HOPE is a natural fit for ACES Connection. To further embrace the members of ACES Connection we have created a Balancing ACES with HOPE community and encourage all to visit and join. Please read our blogs and post your comments. Let us know how you think HOPE could impact your work and personal life. Being in nurturing, supportive relationships are critical for children to develop into healthy, resilient adults. This concept forms the first of the 4 Building Blocks of HOPE . What types of...

There have been some truly remarkable research papers written about complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) in the past few decades. Some of the research focuses exclusively on CPTSD while others can apply to any mental health disorder. In this article, I’m going to break the ice in the series about complex post-traumatic stress disorder and new research findings.

I recently encountered a post by a Head of School who suggested all the positives of being quarantined for him and the children and families in his school. I know I am preaching to the choir here but I wanted folks to see what I wrote. We need to stomp out the perception that children are all enjoying time at home -- as if they were experiencing an extended snow day. I get silver linings. They do exist, including for trauma. But for a head of school to write what he wrote suggests to me that...

By Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, March 26, 2020 “Anxiety” is one of the words you hear frequently about our individual and collective reactions to the coronavirus pandemic — which has stopped public life in its tracks in much of the world. Kids are anxious. So are their parents and teachers and principals and superintendents and friends and elected officials. For those people who were anxious before covid-19, the sense of apprehension has only deepened. Given that, this post offers...

By Eduardo Porter, The New York Times, March 28, 2020 Cloistered in my Brooklyn quarantine, I’ve probably been wondering about some of the same things you have: How come the United States only has 2.4 intensive care beds per 1,000 people, about one-third the number in South Korea? Why is American unemployment insurance so stingy? And critically, how can it be that one in 10 people in the richest country in the history of the world must face the worst epidemic in 100 years without access to...