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We know that many of you on ACEs Connection are doing (or know about) innovative behavioral health work in your communities and we'd love to hear about it! Please help us get the word out about the 2019 Scattergood Innovation Award! We will be accepting applications until Monday, January 7th, 2019 at 5pm EST. Applications will then be reviewed by a panel of expert judges and narrowed to five finalists who will have the opportunity to present their innovative programs at NatCon19 in...

I enjoyed this beautiful conversation with ACEs Connection member, Jessie Graham, on her work with clients, teachers, and students utilizing her co-creating change philosophies and techniques.

For the past two decades, scientists have been exploring the genetics of schizophrenia, autism and other brain disorders, looking for a path toward causation. If the biological roots of such ailments could be identified, treatments might follow, or at least tests that could reveal a person’s risk level. In the 1990s, researchers focused on genes that might possibly be responsible for mental distress, but then hit a wall. Choosing so-called candidate genes up front proved to be fruitless. In...

ATLANTA—On a 4-acre farm a few miles south of the Fulton County Jail, Abiodun Henderson swung a pickax into the soil at her feet. She kept at it until she was winded and sweating on this brisk October morning. Around her, 10 young men and women tentatively swung their own tools at the ground, loosening the soil for a set of raised beds where turmeric and ginger plants would grow inside a hoop house through the mild Georgia winter. “This is how deep we’re going!” Henderson shouted over to...

A traumatic event is characterized as an incident that causes harm to an individual, resulting in an individual feeling anxious, frightened and unsafe. For a child, the traumatic experience can have a lasting impact. As the child’s brain continues to develop they require additional love and support to deal with a traumatic episode. But what if that child doesn’t have that support? During this segment of Diagnosed , a yearlong healthcare series, UPR’s Dani Hayes tells us about a community...

Dear Children Seeking Asylum in the U.S., These past few days, I have drafted several letters to you, children and youth, who have walked thousands of miles north from your countries of origin to ask for asylum in the United States. I can only imagine the difficult, very difficult, circumstances that your families must have sustained to decide to leave behind everyone they loved, everything they knew and owned and walk into the unknown. In these unfinished letters, I tell you that I think...

On the east side of Indianapolis in late March, a barrage of bullets sprayed through a home, killing 1-year-old Malaysia Robson as she slept on the couch. It was a drive-by shooting in the middle of the night by two men in their late 20s. It’s the kind of violence that can shake a community, leaving its distraught members wondering how much more they can take. Community violence — and other forms of trauma — are especially harmful for children. They’re called adverse childhood experiences...

CONCORD — New survey data shows that half of all New Hampshire adults have experienced at least one “adverse childhood experience,” such as parental drug or alcohol abuse, domestic violence or sexual abuse. And one in 10 individuals reported four or more of these “ACEs,” which studies show are linked to negative health outcomes later in life, including depression, chronic diseases and substance use disorders. State health officials and New Hampshire’s two U.S. senators were on hand Monday at...

December 11, 2018; New York Times In the past two years, progressive district attorneys have been elected in a wide range of cities, note Emily Bazelon and Miriam Krinsky in the New York Times. But will electoral victories be enough to uproot a racialized criminal justice system, which Michelle Alexander has labeled the New Jim Crow , built up over decades? The stakes are high. The data are well known, but the physical and human costs are worth enumerating. The introduction of a new report...

Epigenetics seems to be growing up and facing the inevitable questions that come to a maturing science. A new study of trauma experienced by POWs in the Civil War adds to the evidence that sons (perhaps even grandsons) can inherit the physical effects of that trauma. So naturally, people are asking hard questions about these findings. Sons of Trauma Dying Sooner Dora Costa and colleagues published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences . They studied children of...

Did You Know That 20% of Children Are Suffering With A Mental Health Disorder? Learn How To Spot Depression or Anxiety in Children, What You Can Do, And How To Help By Watching The Replay Of My Interview With Dr. Lorry Leigh Belhumeur, Licensed Psychologist & CEO Of Western Youth Services.

Engaging parents and children in effective trauma treatment can be difficult in the best of circumstances. Conventionally, engagement and rapport building begins in the first face-to-face session. More often than not, it is a harsh set-up. Parents and children may enter the first session angry, frustrated, or hopeless, with their arms tightly crossed. The slightest provocation could open conflict and confrontation between parents and children.