Healing Horizons: Weekly News & Research - August 9, 2024
Welcome to our weekly news show, Healing Horizons, hosted by experts Bri Twombly and Alison Cebulla. Dive into the most recent updates on trauma-informed care practices, positive and adverse childhood experiences, and the critical concept of psychological safety. Each episode is designed to keep you informed on the latest research, trends, and best practices in these essential areas. Whether you're a healthcare professional, educator, or simply passionate about mental health, our show provides valuable insights and practical advice. Stay tuned for in-depth discussions and expert interviews that will enhance your understanding and application of trauma-informed care and psychological safety.
Here are the news stories and research we featured:
Karla Kuliny - return to campfire - puts culture at... | NIT
Newly-formed Aboriginal Community Controlled Organsation - Karla Kuliny Aboriginal Corporation - is offering community foster care to First Nations children and young people in care arrangements in Boorloo (Australia).
The organisation works to deliver services through what is described as a "walk alongside" approach that includes their long-standing allies and colleagues, who share a commitment to a "trauma-informed and culturally strong therapeutic care" within the First Nations foster care system.
When First Nations children and youth are unable to live with their birth parents, Karla Kuliny works to support, not only the child and youth but also the foster carers in building their capacity and understanding. The organisation says this is achieved by bringing together the care team of the child and developing an extensive cultural plan.
Panda Cares Center of Hope opens to help treat child trauma patients (valleynewslive.com)
Sanford Children’s just announced the opening of the Panda Cares Center of Hope to provide specialty programs for children recovering from traumatic situations
It is located within the Sanford Traumatic Stress Treatment Center in Fargo, North Dakota and is the only comprehensive medical and behavioral health treatment center for traumatized children and families in North Dakota.
It aims to address each child’s entire well-being, including their mental, emotional, physical and spiritual needs. Programs include therapeutic play, art therapy, meditation and counseling services
Panda Cares® Centers of Hope across the country are made possible by donations from Panda Express® associates and guests. Funds raised in-store and online at Panda Express benefit each store’s local community.
Does the child welfare system favor white people over Black people? – Deseret News
In May, the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued a report and recommendations on civil rights concerns about Black children and families within the child welfare system. It noted that Black families are “disproportionately represented at every stage of decision-making and intervention” within the system.
According to the report, Black families are reported to a child abuse and neglect hotline at higher rates than white families, “raising concerns about bias” among mandated reporters. More Black parents are also listed on the state’s central child abuse and neglect registry. And families that use social services are also more likely to be reported for abuse and neglect than wealthier families.
Reviews of family court concluded that Black families are often treated worse than white families, sometimes violating their rights and featuring long delays and separations that are not needed, which potentially harm and create trauma for the families.
They also found that Black children are more often removed from their homes and are less often put into kinship care with relatives, which hampers maintaining family bonds.
Among recommendations, the committee said that federal law should be changed so that mandatory and anonymous reports of suspected abuse or neglect either can’t happen or are restricted and to make it easier for felons to become foster parents.
They also propose removing parental drug abuse, including during pregnancy, from what counts as child neglect and to prohibit routine drug screening of pregnant women and newborns.
The report promotes the idea of a universal basic income that guarantees families have at least an income floor.
Pushback: making it harder to report or investigate abuse or neglect would make children less safe.
Brightside Project gets $30K grant for 'Food for Kids' program - WFMJ.com
In Salem, Ohio
The money will significantly improve the organization's Food for Kids program, which provides essential resources to children between the ages of three and 18
"This generous support will enable us to provide essential food, hygiene products and literacy materials to children in our community, ensuring their well being and development," said Lisa Vittorio, co-director of The Brightside Project.
Food for Kids happens twice monthly and aims to increase access to basic necessities and foster developmental assets.
It's particularly focused on helping children who've experienced trauma or adverse childhood experiences, with the goal of building resilience and hope, according to a news release from the organization.
Love Forward Foundation to host Creative Haven Workshops for at-risk youth (whsv.com), Virginia, USA
The Love Forward Foundation has opened its registration for its Creative Haven Workshops. These workshops and the organization are designed to support children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration and other adverse childhood experiences.
the workshops allow the children to learn creative hair art, writing and travel while working on handling their emotions. In addition, the children will hold a market at the end of the workshops where they will sell and earn money from their creations.
the workshops are also a means to connect with the local community and other organizations.
The root of LEGO’s tremendous, and proven, psychiatric benefits lies in the ability to help individuals zone out while playing with them. For overstressed adults with challenging jobs, too many bills to pay, or who have suffered from episodes of trauma, the snapping together of the bricks mixed with the careful following of precise instructions allows their brain to refocus on something completely different.
Several trauma victims, including veterans with PTSD, said that LEGO helps them to enter a Zen-like state, and others said it allows them to revisit feelings from their childhood in a safe and expressive manner.
“Psychology has begun to recognize that play is as important to healing from trauma as processing trauma memories and establishing good-enough relationships,” Dr. Jay Watts
Creatively snapping bricks together just to see what happens allows people to explore their imagination—something notoriously difficult, and even distressing, for trauma victims, but in a safe, controlled, and reward-filled way that can help people regain control over what their thoughts are capable of manifesting.
BMC Medicine, August 2024
Included 151,427 individuals in the UK Biobank who responded to questions on their history of child maltreatment in 2016 and 2017 and were alive on January 31, 2020.
56.5% female with a mean age of 67.7 at the start of the pandemic
Researchers found that compared to individuals with no history of child maltreatment, individuals exposed to any child maltreatment were more likely to be hospitalized or die due to COVID-19, particularly after physical neglect
50.9% of the association between child maltreatment and severe COVID-19 outcomes was explained by suboptimal socio-economic status, lifestyle, and pre-pandemic diagnosis of psychiatric disorders or other chronic medical conditions
Researchers also found that child maltreatment exposure was weakly associated with COVID-19 diagnosis while significantly associated with not being vaccinated for COVID-19
Scientific Reports, August 2024
This study took place in Finland and included forty-eight drug-naive OCD patients and forty-two healthy controls
Researchers found that OCD patients experienced more childhood trauma, including physical abuse, emotional abuse and emotional neglect AND that childhood trauma was positively correlated with OCD symptom severities.
The research also suggests a potential pathway whereby childhood trauma may alter the cerebellum, which in turn could impair cognitive functions involved in the development of OCD symptoms.
Core symptoms of OCD, such as habit formation and inhibitory control over repetitive behaviors may reflect disruptions in the cerebellum
Frontiers of Psychiatry, Aug 2024
Used deidentified data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study cohort, comprised of 1679 respondents
Researchers did not find a dose-response association between cumulative ACEs and cognitive decline.
A limitation noted by the study is that most study participants reported 0 or 1 ACEs
The study did find specific ACE metrics were correlated with cognitive trajectories
The high-start cognitive functioning stability group had higher initial cognitive scores that stayed steady. They often had higher education levels and were most impacted by sibling death.
The mid-start decline group had a moderate initial cognitive score that showed a gradual decline. Predictors of this group included parental death, physical abuse, and domestic violence.
The low-start decline group had an initial low cognitive score that declined over time, should consider age structure and childhood friendships.
We suggest that the strengths of early life experiences (e.g., residence, education, etc.) may underlie optimized cognitive functioning.
The Journal of the American Medical Association,
researchers recruited over 200 women, of which close to 73 percent were survivors of childhood physical or sexual abuse, with an average age of 60
The study found that a strong bond with pets, especially dogs, could help relieve anxiety and depression in women, especially those who have experienced childhood trauma
Researchers noted that a strong attachment with pets is linked to an insecure attachment style
Study reveals prevalence of child sexual abuse in religious settings (phys.org)
Child Abuse & Neglect, August 2024
One in 250 Australians were sexually abused during childhood by a leader or other adult in a religious organization, according to new research led by Australian Catholic University.
Nearly three-quarters of the reported cases occurred in Catholic-run organizations.
The analysis used data from the landmark Australian Child Maltreatment Study, which surveyed 8,503 Australians aged 16 and above about their experiences of maltreatment in childhood.
The data showed that boys experienced more sexual abuse than girls by religious perpetrators and almost all perpetrators were men.
Data showed that children were typically aged 7–11 when first sexually abused by religious leaders or other adults.
"We can learn from this data by understanding the heightened risk to boys in religious settings, addressing the role men are playing in harming children, and examining the ways in which toxic ideas about power, sex, and masculinity create harm for children," researcher Gabrielle Hunt
Current Psychology, August 2024
The current study investigated probability estimate biases toward future traumatic events in 445 undergraduate students (93.9% Hispanic) who experienced one of the following traumatic events or no trauma: childhood interpersonal trauma, adult interpersonal trauma, accident, a family member’s death due to COVID-19, or no trauma.
The childhood trauma group generally showed the strongest probability estimate biases for future traumatic events among the four trauma-exposed groups.
The results suggest that the belief that bad things would happen in the future developed in response to a specific traumatic event might become generalized to other types of traumatic events.
Safety Science, September 2024
Employers with stronger psychosocial safety climates experience fewer days lost to work-related ailments, as well as lower injury costs, results of a recent study out of Australia suggest.
A positive psychosocial safety climate, according to researchers from the University of South Australia, can include safe and healthy working conditions for employees, supportive relationships with supervisors, organizations valuing workers’ skills, job autonomy, and lower stress at work.
Looking at workers’ compensation data for 100 employers, totaling almost 13,000 claims, the researchers found that those with better psychosocial safety climates had an average of 68 days lost because of injury. That compared with 177 days for the organizations with psychosocial safety climates characterized as “very low.”
Worker’s Compensation Insurance - includes mental illness and PTSD in their mid-year report
