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The California Preterm Birth Initiative is pleased to share our spring 2021 request for applications for innovative research proposals on preterm birth! About the Opportunity Twice a year, in the spring and fall, we request research proposals via the UCSF Resource Allocation Program (RAP). The spring RAP applications are due by March 1st. What We're Looking For We are looking for proposals focused on: Reducing preterm birth rates Addressing racial disparities in preterm birth and/or...

NO GOING BACK: Providing Telemental Health Services to California Children and Youth After the Pandemic, is the first in a series of briefs outlining how technology can make mental health more accessible with concrete recommendations based on providers’ perspectives, and lessons learned during the pandemic. Read the Report When the shelter-in-place mandate started, California’s mental and behavioral health providers quickly pivoted to telehealth delivery for children and adolescents. Recent...

We Are Resilient is a practical hands-on approach to strengthening resilience and reducing stress. We can all benefit from recognizing what gets in the way of our resilience and learning how to practice these practical, research-based skills which promote our ability to be our most resilient self. We Are Resilient is particularly helpful for healthcare providers and staff to be more comfortable addressing ACEs, trauma, and providing trauma-informed care. The training helps providers manage...

By Amber Dance, Knowable Magazine, February 3, 2021 Childhood has been upended by the Covid-19 pandemic. Carefree playdates, team sports and school have been off the table or strictly online for many of the world’s 2.2 billion children, replaced by isolation, boredom, family stress and worry. What will be the consequences? Children have weathered disasters before, so researchers know plenty about the risks as well as the potential for recovery. For example, after flooding in Buffalo Creek,...

By Signe Hald Andersen, JAMA Network, January 7, 2021 Key Points Question Is age at exposure to negative experiences in childhood and adolescence associated with subsequent adverse outcomes? Findings In this cohort study of data on 605 344 individuals aged 19 years from Denmark, exposure to negative experiences in early adolescence was more strongly associated with later adverse outcomes than was exposure in early childhood. Meaning The findings suggest that policy interventions targeting...

Our bodies are wired for survival, thanks to our biological stress system. However, without buffering protections, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), such as neglect and abuse, can lead to a toxic stress response. Fortunately, we know toxic stress is a health condition that is amenable to treatment. To help Californians better understand ACEs and toxic stress, we invite our ACEs Aware community to join us on Twitter on February 9 and use #SaludTues to Tweet about the lifelong consequences...

WHYY photo credit[/caption] My school district announced that four more schools will be closed at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. This devastating news prompted me to write this letter that will be combined with other school staff, families, and students to ask our state and national leaders to SAVE OUR SCHOOLS. This is my twentieth year as a school nurse serving the students, families, and staff of the Camden City School District. My first twelve years were spent at Cooper’s...

“We are at a critical time because the overall number of cases of COVID are increasing so much,” said Dr. Jackie Szmuszkovicz, pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “We are seeing more children with MIS-C the last few weeks following that big increase (of cases) in the community.” MIS-C , or Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, is the name of a new inflammatory syndrome that afflicts a small number of kids three to six weeks after they experienced coronavirus,...

As I've discovered since leaving my career as a family doctor, retraining as a somatic trauma therapist, and scouring the research for 20 years - adversity of all kinds, in all phases of our lives, and in past generations influences our health. As does discrimination. Like ACEs, these 7 additional categories of adversity shape health. They increase opportunities for prevention, identify early indicators of risk, and offer more tools for healing chronic illness and other effects of trauma.

Child maltreatment is well recognized as one of the most significant contributors to pediatric morbidity and mortality throughout the world. 1 , 2 The effect of child maltreatment on morbidity and mortality in older adults has been documented for >20 years as demonstrated by the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study. 3 The impact of maltreatment on teenage suicide and other mental health diagnoses is also well known. 4 , 5 To date, however, a direct relationship between maltreatment...

In 2012, retired from a career in maternity nursing, I joined an effort to start a food bank in our town of 900 people. Though small, we were prepared for most requests; that is, until the day a mother came in search of baby diapers. We had none, so one of our volunteers bought a package of diapers to give her the next time she came in. Soon after, more women came looking for diapers, including a mother-to-be who was expecting twins. She was going to need help. We felt empathy for her and...

By Leonie Segal, Jason M. Armfield, Emmanuel S. Gnanamanickam, et al., Pediatrics, December 2020 BACKGROUND: Child maltreatment (CM) is a global public health issue, with reported impacts on health and social outcomes. Evidence on mortality is lacking. In this study, we aimed to estimate the impact of CM on death rates in persons 16 to 33 years. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study of all persons born in South Australia 1986 to 2003 using linked administrative data. CM exposure was based on...