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While we know that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can cause risk behaviors, research has told us that the presence of protective factors can help mitigate the effects of ACEs. Common risk behaviors such as smoking tobacco and alcohol misuse can be a result from the trauma of childhood disadvantage. In responding to ACEs, public health research proposes that protective factors such as safe, stable, nurturing relationships (SSNRs) with a caring adult can mitigate the long-term effects of...

By Alexandra Retter, Winona Post, July 8, 2020 Childhood is a formative period, and the experiences one has during it resonate throughout one’s life. One local professor has been helping to share information about the impacts of trauma during childhood on adult life, and she was recently honored for her work with an award. Winona State University social work professor Ruth Charles recently received the 2020 Champion for Children Award from Minnesota Communities Caring for Children (MCCC, or...

By Meryl Schulman and Emma Opthof, Center for Health Care Strategies, Inc., July 7, 2020 COVID-19 and the stressors it is placing on individuals’ physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing create a new imperative for health care systems to look to trauma-informed care to support both patients and frontline workers. To learn more about how health care providers are using trauma-informed approaches to care in the current environment, the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) recently...

By Poorna Kushalnagar, Claire Ryan, and Raylene Paludnevicience, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, July 4, 2020 Introduction This study explores adverse childhood communication experiences and its RRs for acquiring specific chronic diseases and mental health disorders in adults who are deaf and hard of hearing. Methods A cross-sectional design with snowball sampling was used to recruit adults who were deaf and hard of hearing and were born or became deaf in both ears before age 13...

By Michaela Haas, The New York Times, July 7, 2020 Maria Carmen Tapia has learned a host of new skills in the last few months. The 42-year-old housekeeper and all her colleagues at the housekeeping app Up & Go were trained by Occupational Safety and Health Administration-authorized trainers, learning to put on protective gear correctly and establish safety protocols to keep themselves and their clients safe during the pandemic. At first glance, Up & Go resembles any other...

By Jean Hopfensperger, The Star Tribune, July 6, 2020 Kelly Sherman-Conroy felt the anguish on the streets following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, concluding that people were aching for more than food and emergency relief. So the Lutheran leader and Native American activist posted an appeal on Facebook for "clergy, spiritual leaders and mental health leaders who would like to serve as volunteer chaplains." More than 100 faith leaders have stepped forward,...

By Jason N. Linder, Psychology Today, July 6, 2020 If you are like most people, you may think addiction is a rampant problem in our society. And you're partially right. It is. But that misses the forest for the trees. It's not the root problem itself. It's actually a failed solution to the underlying problem: the pandemic of unhealed, psychological trauma . It’s essential to realize that addiction is often the symptom of the problem in reality . It's no coincidence that about 28 percent of...

By Marc Shi, Abigail Baum, and Craig E. Pollack, Housing Matters, July 2020 In recent years, housing has emerged as one of the most talked about and researched social determinants of health. Several decades of research examining the impact of hazards like lead paint, asbestos, and mold on children’s health have highlighted the connection of housing quality to health in communities across the US. And housing’s impact on health has broadened from a focus solely on quality to include housing...

By Lauren Christensen, The New York Times, June 30, 2020 Almost 100 years ago, responding to the public outcry over the violent drowning of a Black boy by a white mob at a public beach on Lake Michigan, a citywide (multiracial but white-led) commission published “The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot.” “Centuries of the Negro slave trade and of slavery as an institution … placed a stamp upon the relations of the two races which it will require many years to erase,”...

By Rhea W. Boyd, Edwin G. Lindo, Lachelle D. Weeks, Monica R. McLemore, Health Affairs, July 2, 2020 Racism is, perhaps, America’s earliest tradition. Its practice pre-dates the founding of the nation, as settler colonialism and Indigenous genocide powered the land theft that established the United States. And enslaved humans were the capital that generated this stolen land’s economy. In spite of centuries of legal advancements that endeavored to excise racism from the roots of this...

Welcome Back! We hope everyone had a restful holiday. Please join us tomorrow, Thursday July 9th as we host special guest Pamela Black to discuss a back to school survey that aims to gather information from staff regarding what they need to feel safe in their return to school. Weekly themes include: How do we create physical and psychological safety, especially in the face of so much uncertainty? What strategies can we use to create a culture of collective care? How do we implement peer...

In a recent episode of the podcast Unlocking Us, Brené Brown discusses the power of shame and how it is not an effective tool for social justice. She goes on to explain that shame is in fact real pain that is defined as the “intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love, belonging, and connection.” It is in fact so powerful that when we experience shame, it triggers a fight, flight or freeze response. She identifies shame as a tool of...