Blog

Cissy's note: I admire the work of this parent-led and parent-focused organization. I read everything they post. For those not familiar with what they do, this is a recent interview with three staffers and gives a really good look at what and how they work to support families and make systems change. Here's an excerpt. The full piece is here. To read more of this piece recently published in Rise Magazine, go here.

Following the lead from the Wisconsin Public Health Association, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele and County Board Vice Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson, proclaim racism is a public health crisis , and are actively taking steps to achieve racial equity throughout Milwaukee County. MILWAUKEE (April 4, 2019) – During National Public Health Week, County Executive Abele and County Board Vice Chairwoman Nicholson proclaim that racism is a public health crisis in Milwaukee County. Following the...

An exciting opportunity for the ACEs community to submit a manuscript on resilience for a special issue of the journal Behavioral Medicine.

By the end of the century, the manifold consequences of unchecked climate change will cost the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars per year, according to a new study by scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency. Those costs will come in multiple forms, including water shortages, crippled infrastructure and polluted air that shortens lives, according to the study in Monday’s edition of Nature Climate Change. No part of the country will be untouched, the EPA researchers warned.

Cissy's note: As more of us are learning about and sharing information on ACEs, more of us are reading and seeing questions, criticism, commentary, and guidance about if, when, where, how, and who should (or shouldn't) be asking, screening, talking about, using ACEs terminology and framing and how it confuses or expands the more clinical, medical, and traditional concepts of what traumatic stress is and how it's best responded to. I have my own opinions, of course, which is why I joined this...

Trauma – an event, series of events or set of circumstances, such as neglect and abuse, that is experienced by an individual as harmful or life-threatening – is a nearly universal experience. The landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study , conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente, revealed that experiences of trauma can impact every area of a person’s functioning. When Brigid McCaw, M.D., first started practicing medicine, research around the...

His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the SEE Learning launch. Photo from businessworld.in His Holiness the Dalai Lama last week presided over a three-day event in New Delhi marking the global launch of the landmark Social, Emotional and Ethical (SEE) Learning program developed by Emory University in collaboration with the Dalai Lama Trust and the Vana Foundation. The 4–6 April gathering in the Indian capital, featuring a host of educational experts and policy leaders from around the world,...

I ran across this message on www.acesconnection.com and not only did it catch my attention, but it also made me want to dig deeper. Could it be true that nurses have a higher ACEs score than other healthcare professionals? It seemed true in this small survey, but was this a representation of a trend? If it was, the implications in nursing practice could be tremendous and concerning. What I found was that there is a grand canyon gap in research. The minimal studies that do exist confirm that...

VICTORVILLE — As the local March for Babies High Desert event nears, the March of Dimes has announced its support of the second annual Black Maternal Health Week, with local events planned to “celebrate black mamas.” Created by the Black Mamas Alliance , the week-long campaign that begins Thursday is designed to bring awareness to the plight of black maternal health and mortality. In California, as in many states, maternal and infant health disparities between the African American community...

Benchmarks' Partnering for Excellence is thrilled to share the Save the Date for this year's conference! The conference will take place September 11th & 12th in Winston-Salem. It is sure to be an exciting couple of days and more details will be forthcoming.

By P. Berman , K. Hecht & A. Hosack Please, please don’t call on me. I don’t want my nightmare to come true! Claire was sitting in the back row of her morning class feeling stupid and unprepared. Just as always, she was two chapters ahead in the assigned reading and had studied hard . S omehow, that didn’t give her any confidence. She had learned everything she knew about how to organize her time and break her assignments into manageable chunks from the Carsons. At dinner time, t hey...

The hypothesis in our book Anna, Age Eight is that if communities ensure that all families have access to ten vital services, we will significantly decrease ACEs and increase health, safety and resilience. One of those sectors is youth mentors. What follows is our book’s segment of the vital role of a mentor in the life of a child. Good youth mentors take on a sort of Obi-Wan Kenobi role, minus all the violence and interstellar travel. They can throw a psychological lifeline to kids in this...