Blog

Check out my talk on "Preventing relational trauma and healing emotional pain: the role of communities" at the Shared Agendas event on Community Justice & Offending in Ballymun, Dublin back in April. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=AK52QnHKGiU

By Miriam Jennifer Maclean, Scott Anthony Sims, Melissa O'Donnell, BMJ Journals, July 29, 2019 It is established that children who experience child abuse and neglect are at an increased risk of poorer mental health outcomes. The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child states that chronic stress to which maltreated children may be exposed, in the absence of consistent and supportive relationships with adult caregivers, has negative impacts on children’s developing brain.

By Kimberly Miyazawa, Ascend, The Aspen Institute, July 2019 Committed to helping families create an intergenerational cycle of opportunity, LIFT, a national nonprofit that connects parents with trained coaches who help them achieve career and financial goals, implements a two-generation (2Gen) strategy. Their partnership with AppleTree, a recognized leader in evidence-based early childhood education, demonstrates LIFT’s commitment to staying laser-focused on the needs of its members – the...

By Paul M. Sherer, DirectRelief, July 29, 2019 As he sat on the exam table in a Dallas clinic, the five-year old boy’s face was completely blank. He wouldn’t speak a word or even turn his gaze to the doctor. In more than 30 years of practicing pediatrics, Dr. Farooq Habib had never seen a child so traumatized. The boy and his father had migrated from violence-wracked Honduras. But instead of finding security in the United States, the child was taken away from his father by immigration...

This webinar will explore integrating a biological based model to reduce the impacts of toxic stress for children and adults. It is a model both for prevention and to use in the aftermath of adverse event.

By Cardiff University, Medical Xpress, July 31, 2019 Research on adoptive family life in Wales has revealed the levels of adversity many children have experienced. Academics from Cardiff University analysed social services records of a cohort of children in Wales who were adopted in the same year. Adoptive parents also completed surveys about the children over a four-year period after the placement began, commenting annually on any difficulties the child was having and their parenting. The...

By Lulu Garcia-Navarro, National Public Radio, July 28, 2019 On a hot Maryland summer day, two toddlers play in the wading area of a community pool. Their glee is uncontainable as they dump water-filled plastic pails over each other's heads. A few weeks earlier, these little ones would not come close to the water. "When they both came, they were terrified of the pool," says their foster mother Christi. "Terrified. And now we kind of have to stay in this pool because she will jump head first...

July 24, 2019 marked a professional and personal highlight for me, one I will always cherish. I was a panelist for the Future of Nursing 2020-2030 Town Hall in Philadelphia. The Future of Nursing 2020-2030 is a consensus study through the National Academies of Medicine (NAM) and is tasked with "charting a path for the nursing profession to create a culture of health, reduce health disparities, and improve the health and wellbeing of the U.S. population in the 21st century." - (NAM - 2019)...

Announcing three Fall online (audio only) writing circles for survivors of sexual abuse and assault. Led by Donna Jenson, author of, Healing My Life from Incest to Joy . Circle 1: Saturdays 10:00am to 12:00pm Sept. 14, 28, Oct. 12, 26, Nov. 9 Circle 2: Sundays 4:00 to 6:00pm Sept. 15, 29, Oct. 13, 27, Nov. 10 Circle 3: Wednesdays 5:00pm to 7:00pm Sept. 18, Oct. 2, 16, 30, Nov. 13 For more information go to: https://www.timetotell.org/online-writing-circles

The tone was angry, clipped, bitter despite my cheerful “welcome-to-the-practice” voice and outstretched hand. I was tired, so tired. Finally, Friday had come and here was an angry new patient. She seemed to be assuming I would let her down, disappoint. She seemed quite certain of it. The others certainly had. She wanted to know how often I would see her, and did I understand why she needed her medications? She let me know that she reads her chart notes, all of them. The other day the...

By Serena Gordon, Chicago Tribune, July 29, 2019 The start of school is just around the corner, but a leading pediatricians' group warns that many kids entering kindergarten lack the skills they need to succeed in class. To help parents get their young ones ready to start school, the American Academy of Pediatrics recently released a report on what helps boost success as well as what factors may hinder kids’ school experience. “We’ve kind of focused on the acquisition of pre-academic skills,...

By Sophie Phillips, My San Antonio, July 30, 2019 In the past year, despite an executive order to end the policy allowing the separation of migrant children from their parents, followed by a judicial order to reunify those families, our government has continued to separate and traumatize children. One might ask how this tragedy continues to occur. There were loopholes in the court’s decision: Children could still be separated from parents with criminal histories or considered dangerous to...