October 2019

By Monique Vitche, The Mighty, October 20, 2019 If you’ve never heard the term “complex trauma” before, you’re not alone. Complex trauma essentially refers to exposure to trauma over long periods of time, often during childhood. In some cases, complex trauma leads to mental health struggles like anxiety, depression and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). Anxiety due to complex trauma is often difficult to shake. This is something Mighty contributor Vicki Peterson wrote about in...

By Science Blog, October 14, 2019 Black youth in Los Angeles County face an accumulation of disadvantage, undermining their academic, social and economic success and placing them at greater risk of structural disenfranchisement — not in school, not working and ensnared in the criminal justice system, according to a new study Beyond the Schoolhouse: Overcoming Challenges & Expanding Opportunity for Black Youth in Los Angeles County, released today by researchers at the UCLA Graduate...

Finding spirituality is something I had to find through pain and suffering emotionally. I grew up without much of an idea of god, my parents didn't force it on me. When I was a teenager however, I climbed on the soapbox of thinking people who had faith in god were weak and fools for doing so. My ego was in full force during these times, the transformation that has taken place since then is nothing short of amazing and shows off not only the power and grace of god, but the love. I was someone...

The Center for Youth Wellness' National Pediatric Practice Community on ACES (NPPC) is a co-designed community committed to collaborative learning. To promote this learning, we have been working with six pilot sites over the last year, representing practices of various sizes and service delivery settings, to implement ACEs screening and intervention. Beyond supporting these practices with the logistics of implementation, the broader goal was to discover and share real-world best practices,...

The author takes us on a journey into a deep place within us, a place where the truth is known "within every cell of (our) body"; beyond the masks we wear, the criticisms we've cloaked ourselves in, our over-thinker personas, fueled by the old doubts we've absorbed into our beings.

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,...

I finally got sober after about 6 years of being in and out on in 2015. The list of reasons why this time worked against all the others is very extensive, almost everything about me had to change. One of the most important ones was learning how to be accountable. From a young age, before I even touched drugs, my word meant very little. I was king of doing what I want when I want to and vice versa. If I said I would be somewhere or do something for someone it was more likely I was going to...

This article is by Orly Morgan, board member AlterNATIVE Education, Columbia College Class of 2017. Summer is known as a time for students to rest and relax after months of classes; but for AlterNATIVE Education , summer means business. The team is quickly preparing to train facilitators, book flights and put the finishing touches on curriculum that it will teach to Native American students on 10 different reservation communities around the country AlterNATIVE Education is a not-for-profit...

Lindsey Rosman, Ph.D., assistant professor in the division of cardiology, is the lead author of the study, the story was published on Oct 17, 2019, for UNC Healthcare and UNC School of Medicine. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Oct. 17, 2019 — Young adults who suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be more likely to experience a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or major stroke event by middle age, raising the risk as much as other better-known risk factors , according to new research...

By Alexandra H. Bettis, Richard T. Liu, Jama Pediatrics, October 21, 2019 Depression in adolescence is highly prevalent and associated with negative long-term outcomes.1 Despite decades of research on treatment for adolescent depression, sexual minority youths remain a particularly at-risk group.2 Temporal trends inform progress in addressing the need to eliminate health disparities among sexual minority populations.3 To our knowledge, this study presents the first population-representative...

By Carlina Hansen, California Health Care Foundation, October 15, 2019 Before joining CHCF, I spent almost 20 years as executive director of the Women’s Community Clinic in San Francisco. In my time there, we forged some valuable partnerships to serve our clients and community, including our merger with another community health center, HealthRIGHT 360. It was during the merger process that I learned first-hand one of the biggest challenges to forging such partnerships — and it wasn’t what I...

By Jonice Webb, PsychCentral, September 29, 2019 Growing up with your emotional needs unmet takes a remarkable toll on a child. Children sense when their feelings are unwelcome, and they naturally learn to hide them. Unbeknownst to them, their brains push their feelings down, virtually walling them off so that they will not be a bother in their childhood home. But when, as a child, you push your feelings down, you are playing a dangerous game. You are actually pushing away a vital life force...