” Program to Protect Children Who Experience Traumatic Events AG Showcases Program in Videos with Middle Township Police Chief Christopher Leusner and Special Agent in Charge Susan Gibson of DEA’s NJ Division, Who Pioneered Program in State Click here for videos TRENTON – Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and Interim Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer today announced a new Statewide “Handle With Care” Program to...
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State and federal policy to foster California’s children to thrive—Reflecting on what the lessons of 2020 mean for 2021
Against the backdrop of the stresses and strains of the pandemic, the racial reckoning, the fires, a diverse group of advocates presented, questioned, speculated about where trauma-informed policy at the state and federal levels is headed going into 2021.
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Investing in Community Resilience Webinar: Advocating for Trauma-Informed Policy and Systems Change
Building on the Foundation’s Trauma-Informed Philanthropy series, we are pleased to present a 10-month learning series, Investing in Community Resilience . This series, presented in partnership with the Scattergood Foundation, will provide vital information to funders and cooperative extension professionals for developing trauma-informed, healing-centered approaches in their work. Please join us for the sixth and final webinar in the series, Advocating for Trauma-Informed Policy and Systems...
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Spreading the Science: Michigan's NEAR Collaborative Aims to Infuse ACEs Science into State Departments and Agencies
Mary Mueller likes to call herself an “opportunistic infection.” What that means is that Mueller, project coordinator for trauma-informed systems in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), is determined to share the science of ACEs and resilience wherever she goes. After Mueller attended the state’s first ACE master trainer two day session hosted by the Michigan ACE Initiative , she wanted to bring the foundational science shared by ACE Interface back home—to her MDHHS...
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New Report: ACEs BRFSS Data Report- An Overview of Adverse Childhood Experiences in California
A newly developed document titled “Adverse Childhood Experiences Data Report: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), 2011-2017: An Overview of Adverse Childhood Experiences in California” has just been released and can be found following link and attached to this blog post. The purpose of this resource is to report state and county prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in California; describe ACEs-related geographic and demographic disparities; and to offer details...
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Think beyond ACEs screening, advises California funders workgroup in new report
Californians have experienced an alarming epidemic of adverse childhood experiences. Between 2011 and 2017, 60 percent of Californians reported experiencing at least one type of childhood adversity; about 16 percent experienced four or more. People who experience four or more ACEs are 1.5 times as likely to have heart disease, 1.9 times as likely to have a stroke, and 3.2 times as likely to have asthma as people who have experienced no ACEs. (For more information about ACEs and ACEs science,...
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New California preventive mental health coverage puts ACEs science front and center
A mother, frantic with worry, brought her newborn in for a checkup at the pediatric clinic at San Francisco General Hospital. But there wasn’t anything wrong with the baby. And over the next several months, no amount of reassurance could convince the mom that her child was eating, sleeping and growing just fine. If anything, the mother’s worry led to behavior that raised alarm bells for her health care providers. Dr. Kate Margolis “[The family] wasn’t returning calls from the provider, and...
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OK25by25 Moves the Needle on Child Well-Being Metrics in Oklahoma
The leaders of OK25by25 learned about Resilience and took it on the road. Pre-COVID, they traveled the state from Bartlesville in the northeast corner to rural Duncan in the south, showing Jamie Redford’s film about ACEs science and brain development to more than 13,000 people: teachers and attorneys, CASA workers and district judges, physicians and parents. Sometimes 300 people would gather to see the film and participate in a panel discussion; other times, it was an audience of twelve.
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Policy Opportunities to Spread HOPE [positiveexperience.org/blog]
By Bob Sege and Kay Johnson, 11/19/20, positiveexperiences.org/blog This week, we focus on opportunities to spread HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) with the new Biden-Harris Administration. With the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout, families feel more stress than before, adding to long-simmering concerns about child poverty and its implications. On a more positive note, the recent resurgence in calls for racial justice have spurred many more Americans to work...
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New nonprofit breast milk bank launches in San Diego (sandiegouniontribune.com)
San Diego — Every year, about 260 of the tiniest premature babies in California hospitals develop an often-fatal bowel disease known as necrotizing enterocolitis, or NEC. Nobody knows what causes NEC, but a common factor in many cases is the use of formula to feed these very low-birth-weight babies because the mother’s breast milk is not available. Replacing that formula with pasteurized breast milk in every California hospital newborn intensive care unit could be a positive step in reducing...
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Highlights from Michigan—one of four states to receive CDC funding for preventing ACEs
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just launched a three-year, four-state, $6-million project, “Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences: Data to Action (PACE-D2A)” with the potential to energize an already blossoming movement of statewide community-based initiatives to address ACEs. The CDC awards of $500,000 annually for three years, announced on August 25 , were given to the Department of Public Health in Georgia and Massachusetts, the Office of Early Childhood in...
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How Massachusetts is leveraging $1.5 million CDC grant to focus on preventing ACEs, increasing positive childhood experiences
Nicole Daley (left), Director, Division of Violence and Injury Prevention, Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) and Lauren Cardoso, Epidemiologist, Child & Youth Violence Prevention, MDPH Nicole Daley and Lauren Cardoso were just a few months into their new positions with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) when COVID-19 and racial reckoning swept across the United States, creating both challenge and opportunity in their work. In this new environment, Daley...
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CTIPP – How it's working for you and how you can get involved.
The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) was created in December 2016 by representatives from diverse sectors, including education, mental health, justice, civil society, and government. We share a common commitment to preventing violence in all its forms and promoting healthy, just, and resilient communities. We inform and advocate for public policies and practices that incorporate scientific findings about the relationship between trauma, health, and well-being across...
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Opportunity to sign on to “A Trauma-Informed Agenda for the First 100 Days of the Biden-Harris Administration”—Deadline Dec. 8th
The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice ( CTIPP ) is inviting individuals and organizations to express their support for a set of executive actions for the Biden-Harris Administration to take “to address trauma and build resilience throughout the country.” Most of these actions could be taken early in the Administration and would not require congressional action with the exception of some recommendations that could be included in a new stimulus package. The recommendations are...
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Trauma recovery centers can help heal Michigan, need legislators to fund (Lansing State Journal)
By Senator Sylvia Santana and Senator Erika Geiss, Guest Writers, November 11, 2020, Lansing State Journal. Over the past several months, Michiganders have faced unprecedented traumatization. The devastation from COVID-19 disproportionately taking lives and impacting residents across our state, along with the anguish from the turmoil during this moment in history, has been traumatic. Community violence, a persisting issue in Michigan, has been exacerbated by the strains placed on communities...
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Oklahoma Trauma-Informed Care Taskforce creates strategy to rebuild social supports through collaboration to address Adverse Childhood Experiences [tulsaworld.com]
By Corey Jones, Tulsa World, December 2, 2020 Oklahoma’s social supports have eroded over time as budgets shrink, but a legislative task force is establishing framework to better coordinate and revive help for children and families across the state. The Oklahoma Trauma-Informed Care Taskforce on Tuesday released its second report in two years, which establishes a strategy to better leverage existing resources as it works to develop pilot programs and an overall plan in 2021. The goal is to...
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FIRST CALIFORNIA SURGEON GENERAL’S REPORT PROVIDES CLEAR CROSS-SECTOR ROADMAP TO ADDRESS HEALTH AND SOCIETAL IMPACTS OF ADVERSITY
SACRAMENTO – The Office of the California Surgeon General today released the first California Surgeon General’s Report - Roadmap for Resilience: The California Surgeon General's Report on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Toxic Stress, and Health. The report serves as a blueprint for how communities, states, and nations can recognize and effectively address Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress as a root cause to some of the most harmful, persistent, and expensive societal and...
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Childhood trauma impacts millions of Americans, and it’s having devastating consequences (pbs.org)
Childhood trauma impacts millions of Americans, and its consequences can be devastating. Those experiencing high levels of trauma can see dramatically lower life expectancies, and the CDC estimates it accounts for billions of dollars in healthcare costs and lost productivity. Special correspondent Cat Wise reports as part of our series, “Invisible Scars: America’s Childhood Trauma Crisis." Nadine Burke Harris: We're seeing increased rates of domestic violence, increased rates of substance...
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Federal Opportunities to Advance Child Health Transformation and Spread HOPE [positiveexperience.org/blog]
Charles Bruner and Kay Johnson, 12/21/20, positiveexperience.org/blog Our country and the world are eager to move toward the coming new year. In 2020, the triple crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic downturn, and reckoning on racism have elevated attention to social injustice in both the health care system and our country as a whole. Because of COVID-19, the public and policy leaders have heightened awareness of the importance of physicians, nurses, community health workers, child care...
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Preventing and Addressing Trauma Trainings in Alabama
The Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention received a grant from the Alabama Department of Mental Health in July and partnered with the Alabama Network of Family Resource Centers to provide 23 virtual training on Strengthening Families™- Preventing and Addressing Trauma in the months of August and September. The one-day training session was upbeat and interactive. At the end of the day, participants had a broader understanding of the long-term effects of ACEs and...