https://nationalresilienceinstitute.org/2017/05/6-ways-become-trauma-informed-school/

One of the ways to help children who have experienced ACEs is to start in the classroom where they spend most of their days. In order to become proactive in helping children become resilient, it is imperative that schools become aware of what ACEs are, how it affects children, and how to approach such a sensitive subject and how to take action. Trauma-informed schools “provide increased access to behavioral and mental health services, effective community collaboration, an increased feeling of physical, social, and emotional safety among students, and positive and culturally responsive discipline policies and practices that increase school connectedness” (“6 ways to Become a Trauma-Informed School”, 2017). Teachers and school officials have the unique opportunity to directly influence children on a daily basis and to allow secure attachments to be formed. By becoming a trauma-informed school, it allows children who are experiencing trauma to have a safe space to come to and be allowed services that aid them in becoming resilient.

trauma_facts_for_educators

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB191

What is SB-191, why is it important, and how does it connect to ACEs? Well, SB-191 is a bill that was put into action that allows schools to provide mental health and substance abuse services. This bill recognizes that individuals with ACEs are at a risk for mental health issues and substance abuse. It states that “individuals with four or more ACEs are 10.3 times more likely to have ever injected drugs, 7.4 times as likely to consider oneself an alcoholic, and 4.7 times as likely to have used illicit drugs” (SB 191, 2017). In addition to experiencing substance abuse, it has been shown that individuals also have a co-occurring mental illness. SB-191 aims to reduce those effects from ACEs by starting in the school. This bill allows multiple professionals to work as a partnership using multi-tiered approaches to provide needed services for children experiencing substance abuse and mental illness. The services mentioned in the bill include targeted interventions for children with “identified social-emotional, behavioral, and academic needs”. They use wrap-around techniques that have the ability to reduce the need for referrals for special education. However, when looking at the ability to allow this bill to achieve its full potential it has a few possible restraints. One of the major restraints is the training needed for all of the professionals involved. In order to have this bill work, there should be additional training that allows each of the professionals involved to more productively work together to enrich the services provided for the children. Another restraint or challenge is the need for the services to be culturally diverse to respect the various cultures each child brings with them. Overall, there are a few areas the bill needs to be tightened down on but as a whole SB-191 aims to provide needed services within the school to help children be successful.

https://pro.psychcentral.com/nine-ways-children-benefit-from-secure-attachment/

When looking at the effects of ACEs, a question that can arise is, “how can we as a society combat the long-term effects ACEs has on children?” One of the major components of combating ACEs is through secure attachments with children. As a professor once stated, “One caring adult in a child’s life can be the difference needed in order to change that child’s life”. This article lists nine different ways in which children are benefited from a secure attachment. What is important to note is that any caring adult is able to provide ways to allow a child to form a secure attachment and to reap the benefits from those attachments.

First you need to know who your representatives are. Everyone (should) knows the president…But do you know your local supervisors? Your representatives in the house and senate? Here, we will lay it out for you.

Gavin Newsom                                                  Eleni Kounalakis

Governor of California                                    Lieutenant Governor of California

Mike McGuire                                                     Jim Wood

California State Assembly-member                California State Senator

Dianne Feinstein                                                 Jared Huffman

US Senator                                                              US Representative

Donald Trump                                                     Mike Pence

US President                                                           US Vice President

Find Your Local Mayor

Find Your County Executives

Find Your Local Elected Officials 

Next, you need to look in to local advocacy groups you could work with to create change in your community…

Humboldt Family Resource Centers, CASA, 7th Generation Fund for Indigenous People,  Stand for Children Non Profit,…

Then, you have to know how a bill becomes a law, how to read a bill, and where to go to find bills! Hint hint…click here! 

You can impact legislation at the local, state and federal level by doing your homework, knowing what you want to happen, knowing you to call and who to write to.

• Personal visit
• Attend a Town Hall Meeting
• Write a letter
• Send an e-mail
• Call the toll-free Legislative Hotline (1.800.562.6000)
• Testify before a committee

Now…after you’ve done all that and you want others to know what you’re doing, how you’re doing, and what they can do…you can share all over the media! (Hey! you’re using media to read this right now!)

• Create your own policy blog
• Share posts on facebook, twitter etc…
• Email
• Calling
• Texting

Lastly, lets look at direct democracy…In the United States, there is no true direct democracy. But there are certainly elements of this at the state and local levels. Direct democracy makes the government responsive to the people, which is what we want and many people think we have…If you want more direct democracy in the politics of the United States you can create citizen led initiatives especially at the local and state level.

Kaiser Permanente to consider social complexity scores

For children and families in the Northwest, Kaiser Permanente is working on creating a “health complexity” score that is made up of “medical complexity” and “social complexity” scores, says Dacones.

The “social complexity” score would be based on information from the Oregon health and human services agency, which would track ACEs as children and families move through various services for food, housing, financial help, or correctional facilities.

‘Toxic stress’ on children

The more ACEs a person suffers as a child – divorce, domestic violence, family members with addiction – the higher the risk of problems later in learning, mental and physical health, even early death.

ACEs Town Hall Meeting

Humboldt County held a town hall meeting in 2017 and again in 2018. “While there is a lot more work ahead, much has been accomplished in the 18 months since Senator McGuire, First 5 Humboldt and state and local leaders gathered for a town hall to discuss reports detailing the impacts that adverse childhood experiences have on Humboldt County’s kids.”

First 5 Achievements Highlighted

“First 5 Humboldt funds and supports programs that positively affect the physical, emotional, social, and economic health of young children and pregnant women,” the organization’s annual report reads.

Humboldt ACES scores too high

ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) scores are way too high in Humboldt County. An adult with 4+ more ACEs is susceptible to more health, physical and mental, problems.