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...

UCSF News Services: California Selects UCSFTrauma Screening Tool for Statewide Initiative to Combat Adverse Childhood Experiences.http://ucsf.edu/news/2019/12/416111/california-selects-ucsf-trauma-screening-tool-statewide-initiative-combat

By Jessica Gardezy, Center for Youth Wellness, December 3, 2019 The Center for Youth Wellness (CYW) announced today it is partnering with two leading U.S. health systems in the Southeast to launch a screening program on childhood adversity. CYW's National Pediatric Practice Community (NPPC) has done on-site training at the headquarters of Atrium Health and Novant Health in Charlotte, N.C., in preparation for trauma screening at six pediatric clinics across the city. The Charlotte-based...

By Kentucky Reports, November 9, 2019 Dr. Vincent J. Felitti has over 50 years of experience in the field of Internal Medicine with extensive knowledge in the areas of childhood trauma, the genetic disease Hemochromatosis, and obesity. Serving as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California since 1982, Dr. Felitti’s knowledge and experience is broad and significantly biopsychosocial. Dr. Felitti achieved his Medical Degree from Johns Hopkins in 1962 after being inspired...

By Jesse J. Helton, Jason T. Carbone, et al., JAMA Pediatrics, November 4, 2019 For children who have been sexually abused, emergency department (ED) professionals provide immediate medical care, including testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, prophylaxis for potential HIV exposure, and emergency contraception. In some cases, ED clinicians conduct forensic examinations to assist with child protection and criminal investigations. Physicians and nurses in EDs are among the...

By Sandy Bauers, The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 23, 2019 In 1946, Life magazine published an exposé on mental hospitals, focusing on the Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry. The title: “Bedlam 1946.” That dreadful facility, like so many others, eventually closed. A good thing? Not completely, according to Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, who maintains that people simply went from one horrific situation to another, from the grossly inadequate institutions to the dangerous streets. In neither...

Last week, three pediatricians — with a combined experience of 15 years integrating ACEs science into their practices — reflected on the urgency they felt several years ago that prompted them to begin screening patients for childhood adversity and resilience when there was practically no guidance at all. Along their journey , they accumulated a list of lessons learned for other pediatricians and family clinics to use. The three pediatricians participated in the ACEs Connection webinar,...

The Center for Youth Wellness' National Pediatric Practice Community on ACES (NPPC) is a co-designed community committed to collaborative learning. To promote this learning, we have been working with six pilot sites over the last year, representing practices of various sizes and service delivery settings, to implement ACEs screening and intervention. Beyond supporting these practices with the logistics of implementation, the broader goal was to discover and share real-world best practices,...

By Jud Brewer, Dr. Jud, October 2019 With a growing public interest in and research base underlying mindfulness, clinicians are increasingly interested in learning what it is, how it works, what research is credible, and how to help their patients. This seminar series will help primary care providers understand how our brains form unhealthy habits that lead to common yet difficult to treat conditions such as obesity and anxiety, what mindfulness is (and isn’t), how mindfulness works in the...

For our second community spotlight interview, I spoke with Dr. Richard Honigman, a pediatrician at Central Nassau Pediatrics in Levittown and infant mental health advocate. We discussed the importance of addressing childhood adversity and the relevant work he is doing both inside and outside his practice. Please note that responses have been adjusted for length and clarity. Dr. Honigman is also the first recipient of the 2019 Ed Tronick Award for Distinguished Contribution to Infant-Parent...

By Ariane Marie-Mitchell, American Academy of Pediatrics, October 2019 In the August newsletter, we provided an overview of the definition and impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) (http://aapca2.org/aces). In this article, we will explore the argument in favor of screening for ACEs in pediatric practice, and describe the process and results of a California state advisory group on screening for trauma. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended screening for toxic stress...

By Patrice Gaines, NBC News, October 11, 2019 Dr. Nadine Burke Harris has an ambitious dream: screen every student for childhood trauma before entering school. "A school nurse would also get a note from a physician that says: 'Here is the care plan for this child's toxic stress. And this is how it shows up,'" said Burke Harris, who was appointed California's first surgeon general in January. "It could be it shows up in tummy aches. Or it's impulse control and behavior, and we offer a care...