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By Dan Salmon, EurekAlert!, December 13, 2019 A major study led by researchers at La Trobe University in Australia has identified key themes that will be used to inform strategies to support Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents in the first years of their children's lives. The Healing the Past by Nurturing the Future project aims to break the cycle of intergenerational and complex trauma experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people, by co-designing...

By Dan Hurley, The New Yorker, December 12, 2019 Tanner Bivins was declared dead on January 5, 2018, at a hospital in Paducah, Kentucky, the week before his sixth birthday. As the Louisville Courier-Journal reported, Tanner was emaciated and dehydrated, and his scalp was covered with sores. Authorities later found his home strewn with garbage and vermin. The house had no utilities and no heat; the temperature had dropped to eleven degrees the night that Tanner died. According to the National...

By Ted Roelofs, Bridge, December 13, 2019 By now, the medical evidence is clear: Childhood trauma can have profound effects on physical and mental health. Even so, Michigan physicians like Timothy Kval remain all too rare. Working out of a Muskegon clinic, Kval evaluates more than a patient’s symptoms, blood pressure readings and cholesterol scores. He also screens adult patients for past traumatic events like physical abuse, neglect, domestic violence in the home or the loss of a parent...

Peace Development Fund The Peace Development Fund (PDF) is inviting applications for its Community Organizing Grants program. Through the program, grants of up to $10,000 will be awarded to grassroots organizations working for social justice. PDF funds organizations directly engaged in community organizing activities, include organizing to shift power, to build a movement, to dismantle oppression, and/or create new structures. Funding priorities include: new or emerging organizations;...

By Communities Joined in Action, December 2019 Communities Joined in Action is holding its annual convening in New Orleans, LA on May 8-9, 2020. and have released a call for applications. This is a great venue to share your work and meet with others who are partnering to build equitable communities. There are often travel scholarship opportunities for presenters, so why not give it a try? The application deadline is Wednesday, January 8, 2020. Thank you to Sarah Callender for providing the...

There have been numerous studies that have demonstrated that there is a high comorbidity between PTSD and substance abuse. Specifically, adolescent PTSD has an incredibly strong correlation with substance abuse. According to one source, almost 60 percent of young people with PTSD problems subsequently develop substance abuse problems. Before we take a look at how PTSD can affect someone’s behavior and lifestyle. What Is PTSD? PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, is a disorder that...

What are adverse childhood experiences and how do they impact us later in life? In California, where I live and work as a sex and intimacy disorders specialist, there is a movement for mandatory adverse childhood experiences (ACES) assessment in all public and private medical and psychotherapeutic settings. So, regardless of an adult patient’s presenting issue(s) – medical, psychological, or both – clinicians would screen for childhood trauma. The reason for this push, which I strongly...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3615506/

https://www.who.int/mental_health/policy/legislation/en/

Photo caption and credit: Frank Kros, President of the Kros Learning Group, explains The N.E.A.R. Science to the group. The Maryland General Assembly held an event to inform them about how to make trauma informed policy decisions, and informing them about the consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES). (Paul W. Gillespie) ____________________________________________________________ If adverse childhood experiences were eliminated entirely, rates of depression could plummet, heart...

FYI im speaking to legislative committee Jan 9, 2020 on human trafficking and ACEs

Will screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in California be mandatory? No, but it’s recommended. Will there be training for physicians and staff on how to screen? Yes. Who will be reimbursed for screening patients in California? Physicians who serve patients in the state’s Medi-Cal program — for now. For more answers to these and other questions that surfaced during a Dec. 4 webinar introducing Californians to a new statewide initiative, read on. Come January 1, California will...