Tagged With "toxic stress"
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How To Prepare For A Trauma Anniversary, According To Mental Health Experts [bustle.com]
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be a challenging mental health issue to manage, especially considering it's unique to each and every individual. However, a common trigger for many people with PTSD is their “trauma anniversary,” or the date that a traumatic incident or event occurred. In fact, a trauma anniversary (and the weeks leading up to it) can be one of the most difficult times during the year for people who live with PTSD. Fortunately, mental health experts say there are ways...
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“I Like to Move It, Move It!” – How Dance and Rhythm Can Reduce the Impact of ACEs (stresshealth.org)
As it is, more and more researchers studying the healing power of rhythmic movement on people who’ve experienced trauma from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), such as abuse, neglect, or parental mental illness or substance abuse issues. Among these researchers is Dr. Bruce Perry, a psychiatrist and senior fellow at the Child Trauma Academy in Houston who advocates dance, drumming, walking and other rhythm-based movements to help kids with trauma. In a book about trauma and the power of...
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Inside the Adverse Childhood Experience Score: Strengths, Limitations, and Misapplications [ajpmonline.org]
By Robert F. Anda, Laura E. Porter, David W. Brown, et al., American Journal of Preventive Medicine, March 25, 2020 INTRODUCTION Despite its usefulness in research and surveillance studies, the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) score is a relatively crude measure of cumulative childhood stress exposure that can vary widely from person to person. Unlike recognized public health screening measures, such as blood pressure or lipid levels that use measurement reference standards and cut points...
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Interview: Trauma-Informed Care with Transition-Age Youth [psychologytoday.com]
Last month, an article titled “The Tragedy of Baltimore” in the New York Times Magazine described the upsurge in violence in a city long known for its “blight, suburban flight, segregation, drugs , racial inequality, [and] concentrated poverty.” At the center of the storm are transition-age youth, who too often face long odds and challenging futures in the communities where they live. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Patricia Cobb-Richardson , MS. For the past 20 years, she has...
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Jones: Day 2: Soda, cigarettes and trauma: How Adverse Childhood Experiences alter brain chemistry, cultivate unhealthy habits and prompt premature death
Patients would carry soda into Dr. Gerard Clancy’s office, with cigarettes tucked away for after therapy. Often victims of abuse or violent crime, they would seek soothing but risky behaviors to cope. Overweight. Chronic pain. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Type II diabetes. His former patients will die younger than they should, he said. Clancy conducted therapy sessions until he became president of the University of Tulsa in 2016. At his psychiatry clinic, he saw firsthand how a...
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Marin Community Clinics in California screen babies for ACEs, provide support in effort to prevent trauma
When Marin Community Clinics (MCC) first considered screening their patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) they already had decided that if they were going to prevent children from acquiring ACEs, they had to take a radical approach.
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Maternity Group Home Program Funding Opportunity. Applications Due 07/25/2019 [Admin for Children & Families]
Funding Opportunity Application Due Date: 07/25/2019 Maternity Group Home Program *See attached pdf for more info. Description: The Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families' Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) announces the availability of funds under the Transitional Living Program’s Maternity Group Home (MGH) grant program. The purpose to provide safe, stable, and appropriate shelter only for pregnant and/or parenting youth ages 16 to...
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New Report Calls for Statewide Coordinated Response to Protect New Jersey's Children from Adverse Childhood Experiences [finance.yahoo.com]
By PR Newswire, Yahoo Finance, July 30, 2019 NEWARK, N.J., July 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report released today details the challenges New Jersey faces in addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and sets forth opportunities and actions for a coordinated statewide response to mitigate their lasting effects on children's health and well-being. ACEs are stressful or traumatic events, including abuse, neglect, domestic violence, household mental illness, household substance misuse,...
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New Resource for Teens and the Parents/Caregivers who Love Them
In popular culture, the moody adolescent is easily recognizable. Teens are often portrayed as dangerously risk-taking, obstinate, moody and at the mercy of their growing minds and bodies. This unflattering and inaccurate portrayal begins to shape parents’ understanding of adolescence with a skewed perspective, reinforcing the unhelpful belief that this is a stage in the parenting relationship that “must be survived”. At the same time, these low expectations are subversive to the adolescent's...
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New survey paints dire picture of challenges black moms face in health care system [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
A new California survey of pregnant and new mothers paints a bleak picture of what it’s like to be a black mother. In Listening to Mothers in California, black mothers reported not being heard by their health providers and said they experienced discrimination during childbirth. They also experienced higher rates of anxiety and depression during and after pregnancy than white women. The findings add fuel to a growing sense of urgency on maternal health. On Wednesday, California Gov. Brown...
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Nominate a Trauma-Informed Care Champion: #TICchampion
Becoming a trauma-informed organization requires clear communication about the transformation process, and support from staff at all levels of an organization. Often these efforts are spearheaded by “trauma-informed care champions”— individuals committed to raising awareness regarding the health effects of trauma and toxic stress and improving care for people who have experienced trauma. This week, the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) invites you to recognize people around you who...
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Crisis in Care Report
The Greater Rochester Health Foundation convened the Commission on Children’s Behavioral Health in the Finger Lakes in spring 2015, in response to concerns from parents, child care providers, schools, pediatricians and children’s mental health clinicians. They consistently raised alarms about the shortfalls of our region’s children’s behavioral health system: the demands placed on it, its capacity, and in some cases, its quality.
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Panel Discussion: The Need for Promotion and Prevention Efforts
A panel discussion of local representatives from different professional disciplines discussed the data that highlights the need for prevention and promotion efforts. Each panelist provided a single background slide to serve as context for the overall discussion that took place at the Summit. Amy Scheel-Jones: Chief of Planning at Monroe County OMH Dr. Leonard Brock: Executive Director of the Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative Jackie Campbell: Director of ROC the Future Dr. Michael...
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Parent Handouts: Understanding ACEs, Parenting to Prevent & Heal ACEs (English)
Please see the main post for these parent handouts in the ACEs Connection Resources Center. These two flyers ( Understanding ACEs and Parenting to Prevent & Heal ACEs ) can be downloaded, distributed, and used freely. One is brand new and the other is a revision. Both flyers were made with generous support from Family Hui, a Program of Lead for Tomorrow. Translations of these flyers are in progress and will be shared by Family Hui and updated on ACEs Connection when available.
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Positive Relationships Can Buffer Childhood Trauma and Toxic Stress, Researchers Say [bostonglobe.com]
By Kay Lazar, The Boston Globe, October 15, 2019 Traumatic events and toxic relationships during childhood can cast long shadows, often damaging mental health well into adulthood. But a growing body of research suggests sustained, positive relationships with caring adults can help mitigate the harmful effects of childhood trauma. And specialists say pediatricians, social workers, and others who work with kids should take steps to monitor and encourage those healthy relationships — just as...
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Public Health Matters Blog Posts: Using trauma-informed care to guide emergency preparedness and response
"Exposure to a traumatic event or set of circumstances can negatively affect a person’s mental, physical, social, emotional or spiritual well-being for a long time after the initial incident. We know that not all individuals respond to trauma in the same way and we know that individuals with a history of trauma, especially childhood trauma, are more likely to experience psychological distress and are at increased risk for the development of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with future...
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Racism Kills: What Community-Level Interventions Can Do About It [Rewire.news]
In the first two installments of this series, we addressed promising approaches for buffering the impact of racism on health—learning cognitive and emotional strategies, known as self-regulation , for coping with stress and building cultural connections that buffer the impacts of toxic stress. Both of those arenas are born out of social science research showing a connection between these elements and improved health outcomes, even in the face of significant adversity. But these individual...
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Reasons to be Positive and Optimistic
Positive thinking and optimism are words often thrown around when thinking about being happy and cheerful. But what do they really mean? Positive thinking means approaching life in a positive and productive way instead of focusing on the negatives. Meaning you’re hopeful for the best and don’t focus on the worst. Sounds good in theory, but how can you start to think positively? Here are seven reasons why positivity is so good for you, and some tips on how to remain positive everyday:...
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Reconnecting With Your Body After Trauma [theemotionmachine.com]
Our emotional experiences often have a physical component to them. When we’re nervous, we may feel a churning in our stomachs. When we’re disappointed, we may feel our hearts sink. And when we’re embarrassed, we may feel our faces flush. Our emotions don’t just exist in our minds, but also in our bodies. This is why it’s difficult to rationalize your emotions away, because they usually exist at a visceral level that is beyond thoughts or words. In The Body Keeps the Score the Dutch...
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Research roundup: Two-gen study highlights case for early intervention; mitigating adversity in foster children; testing an expanded ACE survey
Linkage between teen mother's childhood adversity and externalizing behaviors in their children at age 11: Three aspects of parenting Child Abuse & Neglect Decision-making in foster care: A child-centered approach to reducing toxic stress in foster children Children and Youth Services Review Expanding Concepts of Youth Adversity: Relationships With a Positive Patient Health Questionnaire–2 Journal of Pediatric Health Care
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Resource List - Trauma Informed Approaches and Autism Spectrum and Other Developmental Disabilities
Resources for individuals, organizations, and communities moving along trauma and hope-informed pathways in order to: Prevent and mitigate adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Promote resilience and safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments. Promote equity and racial justice. Prevent substance abuse and promote mental health. … so that all children, youth, families and communities have equal opportunity for educational success, economic stability, health, and well-being.
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Resources for health care providers to prevent burnout during COVID-19
Editor's note: We will be providing ACEs in Pediatric members with resources to help navigate the challenges of COVID-19. Please see these resources below, including registration for a webinar to help prevent burnout in health care providers. It was complied by the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative. Healthcare Workers and the Workplace Healthcare providers, human service workers, journalists, and the service industry are all facing enormous difficulties in the face of coronavirus.
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Role of Pre-existing Adversity and Child Maltreatment on Mental Health Outcomes for Children Involved in Child Protection: Population-based Data Linkage Study [bmjopen.bmj.com]
By Miriam Jennifer Maclean, Scott Anthony Sims, Melissa O'Donnell, BMJ Journals, July 29, 2019 It is established that children who experience child abuse and neglect are at an increased risk of poorer mental health outcomes. The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child states that chronic stress to which maltreated children may be exposed, in the absence of consistent and supportive relationships with adult caregivers, has negative impacts on children’s developing brain.
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School Discipline Practices: An Issue Brief on a Public Health Crisis and Opportunities for Reform [changelabsolutions.org]
Early childhood education sets the foundation for a student’s future well-being and success. However, the widespread use of exclusionary school discipline (ESD) aggravates pre-existing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and deprives students of essential opportunities for learning and growth. Examples of harmful and counterproductive ESD practices include suspensions, expulsions, referrals to law enforcement, and corporal punishment. These practices can compound feelings of isolation and...
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Self-Care Resources
Self-care is a key element of a trauma-informed approach, at individual, organization, and community levels. This internet resource list includes links to introductions to ACEs and the ACE Study, self-care, secondary trauma and mindfulness. Self-Care - General Self-Care Starter Kit, School of Social Work, University of Buffalo http://socialwork.buffalo.edu/...are-starter-kit.html Relaxation Tool Kit, Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center...
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Shifting the focus from trauma to compassion
photo: Rolf Schweitzer/CCO Dr. Arnd Herz, a self-described champion for ACEs science, would like nothing more than to witness a greater appreciation of how widespread adverse childhood experiences are. Herz, a pediatrician and director of Medi-Cal Strategy for the Greater Southern Alameda Area for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, would also like to encourage more people in health care to engage in a trauma-informed care approach, a change in practice that he says not only benefits...
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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Strengthening Families: Increasing positive outcomes for children and families [www.cssp.org]
We engage families, programs, and communities in building key protective factors. Children are more likely to thrive when their families have the support they need. By focusing on the five universal family strengths identified in the Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework , community leaders and service providers can better engage, support, and partner with parents in order to achieve the best outcomes for kids. How We Do It The Strengthening Families framework is a...
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Taking Action: Building Resilience
There are many ways to take action to become trauma responsive and build resiliency. Here are few examples to point you in the right direction: Attend the Raising Resilience Summit on January 9th, 2018 Join the Consortium on Trauma, Illness, and Grief In Schools (TIG) Learn more about Mental Health First Aid Visit TraumaSenstiveSchools.org Trauma Informed Care training offers the entire staff an opportunity to look deeply into an organization's culture in order to build a resilient staff and...
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Taking Action: Building Resilience
Organizations have the unique opportunity to build and restore the core capabilities that promote resiliency, reduce stress, and support social and emotional health for adults and the children in their lives. Through a trauma-informed approach, organizations can make changes in organizational beliefs, policies, programs, practices, services and points of contact that value, advocate, and invest in healthy relationships; safe and secure environments and psychological safety; healthy habits;...
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Taking Action: Building Resilience Presentation
Thank you to all who presented the material, and all who listened! Here is a copy of the slides from the presentations.
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Teaching Kids to Understand Self Regulation and Responsibility
Sample Lesson from Superkid Power Teaching Kids to Understand Self Regulation and Responsibility Key concepts from the curriculum are how to breathe deeply to stay calm and how to use that inner calm to control how to respond to whatever is going on around you. First, we teach how to take deep breaths using a 3D prop, called the breathing sphere, that expands and contracts to represent the lungs and diaphragm filling with air along with the teacher counting out the beats of...
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The Rise of the Trauma-Informed Mothers
The next generation is less likely to wear predisposed shackles of trauma because as trauma-informed parents we are re-wiring the traumatically stressed DNA that was passed down to us.
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The Trauma Resiliency Model: A “Bottom-Up” Intervention for Trauma Psychotherapy (Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association)
Grabbe L, Miller-Karas E. The Trauma Resiliency Model: A “Bottom-Up” Intervention for Trauma Psychotherapy. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. 2017; 24 (1): 76-84.
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Therapy Dogs and Service Dogs: What Are They and Why Are They Important?
Therapy dogs are used in a wide variety of environments and circumstances but, broadly speaking, they are dogs whose presence is designed to help alleviate stress, promote feelings of well-being and sometimes help with a process of rehabilitation or healing in humans other than their owners.
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This Is Your Brain on Nature [dirt.asla.org]
Neurosurgeon Edie Zusman , a real-life Doogie Howser who started medical school at 19 and has completed some 6,000 brain and spinal surgeries, said what landscape architects do saves far more lives than what she does. The early prevention of disease reduces the need for surgeries. Prevention is made possible by eating healthy foods and walking and getting exercise in green environments that lower stress and improve well-being. At the ASLA 2018 Annual Meeting , Zusman and a number of...
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The Black Community, COVID-19 & Trauma [sdvoice.com]
By Latanya West, San Diego Voice, May 15, 2020 In January 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Dr. Nadine Burke Harris as California’s first-ever Surgeon General. An award-winning physician, researcher and advocate, Dr. Burke Harris’ career has been dedicated to serving vulnerable communities and combating the root causes of health disparities. Her work is equally dedicated to changing the way our society responds to one of the most serious, expensive and widespread public health crises of...
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"Addiction begins with solving a problem, the problem of human pain, emotional pain"
In his groundbreaking book , In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction , trauma and addiction expert Dr. Gabor Maté writes, “There are almost as many addictions as there are people.” ACEs Connection founder and publisher Jane Stevens read that quote as a springboard to asking Maté to define addiction and explain whether or not it is always rooted in adverse childhood experiences. Maté, along with filmmaker Michelle Esrick and Saturday Night Live star Darrell Hammond,...
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Pregnant in a pandemic [washingtonpost.com]
By May-Ying Lam, The Washington Post, June 30, 2020 For women who are pregnant amid a pandemic, a recession and racial turmoil, the future is an anxiety-stirring unknown. They began their pregnancies in the “other world” that promised baby showers, gender-reveal parties, visits with grandparents and browsing stores for onesies. Now, they contemplate how they would handle a novel coronavirus diagnosis, prepare to give birth while wearing a mask and fight through old traumas that the virus has...
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Zero to Three releases new Mindfulness Toolkit for Early Childhood Organizations
As our communities look for ways to bring children safely back into structured, safe learning environments - whether that is child care facilities or schools - many staff, teachers, and children are likely going to be experiencing some stress and anxiety. This isn't new - transitions are always a bit stressful, but this time there are a number of added concerns that may be difficult to process for kids and adults alike. The best way to help keep children regulated and focused is to practice...
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How a Pandemic Could Advance the Science of Early Adversity [jamanetwork.com]
By Danielle Roubinov, Nicole R. Bush, and W. Thomas Boyce, JAMA Pediatrics, July 27, 2020 The reach of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is global, a health crisis with a ubiquity never before experienced. While the physical health consequences of COVID-19 appear to affect proportionally fewer children compared with adults, its psychosocial consequences may be magnified within families who consistently weather a landscape of severe stressors or adverse childhood experiences...
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Greater Richmond Trauma Informed Community Network, first to join ACEs Cooperative of Communities, shows what it means to ROCK!
In 2012, Greater Richmond SCAN and five other community partners hatched a one-year plan to educate the Richmond, Virginia, community about ACEs science and to embed trauma-informed practices. Eight years later, the original group has evolved into the Greater Richmond Trauma-Informed Community Network (GRTICN) with 495 people and 170 organizations. And they're just scratching the surface.
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Children will pay long-term stress-related costs of COVID-19 unless we follow the science [statnews.com]
By Nadine Burke Harris, STAT, August 4, 2020 The world is learning more about the uncommon but puzzling ways Covid-19 can show up in kids, keeping worried parents on the lookout for symptoms of the disease. We should also be concerned about how toxic stress brought on by the pandemic, or made worse by it, will affect children’s developing brains and bodies and their future health. In millions of households, kids are experiencing an incredible amount of stress and anxiety. They’ve lost the...
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Childhood trauma can speed biological aging [news.harvard.edu]
By Manisha Aggarwal-Schiefellite, The Harvard Gazette, August 3, 2020 Experiencing adversity early in life has a direct effect on a person’s mental and physical health as they grow, and certain kinds of trauma can affect the pace of aging, according to new Harvard research. In addition to being risk factors for anxiety, depression, and stress, early life experiences like poverty, neglect, and violence are powerful predictors of physical health outcomes like cardiovascular disease, diabetes,...
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Post-Traumatic Growth: Hope Is a Strategy, Not a Feeling [Juvenile Justice Information Exchange]
When a young person experiences trauma, there is no single answer regarding how that experience may impact them in their later years. Two 12-year-olds experiencing the exact same kind of trauma, for example, may have two very different responses — one crumbles and the other rises. One processes it deeply and the other suppresses it. One becomes a powerful force for change in the community and the other struggles to make their place in the world. Furthermore, what may be considered traumatic...
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What to Do About Suicidal Thoughts in a Pandemic
Who knew when the year started we’d be separated from loved ones for months? And here we are, canceling celebrations, work and vacation plans, and not even hugging our friends. We are facing more stress – financial, emotional, social – than anyone could have imagined. We haven’t seen the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health yet. But as therapists, we know that as chronic stress continues, more people will experience depression and even suicidal thoughts. Let’s not wait to...
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Loving An Orchid: Understanding Child Abuse Trauma's Impact [psychologytoday.com]
By JoAnn Stevelos, Psychology Today, August 21, 2020 As a child, I was an orchid but lived like a dandelion. I have always prided myself on my resiliency, for surviving a long and painful childhood filled with abandonment, psychological, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse . Child abuse can do that to you—give you a false sense of self and what resiliency really looks like. Resiliency is not just surviving. This false narrative of resiliency can take years to undo. One approach is to try...
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Addressing students' social, emotional and behavioral stress -- not truama -- when they return to school [smartbrief.com]
By Howie Knoff, SmartBrief, August 31, 2020 Throughout this pandemic, the American public has sometimes had to choose between science and beliefs, between objective data and personal testimonials. And while the medical, social, economic and educational toll from the COVID-19 virus is unprecedented, some of the effects have been politicized by our leaders, and sensationalized by the press. Sadly, the latter has occurred when discussing the emotional status of our students as districts prepare...
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4 Simple Phrases to Halt Anxious Thoughts
Anxiety is a fact of life. There's much we can do to calm ourselves in the short and long-term. Here are some tips for immediate relief.
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COVID-19: Trauma-Informed Perinatal Care and Maternal Health [psychologytoday.com]
By Ann Diamond Weinstein, Psychology Today, September 28, 2020 The experience of life during the pandemic and the impact of COVID-19 guidelines for perinatal care have changed the maternal-fetal experience of pregnancy and birth, as well as the maternal-infant experience during the postnatal period. The neuroception (1) of danger and the potential threat to one’s own life and that of loved ones has been sustained since the magnitude and lethalness of the pandemic was fully appreciated.