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Resources for Helping Children Come With Chances Resulting From COVID-19 (In English and Spanish)
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“People Don’t Outgrow the Effects of Childhood Trauma Just Because They Become Adults” – Psych Central
by W.R. Cummings
“Scrolling through Facebook this morning, I passed a picture someone had posted, which said, ‘Stop blaming your parents for how you turned out. You’re grown now. Your mistakes are your own. Grow up. Forgiveness is important.’
“I think I understand where the creator of the post was coming from, but I also think they must’ve been very under-informed about what childhood trauma actually does to the brain. I’m sure the sentiment behind the statement was to encourage people to take responsibility for their own choices, to work hard to overcome obstacles, and to avoid leaning on emotional crutches.
“However, I can’t help but wonder about the life of the person who wrote it.”
Continue reading this article at Psych Central, click here.
“The Truth About Trauma Informed Care” – ACEs Connection
“‘Trauma-informed care’ is a movement. Service providers are talking about it. Researchers are studying it. Theorists are writing about it. Academics are teaching it. Practitioners are implementing it.” | *Graffiti artwork by Leon Rainbow
by Meagan Corrado
“What is trauma informed care? SAMHSA (2014) seeks to answer this question by providing a list of trauma-informed principles. These include:
- Safety
- Trustworthiness and transparency
- Peer support
- Collaboration and mutuality
- Empowerment, voice, and choice
- Understanding culture, history, and gender
“Many other theorists and practitioners have developed their own sets of guidelines. As you think about what it means to provide trauma informed care to clients receiving support from your system, keep these ideas in mind.”
Click here to read this article in its entirety at the ACES Connection.
“Connection Is a Core Human Need, But We Are Terrible at It | No person is an island, and we need healthy relationships to thrive” – Medium
Illustration: Hélène Desplechin/Getty Images
by Brianna Weist
“In his book Lost Connections, Johann Hari talks about his decades of work in the fields of trauma and mental health and why he believes that the root of almost everything we suffer through is a severed connection we never figured out how to repair.
“At one point, Hari talks about an obesity clinic where patients who were overweight to the point of medical crisis were put on a supervised liquid diet in an effort to try to save their lives. The treatment worked, and many of the patients walked out of the clinic hundreds of pounds lighter and with a new lease on life—at first. What happened later was a side effect no doctor predicted. Some of the patients gained back all the weight and then some. Others endured psychotic breaks and one died by suicide.
“After looking into why many of these patients had such adverse emotional reactions, the doctors discovered something important:” Continue reading this article at Medium; click here.
“Do You Wish Your Doctor Understood Trauma? (Help Me Inform Medicine About ACEs With Your Vote + Free ACE Fact Sheet)” – ACEs Connection
by Veronica Mead, M.D.
“The most common reactions I get when I mention the word ‘trauma’ to other people with chronic illness are shame, fear or rage that stem from having been told – by our society, by a doctor, by a family member or friend or coworker – that it means symptoms are all in their heads.
“I still regularly read or hear from people with chronic diseases of all kinds that their physicians, nursing staff or other health care professionals have disbelieved or belittled them, or whispered behind their backs that they were faking their symptoms or their need for help with basics like walking, eating or getting to the bathroom.
“This culture of judgement is especially common for people with difficult-to-diagnose, invisible or mysterious illnesses such as my own disease, which is chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).
“Yet it happens to people with well-established, respected and objectively diagnosable conditions all the time too.”
“Primal Fear: Can Monkeys Help Unlock the Secrets of Trauma?” – The New York Times
“Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico’s ‘monkey island.’ The surviving primates could help scientists learn about the psychological response to traumatizing events.”
“Caretakers on Cayo Santiago taking food pellets and other supplies to the main clearing where the monkeys hang out. Glenna Gordon for The New York Times”
This is a longer read than normal; the article, though, is a journey through the trauma that Hurricane Maria visited on the inhabitants — human and others – of Puerto Rico and its islands.
by Luke Dittrich
“On Valentine’s Day, 2018, five months after Hurricane Maria made landfall, Daniel Phillips stood at the edge of a denuded forest on the eastern half of a 38-acre island known as Cayo Santiago, a clipboard in his hand, his eyes on the monkeys. The island sits about a half-mile off the southeast coast of Puerto Rico, near a village called Punta Santiago. Phillips and his co-workers left the mainland shortly after dawn, and the monkeys had already begun to gather by the time they arrived, their screams and oddly birdlike chirps louder than the low rumble of the motorboat that ferried the humans.
“The monkeys were everywhere. Some were drinking from a large pool of stagnant rainwater; some were grooming each other, nit-picking; some were still gnawing on the plum-size pellets of chow that Phillips hurled into the crowd a half-hour before. Two sat on the naked branch of a tree, sporadically mating. They were all rhesus macaques, a species that grows to a maximum height of about two and a half feet and a weight of about 30 pounds. They have long, flexible tails; dark, expressive eyes; and fur ranging from blond to dark brown.”
Click here to read this New York Times article in its entirety.
“Mourning Paradise: Collective Trauma In A Town Destroyed” – California HealthLine
by Stephanie O’Neill
“One of the final memories Carol Holcomb has of her pine-shaded neighborhood was the morning sun that reflected red and gold on her trees last Nov. 8. That day, she said, promised to be a beautiful one in the Butte County town of Paradise.
“So she was surprised to hear what sounded like raindrops tapping her roof a short time later. Holcomb, 56, stepped outside to investigate and saw a chunk of pine bark floating down from the sky.
“‘It was about 3 inches by 2 inches,’ she said. ‘And it was smoking.’
“In the commotion of evacuating from Paradise, Carol Holcomb lost a backpack containing her mother’s Bible, her grandfather’s Purple Heart medal from World War I and photographs of both of them. Thanks to a good Samaritan, she recovered the backpack containing the family treasures.” (Michelle Camy for KHN)
“It was her first glimpse of the approaching wildfire that would become the deadliest and most destructive in California history — one she continues to relive in debilitating nightmares and flashbacks.
“The Camp Fire virtually incinerated Paradise, a town of 27,000. It killed 85 people in the region — many of them elderly. Most died in their homes — others while fleeing in their cars or trying to flee on foot.”
Continue reading this article at California HealthLine, click here.
“Trauma-Informed is Messy Business … ” – ACES Connection
by Tanya Fritz
“Words like trauma-informed and resiliency get thrown around a lot these days. And for many, the visions they call up are a bit too glossy. You see resiliency and trauma-informed aren’t always pretty. Resiliency can look like closing the bathroom door and collapsing in tears… but then washing your face and going back into the world, carrying the belief that you can survive and the hope that things will get better.
“It looks like begrudgingly going on that walk with a friend, when the little voice inside is yelling at you to just grab a bag of chips and curl up on the couch with Netflix. Heck, you might even go back to the couch after the walk. It means saying the wrong thing, then being brave enough to go back and apologize. Resiliency doesn’t mean that life doesn’t get you down, that you don’t still stumble, or that you don’t sometimes still make the wrong choice.
“Resiliency means that all of that happens, and through support and self-regulation, you are able to continue to keep moving forward. Even if every day isn’t always better than the last, your overall trajectory is still forward. Resiliency is a journey full of twists and turns. We make get off track, but we ultimately know where we are headed.”
“Can people be saved from a terrible childhood?” – The Guardian
“US researchers have found early intervention can help prevent negative experiences in infancy turning into long-term health risks”
Illustration: Nathalie Lees
by Lauren Zanolli in New Orleans
“When Sabrina Bugget-Kellum walked into a neighbourhood clinic in New York for a routine appointment in in 2016, she was desperate. Her son was in prison. She was trying to look after his two young children, who were aged one and two. Their mother was emotionally unstable. Bugget-Kellum did not want the chaos of the adults’ lives passed down to another generation.
“‘We didn’t know if they would be safe with their mother,’ she recalled recently. ‘I began to pray, please God, I need some help. There were so many things going on.’
“While at the clinic, Bugget-Kellum learned about a new parenting programme designed for carers of young children who have faced early adversity such as domestic abuse, homelessness or the loss of a parent to incarceration. ‘It was like I had my ammunition and I knew how to fight,’ said Bugget-Kellum of the programme.”
At bottom there is a revolutionary idea. It’s about moving from ‘what’s wrong with you?’ to ‘what happened to you?’ – Leslie Lieberman
Click here to continue reading this article at The Guardian.
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