Blog

With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers everywhere are changing how they care for their patients. I asked a few members of the ACEs in Pediatrics community what they’re doing differently. Dr. R.J Gillespie, pediatrician at The Children’s Clinic in Portland, OR. Dr. R.J. Gillespie Gillespie says that, as much as possible, they’re switching to virtual visits, which allows them “to comfort and reassure our patients face-to-face as much as possible without risking their...

photo credit: chuttersnap/unsplash.com By Alice M. Kenny (pseudonym) (The article below is an excerpt from my new book, Crazy Was All I Ever Knew: The Impact of Maternal Mental Illness on Kids . I have used a pseudonym to protect the privacy of family members.) The emotions adult children of parents with mental illness experience are a mixed bag. Sometimes a jumble. Guilt, loss, grief, and resentment are among the emotions that persist or bubble to the surface in adulthood. Some feel...

The March 25th SCAC meeting is canceled. Sonoma County ACEs Connection is canceling our monthly meetings during March and April . Typically we meet the 4th Wed of each month from 3:30 to 5:00, however, with the shelter in place order and uncertainty about how long this will last, we decided to cancel the next two meetings. If there is interest we could consider meeting remotely on 5/27/2020 by calling in or using Zoom video conferencing. Please share your thoughts. Are you seeking to make...

Dovetail Learning has been working in the Social and Emotional/Resilience field for over a decade, so we'd like to share our work. There is no doubt that we all feel the tension, stress, and uncertainty of these times. How can we be more kind and connected with all we have going on? Dovetail Learning is proud to share We Are Resilient practices to maintain wellness and self-care in this unique moment in our shared history. Please view our free webinar directed toward parents/care givers (but...

Chris Smith, March 21, 2020, for the Press Democrat The full spectrum of misery being inflicted by this damnable pandemic isn’t only terrible but terribly uneven. Some, including all whose livelihoods have evaporated or are in stark danger of doing so, are hurting far more than others. Those worse off are on the minds of people like Marv Hyman and like Dennis Wilkes’ landlord and Deana Abramowitz, who devise ways to level out some of the pain. To read the full story, please open this link:...

We at Alive and Well Communities wanted to take a moment to present some considerations for how our community responds to COVID-19, through the trauma lens. These suggestions assume that additional core institutions will close and/or must limit the ways they typically engage with community members. It is also assumed that a number of community members will have to self-quarantine and “shelter in place.” These suggestions are guided by the principles of trauma informed care: trustworthiness,...

On Friday, March 20, 2020, you're invited to join me to talk about how we, as a community, can continue to guide and educate ourselves about to deal with the effects of the spread of Covid-19, and how to continue those efforts with people who don't yet know about ACEs science. And, given this last week, how we can provide more support to stay in the front of our brains instead of feeding our amygdala.

During this challenging time, parents need more resources than ever. Please let parents know about the following guides from the Yolo County Children's Alliance and the Yolo Child Abuse Prevention Council. All guides are available at www.yolokids.org/forfamilies , and I have attached a summary of the guides if you would prefer to share that. Please note that we will be releasing our positive discipline guide on 4/1/20 ( Handling Your Child's Challenging Behaviors at Every Age ). The guides...

By Erin Allday, San Francisco Chronicle, March 16, 2020 Six Bay Area counties are expected to announce a “shelter in place” order for all residents on Monday, directing everyone to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible for the next three weeks as public health officials desperately try to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus across the region. County authorities were expected to announce the move at 1 p.m. and gave a draft of the order to media outlets to prepare.

Santa Rosa, CA, resident Sarah Kynoch watches her 15-month-old baby gleefully play with magic markers as she recounts an especially trying night with her teenager. Sarah Kynoch with her baby “She got super physical with me again. I don’t know if I should call the cops or not, because she’s going to get a felony assault for kicking me and hitting me. ‘It’s not okay,’ I told her.’ I got away from an abusive person, not to be abused by my own kid, she explains to Liz George, a field nurse with...

Two thirds of couples experience a decline in relationship satisfaction upon the birth of their first child. This can lead to postpartum depression and reduced involvement by the father in the life of their children. Even the strongest relationships are strained during the transition to parenthood. Lack of sleep, never-ending housework and new fiscal concerns can lead to profound stress. The Bringing Baby Home Educator Training prepares people to independently teach pregnant and parenting...

Dr. Angela Bymaster, a family physician at Washington Elementary School in San Jose, CA, operates her clinic in a portable unit on the school property. Because the unit faces students as they are dropped off by their families, she gets to “pick up the kids” before they are sent to the clinic, practicing “upstream medicine.”