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Show don't tell is the first bit of advice almost every writer gets. Don't give facts if words can form an image. Don't say a song was fast-paced if words can tap quickly, instead, across the page. It's good advice but when it comes to ACEs we need both. We need to tell and show and tell again. There's resistance. We need facts and data and proof. And we need stories. Both. Over and over and over. I write about neglect and how it makes it hard to concentrate, in school, when there is lots of...

Check out our fantastic friends ringing the bell about ACEs and what we all can do to help! http://www1.actionnewsnow.com/videos/coalition-spreads-awareness-about-adverse-childhood-experiences-/

Many children and families in Cascade County are not safe from trauma, but community members are stepping up to help mitigate the emotional and behavioral issues brought on by traumatic events. “One in four kids are exposed to trauma,” said Amy Foster Wolferman, assistant director for the University of Montana’s Institute for Educational Research and Service. “But kids are resilient. Two out of three will grow up and beat the odds.” Wolferman stood before 20 local social services...

In just one day last week, the Hamilton House Child & Safety Center saw 23 children who were suspected of being sexually abused. Although it was the most they had seen in one day since opening in 2010, it's indicative of just how bad the situation is in the area. West central Arkansas also has the highest need for foster homes because of neglect and abuse. The Hamilton House, a child advocacy center on the first floor at Mercy Tower in Fort Smith, sees more than 800 children a year, from...

Watching mommy and daddy tear each other apart emotionally and often physically has left battle scars on David and his little sister, Amelia. The five-year-old boy now struggles with severe emotional and social problems, including anxiety and oppositional defiance disorder. He and his mom, Ayla Tennant, 29, are learning how to cope with the aftermath through programs at Calgary Urban Project Society (CUPS). “We had a serious abusive relationship and David unfortunately witnessed a lot of it.

Join us for a professional training on Working with Childhood Trauma on Monday, January 30, 2017 Who should attend? Professionals who work with families and children. Where: The California Endowment 1000 N. Alameda St. Los Angeles, CA 90012 Time: 9am -4pm Cost: Early Bird rate available until 1/7/17: $95 Standard Individual Registration: $125 Group Rate: $75 per person (First person pays standard rate) – Minimum of 3 to qualify for group rate Register Here Partial scholarships available.

“Frozen” is my ultimate Disney movie. Elsa my ultimate warrior and the person I keep looking up to, time and time again, when my mental health is wearing me down. Why? Because I believe that Elsa’s struggles with her “powers” are more than that. I believe her struggles are representations of an array of different mental disorders, and that “Frozen“ contains a wide range of lessons that could impact and console almost any one who lives with a mental illness. [For more of this story, written...

Most of us have grown up on the “once upon a time… and they lived happily ever after” relationship fable. It is written into the script of nearly every Disney film and we have bought it, lock, stock and barrel. We lose ourselves in dreaming of Prince or Princess Charming who will fulfill all our romantic desires, will never disagree with us and will appear eternally youthful and beautiful. Recovery pioneer John Bradshaw coined the phrase Post Romantic Stress Disorder to describe an all too...

Sexual harassment is a prevalent form of victimization that most antibullying programs ignore and teachers and school officials often fail to recognize, according to bullying and youth violence expert Dorothy L. Espelage, Ph.D. The recent teen suicide of Brandy Vela, a teen in Texas City, Texas, is a case in point. According to Vela’s parents, the teen fatally shot herself following months of bullying and sexual harassment, perpetrated in part through text messages and social media. Espelage...

The violence that women in disadvantaged neighborhoods experience and witness can result in post-traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) symptoms and full diagnoses, according to a new study. The Northwestern University study of a disadvantaged Chicago neighborhood also found that women with PTSD diagnosis or sub-threshold PTSD had significantly more severe depression symptoms than women in the study who didn’t report experiencing trauma. Every woman who was recruited for the study had symptoms...

Mental-health issues such as anxiety and depression can have many causes. Newly published research identifies one that we don’t usually think about: government policy. According to a new study , American Latinos living in states with more exclusionary immigration policies report higher rates of psychological distress than their counterparts in states with more liberal laws. Obviously, “not all immigrants are Latinos, nor are all Latinos immigrants,” a research team led by Mark Hatzenbuehler...

It is a core tenet of the American Dream: the idea that if you work hard, America awards you the freedom and opportunity to live a more prosperous life than the one you were born into. That’s how it used to work, at least. Of kids born in the 1940s, 90 percent did better than their parents. But this scenario has become increasingly rare in recent decades. “Absolute income mobility,” as economists call it, fell to a mere 50 percent for kids born in the 1980s, regardless of where their parents...