Blog

By Celeste Fremon, Witness LA, March 1, 2020 Do Americans want their policymakers to take a second look at some of the outsized sentences that U.S. courts—state and federal—began handing down nearly 40 years ago? In the same vein, do Americans believe prosecutors should reexamine these ultra-long sentences and the individuals who are serving them, to see if early release from lock-up for at least some of those people would be safe and available? The progressive think tank, Data for Progress,...

We are often asked what do change agents need to know as they start an ACEs prevention project. We respond, “Are you ready for the biggest challenge of your life?” Imagine you wish to take on one of the most complex public health crises in the nation. We’re talking about a costly challenge that impacts children, parents, grandparents, the entire school and higher education system, and ultimately impacts the workforce and local economies. Add to this that the challenge leads to substance...

From the World Health Organization https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/coping-with-stress.pdf?sfvrsn=9845bc3a_2 Thanks to Anne Johnston, Clark County Public Health and others from Clark County who shared this on Facebook. Is the COVID-19 outbreak stressing you out? This sheet from the World Health Organization has great tips for coping with the fear and uncertainty. Self care is important.

Hey ACEs Connection communities! Please join us for a boisterous tweet chat about ACEs screening in California on March 10 at 10 am Pacific/ 1 pm Eastern for #SaludTues, hosted by @saludamerica and co-hosted by @CYWSanFrancisco, @acesconnection and @CHCShealth. Get your thumbs ready, and spread the word! What: Tweet chat Who: Salud America, co-hosted by Center for Youth Wellness, ACEs Connection and Center for Health Care Strategies. When: Tuesday, March 10, 10am Pacific/ 1 pm Eastern Why:...

From Science Daily, March 5, 2020 In a new study, they tracked a lifetime of physiological changes experienced by mice given a liquid solution containing the stress hormone glucocorticoid while in the womb or soon after birth. Glucocorticoids are naturally occurring hormones that reduce inflammation and are instrumental in helping infants and adults alike adapt quickly to environmental dangers, such as famine or violence. Physicians use them to treat asthma and autoimmune diseases caused by...

I participated in an important discussion about the use of pronouns. The person who initiated the discussion wanted to understand the issue on a granular level. They were having a hard time wrapping their mind around the need to move beyond the binary categories of him and her. I listened intently as two colleagues worked diligently to understand each other's perspectives. It was an encouraging discussion because neither party was pushing an agenda. They were both listening to understand.

From Science Daily, March 5, 2020 Air pollution caused 8.8 million premature deaths worldwide in 2015. This corresponds to an average reduction in life expectancy per capita of 2.9 years. In comparison, tobacco smoking reduces the life expectancy by an average of 2.2 years (7.2 million deaths), HIV / AIDS by 0.7 years (1 million deaths), parasitic and vector-borne diseases such as malaria -- by 0.6 years (600,000 deaths). "Air pollution exceeds malaria as a cause of premature death by a...

From Child Trends, March 6, 2020 Child Trends’ new project with MDRC, “ Reconnecting Youth: Putting Out-of-School, Out-of-Work Youth on a Path to Self-Sufficiency ,” is seeking information about programs that provide services to help young people ages 16 to 24 advance on education and employment pathways. This project is focused on the population of young people who are out of work and out of school, sometimes called disconnected or opportunity youth. The information gathered will result in...

By Nancy Richards Farese, San Francisco Chronicle, February 29, 20202 Three years ago, I photographed the Rohingya crisis in a Bangladeshi refugee camp where most of the refugees were children, some orphaned just days before. Surprisingly, the most unexpected sound in the camp was not the mournful silence of traumatized people; it was the laughter of children, playing on the edge of every frame. Sliding down mud hills and organizing games around bottle caps, these children were instinctively...

By Elizabeth Hlavinka, MedPage Today, February 4, 2020 Female physicians were more likely to die by suicide than women in the general population in recent decades, but the same trend was not observed among male doctors, according to a meta-analysis of nine British and U.S. studies. Compared with the general population, female physicians had a significantly higher suicide mortality ratio (SMR) from the 1980s to date (1.46, 95% CI 1.02-1.91), reported Dante Duarte, MD, PhD, of Harvard Medical...

This post is written with our lifestyles of today in mind. As we steamroll our way through life it’s not often we take time to check in with ourselves emotionally. We’ve grown accustomed to seeking an immediate fix from an outside source, turning inward feels counterproductive. The quicker we can find an answer and the less we have to think about it the better. Facing ourselves emotionally is not something we’ve generally been trained to do. And now we’ve created a vortex, a loop which...

Hi all, In our area many of us are using the Resilience Film by Jamie Redford for general educational purposes with good success. This often precedes a more in-depth trauma-training. However, a local organization wants to purchase the film as most of the licenses are very narrow, such as only on that organizations grounds. We found out that Tugg.edu is no longer in business nor is KPJR films. I am wondering if anyone knows who may be distributing the Resilience Film now or do people have...