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When people hear ACES, or, adverse childhood experiences, it is likely that their mind goes to the more obvious types of adverse experiences such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, loss of a parent, or being removed from the home. But what about the less obvious adverse experiences? Those that are small, yet have a cumulative impact on a child’s sense of safety and security. Those that interfere with the essential bonding between child and caregiver. Those that risk or contribute to disrupted...

By Beth Ann Mayer, Yahoo Lifestyle, January 16, 2020 Uchenna Umeh knew she needed to file for divorce in 2009. The relationship was not working, and she did not want her three children, then ages 9, 7, and 2, to grow up in that environment. As a pediatrician, she also knew divorce can cause childhood trauma, so she put all three in therapy. Two of her three boys struggled at first but overcame the trauma as they moved into adulthood. Her middle child didn't show outward signs of trauma until...

By Erin Ivory, WGN9, January 15, 2020 While the coffee is good, "Sip of Hope" serves up much more than a cup of joe on the Northwest Side. Through a partnership with Dark Matter Coffee, the café donates 100% of its proceeds to mental health education and suicide prevention. "It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from... five out of five people have good days and bad days," owner Johnny Boucher said. "It's OK not to be OK." [ Please click here to read more .]

What if we could measure the effects of our interventions and resources on the body and minds of our clients in real-time? I started my career just as the quality improvement and best practice movement started to influence service delivery and funding in the helping professions. While so much good evolved out of these movements, it remains difficult to measure outcomes, especially in the short-term. Often, we are left hoping our short-term efforts serve as small steps on the journey to more...

By Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, January 2020 Coming January 2020. Sign up for your free copy! A Culture of Health Captured in Fiction Take Us to a Better Place is a soon-to-be-released collection of 10 short stories that touch on topics as wide-ranging as health care, immigration, cultural identity, and gentrification. At once vivid and hopeful, heartbreaking and perilous, these deeply human stories will linger long after you finish. We hope they spark new conversations about a Culture of...

By Taylor Walker, Witness LA, January 14, 2020 On Friday, California Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled his plans for the 2020-2021 budget, a $222.2 billion proposal that features important changes to probation and pretrial diversion, jail reforms, and a potential prison closure, among other big changes in the world of justice. Below, WitnessLA has compiled some of the highlights from the governor’s proposed criminal justice spending. Based on Newsom’s January budget proposal, spending for the...

By Natalie Hanson, Chico Enterprise-Record, January 16, 2020 At least 70% of Oroville’s high school students are considered socioeconomically-disadvantaged. In Chico, Between 400 and 500 children are categorized as housing insecure at any time during the Chico Unified School district’s school year. Across the county, thousands of students often rely on each district for help just to get to school and to get a meal. In these statistics a tragic side is seen in the Butte County homelessness...

By Megan Liu, The Chronicle, January 15, 2020 “We all like to think of childhood as this time of joy and innocence. But for many of us, it’s just not true.” Those are the opening lines of the trailer for “Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hopes,” a documentary that discusses the biological dangers of childhood abuse and neglect, which have been linked to everything from depression and substance abuse to cancer and heart disease. The documentary, screened at the 2016...

Last Chance to Sign Up for tomorrow's ALL NEW FREE Webinar-Beating The Holiday Blues By Training Your Brain With Brain- Trainer International Founder: Pete Van Deusen When: Fri, Jan 17, 2020 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST In this 1 hour webinar you will learn: 1. How human brains are vulnerable to mood swings, depression and anxiety especially during the holidays and other stressful periods. 2. How brain training creates new habit patterns in the brain that move it toward optimal functioning...

This series on family estrangement may seem to be a strange topic to cover during the holiday season. Yet, being separated from family during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s is a familiar occurrence for many survivors. The purpose of these articles is to offer support to all who come to this blogsite looking for hope. This article will concentrate on two topics, the positive side of family estrangement and creating a family of choice to spend the holidays with and warm your heart.

Announcing three Spring 2020 online (audio only) writing circles for survivors of sexual abuse and assault. Led by Donna Jenson, author of, Healing My Life from Incest to Joy . Circle 1: Saturdays 10:00am to 12:00pm March 7, 21, April 4, 18, May 9 Circle 2: Sundays 4:00 to 6:00pm March 8, 22, April 5, 19, May 10 Circle 3: Wednesdays 5:00pm to 7:00pm March 11, 25, April 8, 22, May 6 For more information go to: https://www.timetotell.org/online-writing-circles

Brain development in the first years of life provides the foundation for all future learning and development, and yet the randomness of where a child is born or lives often determines whether they have access to the services they need to thrive in their earliest years. So how are infants and toddlers doing in your state? ZERO TO THREE and Child Trends has produced a first-of-its-kind publication to answer how the 12 million infants and toddlers are faring in the United States. The State of...