Healing Horizons: Weekly News & Research - June 13, 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.
This week we cover: Queensland is making a significant investment of $56 million to establish a forensic examination service for sexual assault victims in public hospitals across the state. This initiative comes in response to reported cases of mismanagement and delays in treating sexual violence victims due to inadequate training and resources in hospitals. Health Minister Shannon Fentiman emphasized that the government aims to ensure all victims receive trauma-informed care regardless of their location. Similarly, Georgia has embraced the ‘Barnahus’ model with the establishment of the Center for Psychological and Social Services for Children in Tbilisi. This center provides a therapeutic environment for child victims of sexual abuse, minimizing the trauma caused by investigative processes and offering essential psychological support.
Additional stories include a £90,000 grant to Whitefield Primary School in Everton for a program aiding students in emotional regulation during school transitions. Women’s Shelters Canada is advocating for phone companies to facilitate easier exits from shared phone plans for domestic violence victims. In Kentucky, high rates of chronic absenteeism among students are linked to trauma, poverty, and COVID-19, highlighting the need for community support and positive interventions. Research from CU Boulder and the Anschutz Medical Campus reveals that maternal experiences of racial discrimination can affect children's biological aging, and a study on psilocybin shows its potential to alleviate psychological distress in individuals with childhood trauma. These developments underscore the ongoing efforts to address and mitigate the impacts of trauma through targeted initiatives and research.
Here are the news stories and research we featured:
Queensland to spend $56m on forensic examination service for sexual assault victims
The Queensland government will pour $56m into establishing a forensic examination service for victims of sexual violence in public hospitals across the state.
It comes after the Guardian reported last October that an alleged teenage rape victim was made to wait three hours for care, because her treating doctor lacked the required training for the examination.
Public hospitals have also been accused of mismanaging victims and evidence. In some cases, staff shortages have forced institutions to delay treatment or transfer patients in police vehicles to another hospital. Others had been allegedly turned away due to a lack of rape kits.
The health minister, Shannon Fentiman, said the government was “taking action to ensure victims of sexual violence can receive trauma-informed care in our hospitals, no matter where they live”.
Georgia embraces ‘Barnahus’ model for child abuse victims
the Center for Psychological and Social Services for Children, a new flagship center in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi that has already helped more than 200 child victims of sexual abuse.
The center and its experts are trained and experienced in dealing with child victims of sexual abuse in a way that minimizes the pain that investigations can cause and, crucially, provides a therapeutic environment and psychological services so that children can process, deal with and ultimately overcome their traumatic experience.
“If a child does not get the right kind of treatment, they can be more traumatized by the investigatory process than by the event itself,” says Nona Tsikhelashvili, a child protection officer with UNICEF Georgia.
£90,000 grant for programme that helps students navigate emotional challenges of moving school
The new initiative builds on the learnings of an ongoing SHINE project, led by Whitefield Primary School in Everton, which helps early years children to better control their feelings. Now, the charity has granted a further £90,000 to Whitefield to develop a spin-off project for children in Years 6 and 7.
Through the support of teachers, and the use of a structure called the “Zones of Regulation”, children at Whitefield learn to better identify emotions such as anger, sorrow or frustration. They come to understand the physical feelings of these emotions and are taught how to handle them more effectively.
2024 HOPE Summit event recordings now available | Tufts Hope
Summit recordings are all available for free
Family phone plans hinder escape from domestic violence: Women's Shelters Canada
Women's Shelters Canada is calling on phone companies to adjust how they respond to those escaping from domestic violence, saying the costs of changing a phone number and difficulties leaving a shared plan are key barriers for victims.
Rhiannon Wong, the group's Tech Safety Canada project manager, said their report comes shortly after a national survey in April found that harassment was the most common form of "technology-facilitated gender-based violence."
Putting Queensland Kids first – significant announcement from Government
Putting Queensland Kids First has been shaped with input from Queensland families, experts, academics, advocates, and professionals in the sector across the state.
Investments include money toward child development services and health checks, mental health support, supports for young parents at risk of being unhoused
Initiatives funded by the investment will give Queensland families more support, right from the time of conception, with a significant portion of the investment going toward more health checks for children in the first five years of their lives
Trauma, poverty, COVID-19 causing high rates of chronic absenteeism in Kentucky
Chronic absenteeism among Kentucky students has significantly increased during the 2022-2023 school year, with 30% of students now considered chronically absent.
Child welfare advocates emphasize the need for parental communication, investments in community services, and a shift towards positive approaches to address chronic absenteeism and support student success in Kentucky.
The 2024 Kentucky KIDS COUNT Data Book, released by Kentucky Youth Advocates (KYA) Monday, links these chronic absences to widespread trauma and poverty. Kids Count is part of a national initiative from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
CU Boulder and Anschutz Medical Campus researchers revealed that children born to women who had experienced higher levels of racial discrimination and bias throughout their lives have a younger biological age than their calendar age. While additional research is required to understand the long-term implications of slower biological aging, these findings could indicate delayed or disrupted development.
"These children don't have control over what their mothers may have experienced, but they can still be affected. During early development, there are lots of biological systems that are undergoing rapid changes. Any deviation in the process may put development out of sync and cause long-term problems."
Psilocybin Eases Psychological Distress In People Who Experienced Childhood Trauma
A study on the therapeutic effects of psilocybin indicates that the psychedelic drug can alleviate psychological distress in those who had adverse childhood experiences. Researchers highlighted that psilocybin provides particularly significant benefits to those with severe childhood adversity.
The study involved 1,249 Canadian participants aged 16 and older, who completed a questionnaire assessing childhood trauma experiences. They were also asked about their psilocybin use, including the last time they consumed it, the frequency of use, and dosage strength.
Developmental supports crucial for young victims of child abuse
Child Abuse and Neglect, June 2024
In a new study published this week, researchers at the University of South Australia highlight the urgency of ensuring young victims of serious child abuse or neglect get the support they need prior to school commencement so that that can be as close to developmentally on track as possible.
Women have a higher genetic risk for PTSD, according to study by VCU and Swedish researchers
The American Journal of Psychiatry, June 2024
A research team led by Virginia Commonwealth University and Lund University in Sweden conducted the largest twin-sibling study of PTSD to date to shed light on how genetics may play a role. Their results, published Tuesday in the American Journal of Psychiatry, are the first to demonstrate that women have a higher genetic risk for the disorder compared with men.
Using the Swedish National Registries and analyzing health data from over 16,000 twin pairs and 376,000 sibling pairs
“Women are at higher risk for developing PTSD than men, even when controlling for the type of trauma, income level, social support and other environmental factors. Some of the theories as to why that is have frankly been unkind to women, such as attributing the sex difference to a weakness or lack of ability to cope,” said Ananda B. Amstadter, Ph.D., a professor in the VCU School of Medicine’s departments of Psychiatry and Human and Molecular Genetics and lead author of the study. “I think this study can help move the narrative that people can have an inherited biological risk for PTSD, and that this genetic risk is greater in women.”
BMC Psychiatry, June 2024
examined this association in Chinese students and explored the possible associated roles of psychological resilience and depression.
In total, 8,579 students from Hunan Province, China, provided information regarding their sociodemographic factors, history of childhood trauma, any symptoms of depression, psychological resilience, and characteristics of Internet gaming disorder for this cross-sectional study.
Our study demonstrated that childhood trauma was a potential predictor of Internet Gaming Disorder, with the childhood trauma score significantly correlating with Internet Gaming Disorder severity.
Language processing following childhood poverty: Evidence for disrupted neural networks
Brain and Language, May 2024
Participants were drawn from an existing longitudinal study of poverty
We found evidence that the chronic stress of poverty alters the trajectory of the underlying neural pathways associated with language in adults.
we found the childhood poverty group had lower phonemic decoding and reading recognition, controlling for both income and educational attainment.
The present study provides evidence for deficits in neural networks associated with language in adults from childhood poverty backgrounds
Racial Discrimination and Risk for Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms Among Black Youths
JAMA Network, June 2024
Question How does the brain process and defend a youth from racial discrimination’s impact on mental health?
Findings This cohort study of 1596 Black youths in the US found patterns of amygdalar response that moderated the association between feelings of marginalization and changes in both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. While amygdala suppression was associated with lower externalizing symptoms, it was also associated with increased internalizing symptoms.
Meaning These findings suggest that coping with discriminatory experiences could be associated with reduced problem behaviors but increased depressive and anxiety symptoms.
How “Carewashing” Alienates Employees
Harvard Business Review
Too many organizations with unsustainable “work hard, play hard” cultures believe that checking the well-being box by offering mindfulness training or yoga classes qualifies them as having a positive and safe culture when, in fact, they’re merely “carewashing.” Like the more familiar term greenwashing, carewashing is derived from whitewashing: covering up or putting a misleading spin on a failure to meet some commitment, stated claim, or standard.
At a time when employee well-being has been unequivocally tied to organizational performance and yet workers are historically unhappy, particularly in the wake of the shared trauma of a pandemic, leaders should do everything in their power to provide healthy, motivating workplaces.
While efforts have been made in recent years to increase workplace safety through regulations, innovative technologies, hazard assessments and other methods, research shows workers of color face more work-related injuries and illnesses, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. Recognizing this disparity and that musculoskeletal disorders, or MSDs, are the most common workplace injury, the National Safety Council released a new report, The Intersection of DEI and MSDs: Ensuring Equitable Outcomes.
the research paper identifies workplace factors that can lead to inequitable Musculoskeletal Disorders outcomes and provides solutions for mitigation. Specifically, the report references more than 100 academic publications and sources and examines the impact of diversity, equity and inclusion on work organization, workplace and equipment design, safety culture, psychological safety, and psychosocial risk factors.
One-third of employees feel less engaged due to personal finance issues
One-third of employees are less engaged at work and more likely to report unmanageable stress due to their personal finances, according to research by Engage for Success.
Its UK employee engagement survey 2023, run in partnership with Nottingham Business School, received responses from more than 3,000 employees. The results were translated into an engagement index score that was calculated using three questions that assessed employee satisfaction, advocacy and loyalty.
Transcript:
Alison Cebulla 0:02
Hi, welcome to healing horizons, where each week we share the latest news and research in trauma, informed care, positive and adverse childhood experiences and psychological safety. I'm Alison cebulla
Bri Twombly 0:14
and Hi everyone. I'm Bri Twombly. I use sheher pronouns, and we are both part of 10 collective where we are trying to help to create a world where we genuinely care for one another. We invite you to consider hiring us at tend to help to implement trauma informed care in psychological safety, kind of based programs and policies to help you to better care for your employees, who then in turn, can better care for the communities that you're serving.
Alison Cebulla 0:41
All right, so let's get into the news. Today is Thursday, June 13, 2024 content advisory, we will be talking about trauma, which sometimes includes violence. So starting off with trauma, informed care. So Queensland to spend 56 million on forensic examination service for assault victims. That's great. Okay, the Queensland Government, this is Australia, will pour 56 million into establishing a forensic examination service for victims of violence in public hospitals across the state. It comes after the Guardian reported that last October, an alleged teenage victim was made to wait three hours for care because her treating doctor lacked the required training for the examination. Oh, gosh, that will re traumatize for sure. So, so this is great. We it's so, so important to take the treatment of and and other violent assault victims very seriously. So 56 million into putting together a service is great. And,
Unknown Speaker 2:00
yeah, I'm
Alison Cebulla 2:04
happy to see the commitment to you know, in the past, we've seen just a real lack of care and regard for women's issues and the victims of violence. So this is great. All right, do you want to get the next one. I can see my light is flickering here, so I'm going to get that. Yes,
Bri Twombly 2:24
I can do this. So this is Georgia embraces the Barnhouse model for child abuse victims. And when we're talking about Georgia here, we're talking about the country Georgia, not the US State Georgia. So the center for psychological and social services for children has a new what they're calling flagship center in the Georgian capital that's already helped more than 200 child victims of abuse. And the center and experts there are experience in dealing with child victims of abuse in a way that minimizes the pain that investigations can cause, and provides a therapeutic environment and psychological services so that the children can process and deal with and ultimately, kind of heal from their traumatic experiences. So one of the kind of officers there had a quote that said, if a child does not get the right kind of treatment, they can be more traumatized by the investigatory process than by the event, then by the event itself. And really, this model is kind of used in different countries across Europe, many Nordic countries. It's the first of its kind within the country of Georgia. But what it is really trying to do is taking all of the services and specialists and experts that are involved in cases of child abuse and having them in one place. So it's really trying to center the child's experience and to kind of avoid re traumatization for the child. So it's one person that the child is telling their story to, not having to tell them to multiple people, and then they kind of have that liaison that can pair workers throughout the investigation. It even talked about just like, the environment for the child is, like, very child friendly. There's toys there. There's a lot of like, play that's used. They go at like a speed that's appropriate for the child. So when I was reading about this, I was like, this is absolutely amazing for thinking about again, like, what is going on for the child, and how do we avoid re traumatizing the child through this really difficult time, and it really seems like they've taken attention to all different aspects of what does the environment look like? How are we asking the child to tell their story? What are the supports that we're offering to the child and the family? Because the family can experience the trauma from this as well. So I was just like, I want to learn more about this. How do we figure out how to replicate these within. The United States, because they from just reading about it at this point, seemed like a really good service to be able to offer for children and families. So, yeah,
Alison Cebulla 5:13
sounds amazing. That's great news. All right, 90,000 pound grant for a program that helps students navigate emotional challenges of moving schools so this is in the UK. The new initiative builds on the learnings of an ongoing Shine Project, where shine is an acronym led by Whitefield primary school and Everton, which helps early years children to better control their feelings. Now the charity has granted a further 90,000 pounds to Whitefield to develop a spin off project for children in year seven, six and seven, so through the support of teachers and the use of a structure called the zones of regulation. Now, that sounds great. Children at Whitefield learn to better identify emotions such as anger, anger, sorrow and frustration. They come to understand the physical feelings of these emotions and are taught how to handle them more effectively. Yeah. Actually, even though I am turning 40 this year, I had a great program. Kind of, kind of like this, when I was in elementary school for children whose parents were going through a divorce, and it was called banana splits, and isn't that so good? And I just went to, like a regular, poor elementary public school in California. So it's kind of amazing when you can give children these social emotional interventions like it can make a really big difference, because obviously this was a really stressful thing for me, and then, you know, these children are going through, you know this stressful situation where they're having to make a big move. Um, it's really important to have these programs in place so that this doesn't cause long, lasting trauma. So this is a great one for trauma prevention and, um, social emotional learning. Great.
Bri Twombly 7:18
Yeah. And I really like this one because it's helping to, like, understand the physical feelings of the emotions and right, that connection with, like, the body too. So I really loved that part too, and how they're expanding it. Because what they were finding is that when the kids were going from kind of primary to secondary school, then the teachers didn't have that language, they didn't have that knowledge, and so the kids felt less supported. So Right? Like it's creating that common language and understanding throughout the child school experience. And again, how wonderful could that be? If that was like the world as a parent of like a preschooler, sometimes when I'm watching like Daniel Tiger, and I'm like, Oh, this would be such a great world if, like all adults were, like labeling kids feelings and like helping them work through, like, their big feelings and like it that just came up for me, like with this movement too, of if we all had that common language and kind of skills to support children using community that we could have. So the next one is pretty short. I had just spoken a few months ago about the hope so healthy outcomes, positive experiences, which is based out of Tufts Medical School. They had their summit a few months ago now, and they did just make all of the recordings available for free. So we will share that link with you, so you can kind of take a look at that. If you're interested some of the keynote sessions, there's a lot of great breakout sessions that really speak to all kinds of different sectors and work that's being done. So if you are interested in supporting some of those positive childhood experiences, you can take a look at some of the research. So I just wanted to follow up on that, since I said they normally make them free, and now they they did, oh,
Alison Cebulla 9:01
that's amazing. I need to watch those.
Bri Twombly 9:05
There's some great some of the key notes especially are just really amazing, and give you a lot to kind of reflect on and think
Alison Cebulla 9:13
about Awesome, awesome. And again, you can always go to our website and click on the blog section to find the blog post that is associated with today's healing horizons news segment, and we link to every single thing, every item that we're discussing. So and we're at tend dash collective.com, okay? Family phone plans hinder escape from domestic violence. Women's shelters in Canada. So women's shelters Canada's calling on phone companies to adjust how they respond to those escaping from domestic violence, saying the costs of changing a phone number and difficulties leaving a shared plan are key barriers for victims. Wow.
Speaker 1 9:58
I. Oh my gosh, yeah, wow.
Alison Cebulla 10:06
Okay, so Rhiannon Wong, the group's tech Safety Canada project manager said their report comes shortly after a national survey in April found that harassment was the most common form of technology facilitated gender based violence. So other forms includes threats, location tracking, preventing access to online accounts, surveillance and non consensual image sharing. Yeah, that is a big tie when you have a family plan, but it also is often the only economic option for people you know, like in the webinar that I did this this week, I talked about how eight out of 10 Americans are just one major expense, you know, away from being really financially disabled, and that people just do not have have savings, and people are really not earning enough in the US. And so, you know, I don't think that people really necessarily always have the option other than to take the very cheapest plan available and then, wow, I never thought about how many complications that could that could cause. Okay, so the organization had listed a series of recommendations for the companies, including the employees, have consistent and clear understandings of company policies and undergo training on how to respond to victims in a trauma informed manner. So it also suggests making it easier for customers to leave shared plans without authorization from the account owner and that they I mean that should just exist anyway. This is like feeling like before women could have bank accounts. Doesn't it feel like that? Yeah, okay, um, okay, well, I'm glad that that is is happening. Okay, so another, another piece from Queensland, putting Queensland kids first, significant announcement from the government, so they have been shaped with input from Queensland families. Okay, putting Queensland kids first is the name of the organization. So that's been shaped with input from or the name of the program Queensland families, experts, academics, advocates and professionals in the sector across the state. Investments include money towards child development services and health checks, mental health support, support for young parents at risk of being unhoused. Initiatives funded by the investment will give Queensland families more support. So the other one that we did was also a funding, a funding thing, okay? So they must have had some sort of big recent package come together, right, politically, but just put more money towards, yeah, supporting human beings. So there's a quote here from the Education Minister, adverse childhood experiences like poverty, family violence and disruptive access to health care education can result in a high, higher risk of contact with the youth justice system. Our plan ensures all our children will be supported from pregnancy and birth to school and beyond, giving the best chance at having the best start in life. And of course, we know, saving the state a lot of money, yes, yes, it makes sense to invest in prevention period, yeah, yes,
Bri Twombly 13:32
yes. And I think especially at this, like critical developmental period, those like zero to six ages for children. And I think this one also reminded me of one of the keynotes from the hope conference. He was talking about the kind of child tax credits in 2021 that just gave families that had children money. There was no you have to spend the money on this or that. Families could do what they wanted with the money, and that helped to alleviate stress, helped parents to be able to parent in the way that they wanted to. And so I like that they're investing money into these programs. I kind of go back to now this like, Okay, we have this data and this research that is like, just give parents money, and that helps to kind of increase those positive relationships for the children. So interesting. And just if you have a chance watch that keynote, it's excellent. So now moving into our kind of positive and diverse childhood experiences, kind of news and research studies for this week, there's a bunch of them we'll get through them in kind of a succinct way as we can with, you know, sometimes cumbersomeness of research studies. So the first is called trauma, poverty, covid, 19 causing high rates of chronic absenteeism in Kentucky. And this actually is just one of the kind of article. Those that is out recently, because each state just released their kids count kind of data. So you can just Google kids count data book and then plug in your state if you're in the US, and you can look at it for your state. So this was an article specific to Kentucky, and it was just talking about the impact of chronic absenteeism within Kentucky. And this from me, just kind of looking at a few different states, seems like a theme that was pretty prevalent across the United States with kind of just this increase in chronic absenteeism. They were kind of talking about how, like, kids need enough food, enough sleep, reliable, safe ways to get to school, mental health services to be able to kind of meet their educational needs. And I like that they are kind of talking about some of those positive and preventative approaches, trying to understand what are barriers for Children and Families, accessing school, how can we address some of those? And so that was that was good to see, of not just saying, Okay, here's like a problem, but starting to try to understand, what are those barriers, and how can some of those maybe be addressed. The next was maternal, prenatal, social experiences and offspring, epigenetic age acceleration from birth to mid childhood. And this study was actually in the annals of epidemiology in February of 2024 but I just saw an article yesterday about this, so I wanted to kind of bring this in as well. But Colorado University of Boulder and Ann Schutz medical campus researchers have revealed that children born to women who had experienced higher levels of racial discrimination and bias throughout their lives have a younger biological age than their calendar age. So they talked about needing additional research in order to really understand the long term implications of having kind of that slower biological aging process. They really think that it could help to understand some of the kind of just delayed or disrupted development that are seen in children sometimes. So there was a great quote from one of the researchers that said that these children don't have control over what their mothers may have experienced, but they can still be affected during early development. There are lots of biological systems that are undergoing rapid changes. Any deviation in the process may put development out of sync and cause long term problems. So often we're talking about like when you're born and then being exposed to adverse childhood experiences, possibly, and the impact can start earlier because of epigenetics, because of the way that it can impact the DNA of mothers of grandparents, and how that gets passed down to the child, and then what that means when you were born as the child. So I really think when we're looking at this one, it's just another thing of thinking about, how are we thinking about systemic changes? So how are we addressing racism? How are we addressing those kind of root causes of different adverse childhood experiences so people aren't experiencing them, and then they're not getting passed down biologically to children. So really interesting study. That's
Alison Cebulla 18:27
great, okay? Um, psilocybin. Great. My favorite. Um, love psychedelics. Um, eases psychedelic stress for people who experienced childhood trauma. So a study on the therapeutic effects of psilocybin, which is the active psychoactive chemical in in mushrooms, psychoactive mushrooms indicates that the psychedelic drug can alleviate psychological distress in those who had adverse childhood experiences, researchers highlighted that psilocybin provides particularly significant benefits to those with severe childhood adversity, adversity. So the study involved 1249 Canadian participants aged 16 and older. 16 starting, starting, young Okay, who completed a questionnaire assessing childhood trauma experiences. They were also asked about their psilocybin use, including the last time they consumed it, the frequency of use, and dosage strength. So we found that the effect, so it's like people were they're kind of seeing like, who's already using this basically, is what that's saying? Okay, we found that the effect of adverse childhood experiences on psychological distress was lower among those who had used psilocybin compared to those who had not, suggesting potential benefit of psilocybin and treating the psychological consequences of aces. And that was a quote from. Researcher Simon Fraser, and the effect of aces on psychological distress was lower for people who who had done mushrooms. So the authors noted that their results are consistent with other research. A study of over 200,000 US adults found that the lifetime psilocybin use was associated with reduced odds of experiencing a major depressive episode in the past year. Taken together, our results in the existing literature point to a positive therapeutic potential of psilocybin. And I always say, you know, God bless Michael Pollan, because that, that guy really let you know, psilocybin become mainstream like he was on 60 minutes. So he was the Boomers were checking it out like he you know, his book was very popular. You know, for people who read The Omnivore's Dilemma, it's like, oh, now I'm going to read about taking entheogens. So check out his book. I think it's called how to change your mind. Have you read it? Bri,
Bri Twombly 21:02
I haven't read that one. Okay,
Alison Cebulla 21:04
it's really good. Um, he's just a regular, you know, a regular guy. So if he doesn't make it too weird, he makes it very accessible. And I think he also has something on Netflix, um, but you know, the given the fact that the evidence is so strong, I love that it's, you know, starting to get some traction. So developmental supports crucial for young victims of child abuse. So this is in the Journal of child abuse and neglect for June 2024 so In a new study published this week, researchers at the University of South Australia highlight the urgency of ensuring young victims of serious child abuse or neglect to get the support they need prior to school commencement so that they can be as close to developmentally on track as possible. So the study objective was to assess the developmental vulnerabilities at school commencement across five developmental domains to ascertain whether removal of children with substantiated maltreatment to foster kinship care is likely protective or not of developmental vulnerability. So analyzing the records of nearly 75,000 South Australian children born between 2003 and 2014 researchers identified 1300 45 who had suffered substantiated abuse before starting school. 666 of whom had entered foster kinship, usually with grandparents or residential care. So,
so the study so children placed in care had a reduced risk of developmental vulnerability on the physical health and well being language and cognitive skills and communication skills and general knowledge domains compared to children who were not removed. However, these children had increased risk of vulnerability on social competence domains and emotional maturity. So the study found that young boys in particular fare far worse than girls, and are more likely to be vulnerable on every developmental domain at every level of Child Protection concern. So these findings suggest placement in out of home care, supported physical health and well being, communication and cognitive, but not social and emotional early childhood development. I don't know if that sentence, if the way I said that, made sense. These results highlighting the need for professional therapeutic support for children in care and that are attending to the physical development, communication and cognitive skills in maltreated children remaining at home. So it's saying they wanted to see, you know, if we remove children from abusive homes, does it make them better or worse? And they found a mixed bag. Yeah, okay, fantastic, yeah,
Bri Twombly 24:06
yeah. And I think these, these studies are helpful, because we know that the act of removing a child from home, in and of itself, can be traumatic, right? That is their caregiver in their relationship, whether it is kind of what is seen as good enough parenting or not. I'm saying that in quotes, if you're not looking at me, just so, you know. But, yeah, so just just thinking about, like, what does it mean when we remove it? And it's interesting that the kind of social and emotional piece didn't necessarily look any different or kind of like improve with that of home placement, right? So you don't have, you don't have that primary caregiver, or some of the other people that were primary in your life. So interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I. So there's another study that talks about how women have a higher genetic risk for PTSD. And so this was in the American Journal of Psychiatry in June of this year. And this was research led by a team at Virginia Commonwealth University and Lund University in Sweden, where they conducted one of the largest twin sibling studies of PTSD to date, in order to look at how genetics may play a role, and they just recently published that, and what they found was that women do have a higher genetic risk for PTSD compared with men. They use the Swedish National registries and analyze health data from over 16,000 twin pairs and 376,000 sibling pairs. So one of the researchers said women are at higher risk for developing PTSD than men, even when controlling for the type of trauma, income level, social support and other environmental factors, some of the theories as to why that is have frankly, been unkind to women, such as attributing the difference to a weakness or lack of ability to cope. I think this study can help move the narrative that people can have an inherited biological risk for PTSD, and that this genetic risk is greater in women. They also, I was trying to see if I pulled okay. So the other big piece for this is that it also suggested that genetic underpinnings of hormones like testosterone, estrogen and progesterone may be involved in the development of PTSD. So they're going to kind of do some further research to explore that. And what I really liked about this study is trying to remove some of the stigma related to PTSD, some of just the stigma of the things that I just read in that last quote of attributing things to women, of like being weak, all of those like false narratives that exist, but also just the importance of studying the female body. The female body has not been studied very well to understand the impact of things like hormones. So as they're looking at these like hormones and how they could impact that, great, please do the research so we can have a better understanding of that. So just Yep, here, here, going to understand the next one was an association between childhood trauma and Internet gaming disorder. And so this was in BMC psychiatry again, June of this year, and they examined the association and Chinese students and explored the possible associated roles of psychological resilience and depression related to kind of this kind of gaining. They looked at 8579 students from the Hunan province in China, they provide information about associated demographics, history of childhood trauma, any symptoms of depression and then psychological resilience. And what they found is that childhood trauma was a potential predictor of Internet gaming disorder with the childhood trauma score significantly correlating with Internet gaming disorder severity. Um, it also revealed that psychological resilience moderated the association between childhood trauma and Internet gaming disorder. Um, so really, again, I think when we look at this one, just kind of again, we speak to this a lot, but the importance of positive childhood experiences, especially like social support and connectedness. So if children have those positive relationships, being able to like, have those connections in real life, and not kind of going into the state where they're kind of meeting their emotional needs or connection needs through gaming, whether that is talking with other people or just kind of like within a kind of fictional fantasy world with that. So there's lots of connections in all kinds of different areas. Yeah,
Alison Cebulla 29:14
language processing following childhood poverty, evidence for disrupted neural networks. So this is in the Journal of Brain and Language may 2024. Participants were drawn from an existing Longitudinal Study of poverty. We found evidence that the chronic stress of poverty alters the trajectory of the underlying neural pathways associated with language in adults, we found the childhood poverty group had lower phonemic decoding. Okay, there's something that we won't really know what that is, because we don't work in the field and reading recognition, controlling for both income and educational attainment. Oh, that's interesting. Controlling for those, okay, the present study provides evidence for deficits in neural networks associated with language and adult. Results from childhood poverty backgrounds. Wow, that's fascinating. I would love to learn more about what's going on there. But yes, I think we need more studies on the impact of childhood poverty, yeah, which is, of course, such a huge problem in the US and many places around the world. All right, racial discrimination and risk for internalizing and externalizing symptoms among black youths. So J ma network, June 2024, so how does the brain process and defend a youth from racial discriminations impact on mental health? So the findings were that this cohort study of 1500 96 black youth in the US found patterns of amygdala response, which is, you know, the part of the brain that that that controls fight or flight, some you know, emotions keeping us safe, stress response, etc, etc, okay, amygdala response that moderated the association between feelings of marginalization and changes in both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Okay, yeah, all right, so while amygdala suppression was associated with lower externalizing symptoms, it was also associated with increased internalizing systems. So these findings suggest that coping with discriminatory experiences could be associated with reduced problem behaviors, but increased depressive and anxiety symptoms. So what are they defining as coping?
Yeah, we'll have to. We'll have to take a look at that one, and again, you can find the links to all of our cited studies on our website after this is over, if you just go to our blog. But that one is interesting, and there's a lot, there is a lot there to get into. Let's see.
Bri Twombly 32:15
I think one of the things with this one, for me is just often there can be this like perception of like, there's only something, quote, unquote, like wrong if there are like big behaviors or like sizing. And I think for this one thinking about like, maybe like the way that they are coping, if they are maybe like dissociating or using some other kind of more internalizing strategies that that isn't necessarily like really processing the feelings and end up leading to some of that depression and anxiety, which are more internalized. So we're not seeing like the bigger acting out behaviors, but it is having a huge impact on that person's mental health.
Alison Cebulla 33:09
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, great.
Bri Twombly 33:12
Um, okay, so now moving into psychological safety, and we're going to start with one of my favorite kind of articles or things that I came across this week, because it's something that I feel like I've been talking about for years, and now, after I read this article, there's a term that I can use to talk about this. So this article is from the Harvard Business Review, and it's called how care washing alienates employees. So they talked about how a lot of organizations have really unsustainable work, hard, play, hard cultures that believe checking the well being box by offering things like mindfulness training, yoga classes, free donuts and pizza qualifies as having kinds of a positive and safe culture, and what they're really doing is just quote, unquote, care washing. And so they talked about how, like the familiar term, kind of of greenwashing, that care washing is derived from whitewashing, covering up, or putting a misleading spin on a failure to meet some commitment, stated claim or a standard. So it's kind of, hey, we're going to do this thing, but then we're not, we're not really doing it. We're not walk we're not kind of, what's that? I'm forgetting what like the phrase is now, but like walking our talk. Yes, there we go. Thank you.
Alison Cebulla 34:44
I was like, It's hard while live. Actually, my brain just stops working when we're live, yeah.
Bri Twombly 34:50
So thank you for that. So we know from the kind of things that we've shared on here, and then just a kind of other. Reports that a lot of workers, especially here in the US, are really unhappy right now thinking about kind of the shared trauma of the pandemic. And so for there's this kind of encouragement for leaders and organizations to really try to provide kind of healthy, motivating workplaces. And so we want to align kind of the rhetoric, what we're saying, with reality that helps to avoid things like external reputation risks, internal operation hurdles, having compromised psychological safety, kind of cynicism and that can lead to an environment where people that are able to leave leave that environment, those who are staying are just completely disengaged, completely like unmotivated, which then have absenteeism, and you don't really have engagement, not things that places are really looking for. So they've really talked about to kind of safeguard against care, washing that organizations can foster a resilient culture grounded in things like trust, empathy, psychological safety and integrity. So a lot of the they gave four kind of recommendations, which are all really grounded in psychological safety. So Be who you say you are. So if you are committing to employee mental health. What does that actually look like? Do you have flexible work plans for people? Not just we do pizza on Fridays for people, but like, are you actually looking at those barriers and addressing them? Ask and be prepared to really listen? You're asking for that feedback. You're responding to that feedback again in an empathetic, compassionate way, aligning your leadership criteria with organizational values and being self aware as a leader. Where are my biases? Am I actually doing the things that I'm promoting and saying that I'm doing as a leader and at this organization. So again, just really appreciate that there is a term now for thinking about such
Alison Cebulla 37:08
a good term. Yeah, because I we interview on my my podcast about about childhood trauma, which is, which is a light hearted podcast called latchkey urchins and friends. We had a guest season one, Laura Hoffman, who said, employees can tell when their employers don't care about them, and that's bad for our health. It is bad for our health when we can tell that we're not being cared for. So I think, though even worse is when, when organizations pretend to care, but does like that feels so gross. Yeah, care washing Great,
Bri Twombly 37:53
yeah, and, and I know from just like experiences of like training, providing training to organizations, and then people are like, but this, we can't do this with, like, our policies and procedures. So right, if you're trying to say, like, we have a good work life balance here, but then as the leader, you are texting or emailing your employees outside of work hours. You're not You're not modeling that. You're not aligning with that. So that erodes that trust that employees can have. So it's just, it's something that's really common that I know I've encountered and seen at lots of different organizations, and we've provided consultation onto organizations to kind of support that alignment at different levels. Yeah. Okay, so then the National Safety Council released a new report on Diversity Equity and Inclusion and workplace injury prevention. So really thinking about having like hazard assessments, regulations, a lot of the research is also showing that workers of color face more work related injuries and illnesses, which is kind of data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the US Census Bureau. So there's a kind of racial disparity that's existing and specific to muscular skeletal disorders, and those are the most common workplace injury. So they just released this new report, and it's really identifying different workplace factors that can lead to inequitable muscular skeletal disorders. It provides different solutions for kind of mitigation, but we really just wanted to highlight that one of the recommendations is psychological safety, so that employee well being at work is significant. Significantly influenced by a sense of belonging to the organization or a team with managers showing appreciation for their employees and involving them in decision making. So they found that voice suppression can prove particularly harmful to employees of color, as they may already perceive their voices and opinions are less valued. Viewed than the majority of group, and then, as a result, black and Hispanic workers are reporting that most unease about reporting unsafe working conditions when compared to other racial and ethnic groups. So right again, we want to think about like psychological safety, and really make sure that that is something that we're talking about when we're thinking about any kind of dei work or initiatives. Are people feeling safe? Can they express their opinion, and are they listened to? And are we really valuing and centering the voices of those who are most impacted and believing what they're saying? If that is not our reality. That doesn't mean that that is not someone else's reality or experience. So how are we hearing that, thinking about that, and then making changes based on that? Yeah,
Alison Cebulla 40:52
yeah. All right, last one for today, 1/3 of employees feel less engaged due to personal finance issues. Okay, so coming full circle because we were talking about this, yeah, at the start, and this was a big part of the webinar that I, that I did on Tuesday, 1/3 of employees are less engaged at work and more likely to report unmanageable stress due to their personal finances. According to research by engage for success. It's UK employee engagement survey 2023 run in partnership with Nottingham Business School, received responses from more than 3000 employees. The results were translated into an engagement index score that was calculated using three questions that assessed employee satisfaction, advocacy and loyalty, respondents who agreed that senior leaders and managers adequately prioritize people issues showed significantly higher engagement scores. This is this is what we talked about this week, okay, and we're more likely to hold positive views about culture, ethics, honesty and management capabilities. Additionally, they felt their well being, professional development and psychological safety were valued. Conversely, two fits did not feel this way, had negative views and higher levels of unmanageable stress. This was more notable among those experiencing cost of living issues. It's very, very, very stressful to not be able to pay your bills you there's no way that you can focus on anything or feel calm or focus on work or have a positive out. So people with long term health conditions and employees from the LGBTQ plus community, so those with no access to well being resources had an engagement index score of 55% whereas those with five or more well being resources achieved a score of 73% so that's a really big difference. So Dr Sarah pass, Senior Lecturer in Human Resources Management at Nottingham business school, and engage for success. Advisory board members said, along with emphasizing the importance of employees offering their workers a full package of support, our findings revealed the critical role of line managers and workplace relationships in fostering and nurturing engagement levels. So yeah, this was something that I talked about on my webinar on Tuesday, which was that some organizations and agencies do not have the funding to pay people more, but treating your employees well and making sure that you care about them and you're engaging with them can really go a long way in helping employees manage stress, so um which will create better workers. So all right, everyone, thank you so much for tuning in this week, and we will see you next week.
Bri Twombly 43:33
Okay, bye, everyone. Thanks for joining you.
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