Tagged With "parenting with PTSD"
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White Parents, It's Your Turn to Carry This Burden [newamerica.org]
By Autumn McDonald, New America, June 4, 2020 I date myself with a reference to Rodney King, and I do so intentionally. I was fourteen when he was brutally beaten by LAPD officers; I had no thoughts of kids, or how a parent protects them. But in households around the country, Black parents were having “ the Talk ” with their children— an intense, high-stakes training on the realities of racism— in the hopes of inoculating them against disproportionate police targeting and brutality. My...
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Community Resilience Series Part 1: Parenting in an Age of Uncertainty [Peace & Justice Institute at Valencia College]
The Peace and Justice Institute (PJI) at Valencia College is excited to offer 3 free, online workshops with Dr. Ken Ginsburg , as part of a Community Resilience Series. The first workshop in this FREE series will be specifically for parents: Parenting in an Age of Uncertainty , July 7th from 5:30 - 7:00 pm EST (zoom). REGISTER HERE “As parents, we want to protect our children from witnessing the fear and uncertainty brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. We wish we could take away the disruption...
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Column: How parents can help a child with post-traumatic stress disorder [milforddailynews.com]
By Lauren Barry, The Milford Daily News, June 27, 2020 When most people think of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) they likely picture an adult who has been in combat, a serious accident or experienced violence. Children can also have PTSD either from experiencing trauma directly or witnessing it. Childhood trauma can be from a specific event like a car accident or dog bite, but it can also include witnessing domestic violence or enduring neglect or abuse. Children diagnosed with PTSD...
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Do Affirmations Work for Children? Building Brainpower for Resiliency
When an affirmation works, we gather real-life examples our brain can use as evidence that success IS possible, which changes the way we think. In my work with children, I find that this tool can work magic at home and in school! When we challenge our thoughts with evidence that a positive result is possible, it can stop negative thinking in its tracks.
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Asking mental health to take a backseat during the coronavirus pandemic is a dangerous proposition
Understanding and limiting the spread of coronavirus has consumed our focus over the past few months. Physical distancing, child care and school closures, the persistence of masks, hand washing, have been essential steps to help protect each of us from the virus. However, this physical distancing has consequences that we need to talk about: isolation, loneliness, boredom, monotony, stress, anxiety, and fear. Mental health often takes a backseat when physical health is at risk. Health is both...
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Parents Need Help with Trauma Too: A Bottom-Up Approach
Psych Central published my latest article on trauma and it's one you don't want to miss! Through my work with children coping with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) the historical trajectory became very clear to me. Often childhood trauma doesn't start with the child who was traumatized, but it starts with the parents and grandparents of that child who were overwhelmed by adversity and never had help. Unprocessed emotional trauma is likely to be passed on in some capacity to at least the...
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Elevated “Hunger” Hormone Leaves Trauma-Exposed Teens at Higher Risk for PTSD
Chronic stress increases a blood-based hormone called acyl-ghrelin for years after the initial traumatic stressor exposure in some adolescents, and those with elevated levels of the hormone are more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to experience more severe cases of the condition, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published August 20 in JAMA Network Open . ...
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Free 2020 Virtual Trauma-Informed Care Conference
Each year, STAR hosts a Trauma-Informed Care Conference to help educate the next generation of leaders and build a strong network of Trauma-Informed professionals in the state of Georgia. The conference will be held on Saturday, October 3rd from 10:00am- 1:00pm EST and Sunday, October 4th , 2020 from 2:00pm-5:00pm EST conducted virtually via Zoom.
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Re-Opening Workshop: Helping Children Contextualize Change
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6 Skills You Need to Master Before Becoming a Foster Parent (verywellfamily.com)
Thousands of kids out there are in need of a safe home. Sadly, there are not nearly enough foster families available for all these children. You can help by stepping up to become a foster parent. Opening your home and your heart to a child is exactly what these kids need. But before you decide to take in a foster child, be sure you're up for the challenges (and joys) ahead. To help you prepare, we've compiled a checklist of key considerations and skills needed to be a successful foster...
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Cultivating Resilience in New Foster Parents Through Mentoring
A recent article in Children and Youth Services Reviews discusses a study that explores the relationship between mentoring and resilience in new foster parents and how mentors can help new foster parents. Mentorship between experienced and inexperienced foster parents has shown to improve retention and increase the mentee's ability to manage the behavioral problems of children in their care. It also provides new foster parents with additional supportive contacts and encourages greater...
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‘How’s Our Girl?’: On Loving a Foster Child and Letting Go (NY Times)
Every time we choose to love other mortal beings, someday, we will have to give them back. “Cute baby,” strangers said when they saw her. “Your first?” they asked. And when we told them she was our foster daughter, that we might have to return her to her biological mother, I watched them step back. “I couldn’t do that,” they said. “I’ll pray for you,” they said. I didn’t know if I could do it, either. But I also knew it’s what we do every time we choose to love another mortal being. Someday,...
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How to Advocate for Child Abuse Prevention in Your Community?
The foster care system is designed to temporarily shelter children who have been removed from their homes due to maltreatment. Each year, the United States has more than 400,000 children living in foster care (1) . Placing children in foster homes can help to provide them a safe environment. Foster parents are dedicated to giving the best care for children living in their homes. Their care can provide children with a safe and stable environment to thrive and survive (2) . Effective child...
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Join Us for Standing Strong Conference- Mon, Sept. 13- Wed, Sept. 15
In less than a week, parents and caregivers for children impacted by early childhood trauma will be learning and supported at the Standing Strong Virtual Conference - Sept 13-15, 2021, hosted by the Attachment & Trauma Network, Inc. (ATN) . This 3-day event is focused on helping those caring for children with developmental trauma, complex PTSD and attachment challenges learn advocacy strategies and focus on their own care/burnout needs now that their children are back in school. Speakers...
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An Unavoidable System: The Harms of Family Policing and Parents' Vision for Investing in Community Care
This new report shares the results of a participatory action research (PAR) project that Rise conducted in winter 2021 in partnership with TakeRoot Justice . Our research documents parents’ experiences with the family policing system and explores a collective vision to transform our society’s structures, policies and practices related to family and community support. Imaginative and sometimes painful community conversations with 48 people impacted by ACS provide the foundation of this...
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What Foster Parents Need To Know About Adopting and Affirming a Queer Child (parents.com)
The key is and will continue to be for foster parents to listen, learn, and practice empathy for kids in the LGBTQ+ community. By Danielle Broadway, Parents, June 03, 2021 Every year, thousands of children in the foster care system struggle to find safe and stable homes with loving adult figures to help them thrive. Many of the children in the system have traumatic experiences that can range from physical and emotional abuse to being forced into criminal activity . They often need foster...
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Lauren Chant
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‘On My Own’: I had to rebuild with my son without support (risemagazine.org)
By Zoraida Ramirez, Rise Magazine, December 08, 2021 A Hard Decision I left my son with a family friend in 2007 when I was 20 years old and he was one and a half. I had run away from foster care and had nowhere to live and no money for food. I was also dealing with depression and trauma—and an abusive partner. I didn’t have support from my family and felt uncared for and alone. The family friend lived in a cozy, nice home. She suggested that I leave my son with her and write a statement...
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Helping Children Cope with Ambiguous Loss
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Child Care is a Child Welfare Issue: Why Rise Identified Child Care as a Policy Priority (risemagazine.org)
by Keyna Franklin, Rise Magazine, February 15, 2022 Halimah Washington, Rise Community Coordinator, discusses the connection between child care and family policing, how child care supports family safety and well-being and why Rise identified access to child care as a policy priority . Q. Why is the campaign for child care important to you as a parent? A. Universal child care is important to me as a parent because I have children that need child care after school, sometimes before school, and...
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‘If I had access to child care, I wouldn’t have had an ACS case.’ (risemagazine.org)
by Keyna Franklin, Rise Magazine, February 15, 2022 If it was easy to get child care, many families wouldn’t get an ACS case or have to deal with the family policing system, because they wouldn’t have to leave their children at home. If I had access to child care, I never would have become involved with the family policing system. ACS became involved with my family when I left my younger kids with my 14-year-old child watching them when I went out for an appointment. If I knew that this...
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Appropriate Care and Treatment Study: Looking for participants
Looking for opinions from former youth residents of residential treatment facilities and their parents. The study team at the University of South Florida Department of Child and Family Studies is conducting a national online survey of former youth residents of residential treatment facilities and their parents and caregivers to understand their experiences and perspective of the care received by the facilities. Download the flyer with information about how to participate here .
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Self-Care and Community-Care Strategies from Rise
March 1, 2022 by Rise As part of our community-building workshops to begin the program , parents in the 2022 Rise & Shine leadership program engaged in discussion about self-care and community-care strategies. Together, parents developed a list of self-care and community-care strategies for our group, which we also want to share as a resource for our Rise community. We hope it can be a tool as we continue to explore ways to build relationships, keep each other safe and care for ourselves...
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Understanding Childhood Trauma and Helping Youth Recover
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For Me, Child Care Could Be a Life Saver: ‘I’ve pushed off medical treatment because I don’t have child care, and I don’t want the hospital to call ACS.’ (risemagazine.org)
By Anonymous, Art by Eileen Jimenez, Rise, March 15, 2022 I am a single mom and it is only my son and I living together. That means that unless he is in school or at camp, wherever I go, he goes, too—even when I have to go to the hospital. I have numerous medical problems and when I end up in the hospital, it’s not always during school hours. There are lots of reasons why I would need to bring my son with me to the hospital, such as if I’m having seizures or sudden severe pain, and these...
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Are You a Foster Parent With a Child in School? Join the Foster Parent Pandemic Education Experiences Study!
Please read this message from Mary Rauktis, lead author of this important study, and share it with your networks! "As an educator, I teach aspiring students how to engage with and build on the resilience of children and their caregivers. As a mentor, I have advised former foster care youth who have later become colleagues and friends. I have witnessed how challenging it is to go to college not as well prepared as peers, with far less familial support and the price paid emotionally and...
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As Families Grieve, Grandparents Step Up [nytimes.com]
By Paula Span, Photographs by Todd Heisler, The New York Times, April 12, 2022 This is not what Ida Adams thought life would be like at 62. She had planned to continue working as a housekeeper at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore until she turned 65. After retiring, she and her husband, Andre, also 62, thought they might travel a little — “get up and go whenever we felt like it.” She didn’t expect to be hustling a seventh-grader off to school each weekday. But in January 2021, Ms. Adams’s...
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Strategies to Fight Trauma and Stress in Kids [positiveparentingnews.org]
By Positive Parenting Newsfeed contributors: Cyndy McGrath, Supervising Producer; Milvionne Chery; Field Producer; Roque Correa, Editor and Videographer , April 8, 2020 Please click here to access the video in English and Spanish. GAINESVILLE, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire)—It’s a startling number. Nearly half of the kids in the U.S. experience one or more types of childhood trauma by the time they are 17. Trauma can get under the skin and make kids more susceptible to illness. Death…divorce…...
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Support and Resources for Expectant and Parenting Young People in Foster Care [familyvoicesunited.org]
Original article can be found on Children's Bureau Express here . Family Voices United published a report featuring a summary of responses from youth with lived foster care experience to the question "What supports should be provided to maintain stable foster care placements for expectant and parenting youth, or to support them in achieving safe reunification with relatives/loved ones?" Policymakers can use this report to better understand constituents and tailor programs and systems to...
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Building Protective Factors With Parent Partners [Children's Trust Fund Alliance]
An infographic for parents and parent groups from the Children's Trust Fund Alliance highlights the importance of protective factors in strengthening families. It provides a colorful and engaging look at how parents and families can thrive by building protective factors through everyday actions. It also introduces two of the parent groups with whom the Alliance works and outlines some of the available resources focused on building protective factors and developing effective parent...
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Resources for talking to children about violence
It can be hard to come up with words to talk about violence and grief with our children, especially when our own hearts are so heavy and scared. Here are a few places where you can find more resources to help you find words... Please share other resources in the comments below. Trauma Care Resource Hub from ZERO TO THREE These resources are available online in English and Spanish at zerotothree.org/care to help adults meet the unique needs of infants and young children in addressing the...
Ask the Community
(TRMBW™) Trauma Responsive Mind-Body Wellness Training
Hello everyone, I am the founder of Rituals for Recovery a non-profit organization in Ontario Canada who is commited to combating complex trauma and the stigma and suffering that results from it. We are getting ready to launch our fall programming and trauma responsive mind body wellness training and are looking for clinicans, social workers and helping professionals working with children and families in the foster care system (particularly those who offer free services for at-risk families...
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A Unique Support Group Helps Parents of Children in Foster Care [imprintnews.org]
By Sara Tiano, The Imprint, August 3, 2022 Parents caught up in the child welfare system have to tell their stories to social worker investigators, lawyers and judges as they fight to keep their families together. But what happens when they share their stories with each other? A nationwide network serving parents who battle mental health challenges, substance abuse disorders and domestic violence shows regular participation in a support group may make all the difference. The groups are run...
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New LGBTQ Youth and Family Resources: Culturally-relevant information supports parents in caring for LGBTQ children and youth [risemagazine.org]
By Keyna Franklin and Shakira Paige, Rise Magazine, August 5, 2022 Parents need resources to support LGBTQ children and youth in being affirmed, safe and celebrated in their homes, schools and communities. In our report, An Unavoidable System , Rise recommends expanding access to community-based programs that center the needs of families with LGBTQ children — without family policing system involvement. Here, Rise talks with Caitlin Ryan , Director of the Family Acceptance Project at the...
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Centering Parent Leadership in the Movement to Abolish Family Policing [journals.library.columbia.edu]
This Rise paper was published online in the Columbia Journal of Race and Law Vol. 12, No. 1 (2022) . The expertise and leadership of parents and youth with lived experience of family policing belong at the center of the movement to abolish the system, just as Black folk are centered in Black Lives Matter. Those personally impacted and affected by a system should be the lead and face of advocacy, using their first-hand experience to lead the movement in the direction they choose based on...
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10 Tips for Sexual Abuse Prevention
When we consider the high numbers of children that are sexually abused it is disappointing how little is out there to support parents in prevention efforts. Although Erin’s Law has brought Sexual Abuse Prevention to many children in the school setting, parents are still often at a loss as to how to talk to their children about this difficult topic. As a therapist who has specialized in treating child sexual abuse for twenty years, I have crossed paths with thousands of children and families...
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How to Help Survivors of Extreme Climate Events (psychologytoday.com)
By Elaine Miller-Karas MSW, LCSW Building Resiliency to Trauma Psychology Today, September 30, 2022 Mental health can suffer after extreme climate events. KEY POINTS Mental health conditions exacerbated by natural disasters include post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. After a disaster, the number of people needing assistance from the mental health systems strains or exceeds community capacity. There are simple strategies helpers can use to help survivors restore...
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Announcing The Connections Matter Academy - Videos to Help Teens Cope with Trauma
The Connections Matter Academy is a set of engaging videos designed to educate young people about trauma and how it impacts their life. We created it to inspire teens to begin their healing process, break the cycle of intergenerational trauma, and reach their highest potential through healthy connections with others. What exactly is The Connections Matter Academy? An educational, inclusive, and entertaining animated series to help teens and young adults cope with trauma Co-created by Beth...
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PACEs Research Corner — May 2023, Part 2
[Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site — abuseresearch.info — that focuses on the effects of abuse, and includes research articles on PACEs. Every month, she posts the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs, PCEs and PACEs. Thank you, Harise!! — Rafael Maravilla] Domestic Violence – Effects on Children Makris G, Eleftheriades A, Pervanidou P. Early Life Stress, Hormones, and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Horm Res...
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Review of “First 60 Days” booklet: Leveraging author’s work and movement could spark revolution to prevent and heal trauma, one precious baby, child, and caregiver at a time.
(This is a review of what I believe is an important new resource for the PACEs [for positive and adverse childhood experiences] science movement. Opinions expressed are my own, and are shared as a parent, advocate, author, and longtime student of trauma, healing, and prevention. Thoughts are also shared through my lens as someone who believes, deeply, in the incredible importance of and value in building healthier, more compassionate communities to support and nurture pregnant and new...