February 2016

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors wants to bet on early intervention to help women living in poverty and pregnant with their first baby to narrow the gap with more advantaged peers. The Nurse-Family Partnership , a model used in 43 states and 551 counties, pairs women three months into a pregnancy with a nurse who makes 64 home visits through the childs second birthday. The nurse provides education on nutrition, child development and parenting at a critical time for babies and...

First, there was a shocking report last spring revealing that homelessness in Santa Clara County cost in excess of a billion dollars every two years. Now, the same firm that calculated those staggering figures has developed a computer model that will identify the most desperate and costly homeless individuals and prescribe cost-saving fixes -- including immediate housing. And because the algorithm, introduced today by a local support group for the homeless, can be employed by any...

Dr. Seth Ammerman listens intently to his new patient. Ernesto, who does not want his last name disclosed, is homeless. Ernesto is earning a high school degree and working part time, but at night, he and his brother share a tent that they set up on San Jose streets. The daily stress of being homeless is wearing Ernesto out and making him light up too many cigarettes. I just want to cut down on my smoking, says Ernesto, 21, with a tentative, soft voice. Ive been on the streets all the time,...

Psychiatric hospitalizations of Latino children and young adults in California are rising dramatically and at a much faster pace than among their peers, according to state data. While mental health hospitalizations of young people of all ethnicities have climbed in recent years, Latino rates stand out. Among those 21 and younger, rates shot up 86 percent, to 17,813, between 2007 and 2014, according to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. Thats compared with a 21 percent...

Child abuse costs nations worldwide billions of dollars a year, experts report. In high-income nations, the median cost of child abuse equals a loss of 1.2 percent of per capita income, or $150 billion a year in the United States. The estimated cost in China -- a middle-income country -- is $50 billion a year, the experts added. In East Asia and the Pacific, the cost of emotional child abuse alone is more than $48 billion a year, the researchers said. The findings, from an international...

On Thursday, Feb. 18, join the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Center for Youth Wellness (CYW) for a day of action to raise awareness about adverse child experiences and the health effects of toxic stress in children.

The people who are doing most of the pioneering work to integrate trauma-informed, resilience-building practices based on ACEs research (writ large) are doing so in cities and counties across the U.S. Now that more state agencies are learning about ACEs, many people in local communities are wondering what they can ask states for to help grow local efforts.  Karen Clemmer, the maternal child adolescent health coordinator for Sonoma County’s Department of Health Services, and I were...

Last week, on two separate days in Los Angeles and in San Francisco, about 150 people (total) convened to listen and brainstorm about creating trauma-informed communities. Futures Without Violence, which is rolling out its Changing Minds campaign later this year, hosted both events.  Some very interesting and important themes emerged from the two days: Residents with lived experiences should participate in the decision-making bodies of service providers and vested...

Echo's conference this year is packed with great workshops for teachers, parents and anyone who works with children and their families. In addition to the not-to-be-missed keynotes (such as Susan Craig ), we are proud to present: Jose Ivan Arreola-Torres Workshop Spotlight: Holistic Healing for Immigrant & Undocumented Youth In this important workshop, Jose Ivan Arreola-Torres will talk about an often overlooked aspect of student mental health - the mental and emotional...

When President Barack Obama announced last month that he is taking executive action to ban the solitary confinement of juveniles in federal prisons, it was a rare case of Washington setting policy more liberal than what comes out of Sacramento. In California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature, bills to restrict the use of solitary confinement on youth have stalled for the last four years amid objections from labor and law enforcement groups that run juvenile halls. Now, citing the...

California's new corrections chief plans to add training on diversity and leadership for prison employees and to examine what has been effective in other states to change employees' attitudes as he tries to alter a culture that often pits prison guards against inmates and outsiders. "They (guards) have worked under very difficult situations and we have to figure a way to get them engaged in the rehabilitation process and not just be somebody counting heads," Scott Kernan told The Associated...

On February 22-23, 2016, our friends at Advancement Project will be hosting the 8th Annual Water Cooler Conference at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel. Don't miss out on this chance to hear keynote speakers Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed: Grit Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character ; David B. Grusky, the Director of Stanfords Center on Poverty and Inequity; and Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl, the Co-Director of the UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. Panelists...