Monthly Archives: February 2015

In Safe Babies Courts, 99% of kids don’t suffer more abuse — but less than 1% of U.S. family courts are Safe Babies Courts

February 23, 2015 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Community prevention programs, Solutions 31 Comments
"Prayer Time in the Nursery--Five Points House of Industry" by Jacob Riis. Residential nursery 1888.

“Prayer Time in the Nursery–Five Points House of Industry” by Jacob Riis. Residential nursery 1888.

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The dirty little secret about family courts – where kids and parents who’ve entered the child welfare system end up – is that they often make things worse, especially for the youngest children — from newborns to five-year-olds.

It’s not intentional – child welfare systems and family courts were set up to help children and their families. But traditional family courts can further traumatize kids already suffering from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) by moving them from one foster care home to another, by rarely letting them see their parents (if parents are willing and able), or by leaving them to languish in foster care limbo for years before finding them a permanent home. All this contributes to these children developing chronic diseases when they’re adults, as well as mental illness, violence and being a victim of violence.

It was decades of research that shows unequivocally how toxic stress caused by adversity does long-term damage to children’s brains and bodies that inspired

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Weathered by my high ACE score

February 22, 2015 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Resilience, Trauma

mounds

1. We are knee deep in one of the worst winters in history. When the winds pummel my house and the ocean flows through my basement, what am I thinking is: “I’m so glad I have flood insurance.”  What I am feeling is help. I scared. I want my mommy. I need a daddy.

It’s hard to admit as a middle-aged woman (and feminist) how much the idea of rescue appeals. I have decades of experiential knowing that wishing is futile.

I know my craving for the present, stable and loving parents I never had is like wanting to snort, stab a needle, drink too much or inhale food. I know not to dive into the craving but I can’t pretend desire is gone.

It comes and comes back. Always. Even when it goes away it returns. Usually when I’m tired, sick or afraid.

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Schools need policies to deal with teachers who bully

February 18, 2015 By in Child trauma, Education 1 Comment

AbullyteacherWe hear a lot about bullying these days, but rarely do we hear about teachers who are bullies. In the many articles and books about bullying, the focus is almost exclusively on peer victimization – actions taken by one youth towards another.
But the small minority of teachers who engage in this pernicious behavior are only infrequently challenged or disciplined, so the behavior persists. There is even a Facebook page, No More Teacher Bullies, with numerous examples of teacher bullying, many contributed by frustrated parents.

In their book, Youth Voice Project, Stan Davis and Charisse Nixon describe their findings from an anonymous online survey of more than 13,000 student in grades 5 – 12 in 31 schools around the nation. In that sample, about 3,000 students

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Nadine Burke Harris: How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime

February 17, 2015 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Chronic disease, Neurobiology, Resilience, Solutions 9 Comments

Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. In this 16-minute TED Talk, pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain.

This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. This is an impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.

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