August 2019

"How are you feeling today?" "What's your goal for today?" "Who can you ask for help if you need it?" This may sound like an unusual start to your next staff meeting, but these questions, and the purpose for asking them, is deeply rooted in trauma theory and what we know about the importance of connections when healing from trauma. I've been a distant fan of the Sanctuary Model for several years now, learning about it through my work with ACEs Connection as well as my work with systems eager...

By Arielle Dreher, The Spokesman-Review, July 19, 2019 Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy Dan Moman and Frontier Behavioral Health mental health clinician Holly Keller were riding around on their shift this summer when they got an urgent call. The family of a man who had run into traffic before had called 911 to report he was running away from home, and deputies who had already responded to the situation said he was not following commands. Moman and Keller rushed to the scene. When they...

By Danielle Fox, Center for Health Journalism, August 8, 2019 Engaged journalism is the key to sustainability and gaining trust in our communities — it’s not feel-good journalism, it’s necessary journalism, Ashley Alvarado, director of community engagement at Southern California Public Radio (KPCC), recently told a room full of reporters at the 2019 National Fellowship. Alvarado and ProPublica engagement editor and reporter Ariana Tobin relayed lessons from the field about how engagement...

By Larry Gordon, EdSource, August 15, 2019 In David Kirp’s new book “The College Dropout Scandal” (Oxford University Press), the UC Berkeley emeritus professor of public policy calls low college graduation rates “higher education’s dirty little secret.” Nationwide, only about 3 out of 5 incoming freshmen graduate within six years. The rate is dramatically worse at some schools in California. He says those statistics result from “a dereliction of duty that has gotten too little public...

By Linda Villarosa, The New York Times, August 14, 2019 The excruciatingly painful medical experiments went on until his body was disfigured by a network of scars. John Brown, an enslaved man on a Baldwin County, Ga., plantation in the 1820s and ’30s, was lent to a physician, Dr. Thomas Hamilton, who was obsessed with proving that physiological differences between black and white people existed. Hamilton used Brown to try to determine how deep black skin went, believing it was thicker than...

The elementary school principal routinely broke into tears. At Wednesday afternoon meetings of the Creating Trauma Sensitive Arizona Schools work group, a committee of the Arizona ACE Consortium , the leader of a high-need, inner-city K-5 school frequently wept as she talked about the trauma her students carried into the classroom and the ways it percolated throughout her campus: in lagging test scores, behavior problems, even teacher retention. The other committee members became her...

By Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, August 15, 2019 Systems for Action (S4A) is a signature research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that helps to build the evidence base for a Culture of Health by rigorously testing new ways of connecting the nation’s fragmented medical, social, and public health systems. Studies conducted through the S4A program test innovative mechanisms for aligning delivery and financing systems for medical, social, and public health services, with a...

By Kathryn Reynolds, Eva H. Allen, Martha Fedorowicz, Joycelyn Ovalle, Urban Institute, August 14, 2019 Tackling the affordable housing crisis will require actors from every sector to finance housing development for low- and moderate-income people. The Urban Institute developed a guide to help nonprofit hospitals and health systems understand how their institutional assets and prestige can support affordable housing development. The guide also offers practical information and encouragement...

By Diana Lambert, EdSource, August 16, 2019 Schools reopen in Paradise today, but nothing is the same. The Camp Fire changed everything nine months ago when it roared through the town and neighboring communities, killing 86 people, destroying thousands of homes and four schools. Many of the 1,000 students who are expected to return — about a third of the student population of a year ago — will be coming on buses from their new homes in Oroville, Chico and Durham. Many of their former...

By Ben Chandler, Betty "B.J." Adkins, and David Finke, Advocate-Messenger, August 13, 2019 Semple Elementary first-grade teacher Christina Carter read a story to her class about a child who faced stressful events every day, making it hard to focus at school. After the story, she gave her students a prompt — if Ms. Carter only knew. Some of the responses were eye-opening. “If Ms. Carter only knew … I get my sister ready in the morning and that’s why we are always late.” “If Ms. Carter only...

By Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, August 15, 2019 Can transgender parents who have had breast surgery breastfeed or chestfeed their infants? Yes. Some transgender parents who have had breast/top surgery may wish to breastfeed or chestfeed their infants. Healthcare providers working with these families should be familiar with medical, emotional, and social aspects of gender transitions to provide optimal family-centered care and meet the nutritional needs of the infant. These...

“As a field we continue to deeply entrench ourselves in ways of thinking and funding that are wed to reacting to trauma and damage alone, instead of working to prevent as much of it as we possibly can.” —Jerry Milner, associate commissioner of the Children's Bureau, and David Kelly, special assistant to the associate commissioner I agree. There needs to be a greater focus on the primary prevention of adverse childhood experiences.