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Unbecoming an Armadillo By: Victoria F. Burns, PhD, LSW Victoriafrances49@gmail.com Instagram: @betesandbites “When you are traumatized, you are basically in a permanent defensive mode” — Gabor Mate I’m sitting across from Meg on her charcoal grey love seat. My forearms are resting on a velvety mustard-yellow throw cushion and I’m holding crescent shaped pulsers in each hand. Meg’s my psychologist; a rare gem who specializes in chronic illness and trauma. Every two weeks, we spend an hour...

COVID 19 has done much more than inconvenience people, it has a much darker and dangerous side. A disturbing consequence of the isolation and loneliness sparked by stay-at-home policies, that problem is the rising current of depression.

Adverse Community Experiences and Resilience: A Framework for Addressing and Preventing Community Trauma , from the Prevention Institute, outlines specific strategies to address and prevent community trauma—and foster resilience—using techniques from those living in affected areas. Surviving Oppression/Healing Oppression describes trauma responses from those who are targets and agents of oppression and the need for trauma-responsive strategies. Everyday Democracy created an interactive slide...

By Ghaith Aljayyoussi, The Lancet, June 26, 2020 The lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) among health-care workers in the UK has been an integral part of the debate on the UK Government's failure in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar to the close contact that is expected between patients and health-care staff, which could put both at risk of transmissible disease in the absence of appropriate measures, members of the public can also come in close contact with police staff...

By David Floyd, Kingsport Times News, June 27, 2020

By Melanie Blow, The Buffalo News, June 27, 2020 If New York State plans to, as Cuomo put it, “reimagine schools,” we should first reacquaint ourselves with their role outside of education. Many teachers perform a Sisyphean task of undoing the effects of the childhood trauma that two-thirds of children suffer at home. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrated that 10 childhood traumas change the way a young body and mind...

I am now looking to book more podcast guests into summer and fall 2020. My platform is one of hope and healing, therefore, I am looking to cover a variety of topics.

By Erin Brantley, Drishti Pillai, and Leighton Ku, JAMA Network Open, June 26, 2020 Key Points Español 中文 (Chinese) Question What are the associations between work requirements and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participation for the overall target population and subpopulations? Findings In this pooled cross-sectional study of 866 000 low-income US adults, work requirements were associated with a 4.0 percentage point decrease in participation for the target population of childless...

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...

By Emily Deruy, The Mercury News, June 26, 2020 Kaiser Permanente said Friday it plans to put $100 million toward addressing the systemic racism and lack of economic opportunity that have hurt the health of Blacks and other people of color in the U.S. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has hit Black and, in California, Latino people especially hard and there is growing acknowledgement among health care experts that racism is at the root of the disparity. Black people, for instance, are more...

By Julia Preston, The Marshall Project, June 18, 2020 Before her husband was deported, Seleste Hernandez was paying taxes and credit card bills. She was earning her way and liking it. But after her husband, Pedro, was forced to return to Mexico, her family lost his income from a job at a commercial greenhouse. Seleste had to quit her nursing aide position, staying home to care for her severely disabled son. Now she is trapped, grieving for a faraway spouse and relying on public assistance...

By Rachel R. Hardeman, Eduardo M. Medina, and Rhea W. Boyd, New England Journal of Medicine, June 10, 2020 In Minnesota, where black Americans account for 6% of the population but 14% of Covid-19 cases and 33% of Covid-19 deaths, George Floyd died at the hands of police. “Please — I can’t breathe.” He was a black man detained on suspicion of forgery, an alleged offense that was never litigated or even charged, but for which he received an extrajudicial death sentence. “Please — I can’t...