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Dealing with any mental health or substance abuse issue is tough. It can often feel like no one really understands what you’re going through. But there’s a growing movement to change that by employing people who can better empathize with patients. Peer specialists are people who have personally struggled with mental health or substance abuse problems but are now in recovery and helping others. They work for community behavioral health centers, psychiatric inpatient facilities and other...

Dr. Beth Grady, a pediatrician at South San Francisco Clinic, developed a course called: "Childhood Adversity and Toxic Stress in Medical Care: Promoting Health and Healing throughout the Lifespan". She did the presentation on June 15, 2016, and the webinar was posted on June 22, 2016. The termination date for the webinar is June 22, 2019. Instructions for earning 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit TM for this enduring material: Watch the video of the presentation, which can be accessed via this...

Back in the fall of 1999, Norman Conard, a history teacher at the Uniontown High School in Kansas, asked his students to come up with a project for National History Day. While brainstorming ideas, ninth-grader Elizabeth Cambers stumbled on an old clipping from US News and World Report . The story included the line, ‘Irena Sendler saved 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942-43.’ Elizabeth asked her fellow ninth-grader Megan Stewart to help her with her project, and during her free...

KPJR Films is making its latest documentary, Resilience , available for screenings in local communities. "We created Paper Tigers and Resilience for all segments of our community to use as tools, both as a source of inspiration and and education, towards trauma-informed practices," said executive producer, Karen Pritzker. Directed by James Redford, Resilience is a one-hour documentary that delves into the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the birth of a new movement to...

Good Harbor Institute-Where Human Potential and Resilience are Built TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – Frustrated with the unintended consequences of care that wasn't trauma informed in the justice system Dr. Cathy Fialon researched how organizations could implement trauma care for sustained change. In her research she came to know author and community advocate, Shenandoah Chefalo. Shenandoah spent nearly 20 years as a Law Office Administrator and became unsettled by the ever-revolving door of the...

“If your parent is the bear in the living room, it is biologically impossible to run to that parent when they are either over or under reacting. If your parent is scary you can’t run to them. And you also can’t run away from them because you are a child, you can’t function in the world on your own. You can’t make it out there.” Donna Jackson Nakazawa We can get so lost in theory, data and facts that our language about trauma, abuse and adverse childhood experiences can become clinical and...

Please take a moment to read the following from Judge Caietti: With the recent events involving the death of San Diego Police Officer DeGuzman, Passport to Life is cancelled for this Friday. The various law enforcement agencies in San Diego County are participating in the memorial service which is being held at the same time as Passport to Life. The security team for Passport to Life is comprised of a variety of law enforcement agencies, including Probation, SDPD, SDUSD PD, SDCC PD, MTD PD...

Honoring J.D. Guzman Greetings. Two memorial services will be held this week to honor Officer Jonathan "J.D." DeGuzman. Community members are welcomed at both services. * A Funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, August 4, at Corpus Christi Catholic Church. The church is located at 450 Corral Canyon Road in Bonita. * A public memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, August 5, at Shadow Mountain Community Church. The church is located at 2100 Greenfield Drive in El Cajon. A...

As a woman who grew up without my biological father as well, who shares the ACE of that absence, I am always interested in any stories about how others experience that reality and navigate through life. As a child. As a partner. As a parent. We happen to have a leader who speaks openly about this particular experience. Before taking office, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, said: ...I had to learn very early on to figure out what was important and what wasn’t, and exercise my...

One July morning during a research trip to the small New England island of Nantucket, home to pioneering astronomer Maria Mitchell, I had a most unusual experience. Midway through my daily swim in the ocean, my peripheral vision was drawn to what at first appeared to be a snorkel. But as I looked directly at the curious protrusion, I realized it was the long glistening neck of a stately bird, gliding over the nearly waveless surface a few away. By some irresistible instinct, I began swimming...

Every year in the United States, one in 15 children is exposed to intimate partner violence, according to a national survey . Research from a team led by Shelby McDonald of Virginia Commonwealth University finds many also witness abuse of pets in the home, potentially adding to the impacts on their behavior and mental health. The researchers interviewed children between the ages of seven and 12 whose mothers had used domestic violence services in the past year. Of 242 children, one-quarter...

The youth survey recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that when it comes to the rates of teenage suicide attempts, young Latinas continue to outpace girls and boys of other ethnic or racial groups in the U.S. Nearly 10 years ago, news stories told of this mostly overlooked national phenomenon among a misunderstood and endangered group but one of the fastest-growing segments of the American population. And major city newspaper editorials called for more...