Healing Horizons: Weekly News & Research - June 6, 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 Carey Sipp cohosted with Alison Cebulla.
Here are the news stories and research we featured:
to be added soon
Transcript:
Alison Cebulla 0:02
Hi everyone. So today we have a special guest, Carrie SIPP, which I'm thrilled about. So Carrie and I used to work together at pieces connection, and used to host webinars together all the time for years, yeah, those were the days. Weren't they
Carey Sipp 0:25
fun times? Alison cebulla, we
Alison Cebulla 0:27
had really, really fun times. Yeah, really fun times. Yeah. You can still see the recording. So on our website, on 10 collective.com if you go to our website and go to the Resources tab, and go down, there's a link to all the the show was called a better normal. And so they're really, I mean, they're really good. I hope people are still watching them, because we talked to literally every single trauma expert that exists. We talked to every single one. Yeah, we
Carey Sipp 0:58
did. We brought them all in. We did was during the damn Dimmick, and we wanted to help people who were panicked. And we brought in everybody, from people on the community resiliency model to dealing with grief to dealing with child issues racism. We covered the gamut. It was fun. Alison, we were Dynamic Duo.
Alison Cebulla 1:23
We were so thanks for subbing in for Bree today, Carrie, let me introduce to all of our folks who are tuning in. So this is healing horizons, and 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
Carey Sipp 1:47
and I'm Carrie SIPP and
Alison Cebulla 1:49
10 Collective is creating a world where we genuinely care for one another. We hope that you'll consider hiring 10 to implement trauma informed care and psychologically psychological safety based programs and policies to better care for your employees and, in turn, for the communities that you serve. Really excited about all the folks that were that we're getting to work with, and we hope, we hope it could be you too. So let's get into the news. Um, so first up mental health and resiliency program in Delaware. So just to, just to repeat what I normally kind of introduce this section, so we like to cover what are the trauma informed care programs and interventions that are happening in the United States and around the world, so that we can all learn from what's happening. And then oftentimes, we will add a little bit of commentary, if needed, depending on, you know, if we have something that that you know, these these interventions make us think about. So that's what we're going to do. So in Delaware, in response to the increased awareness of first responder burnout. Yeah, that first responder burnout is, is brutal. Carrie, have you heard I think the highest divorce rate for any profession is firefighter.
Carey Sipp 3:12
I have not heard that, but it would not surprise me, because it's a very scary it's firefighters, police, people, it's tough.
Alison Cebulla 3:21
I know I didn't actually know this about firefighters until I have a few who are friends, but they're, they're doing, they're, they're doing the the hard, hard work. If there's an accident, someone has found, you know deceased, they are there doing that work to address that, and it's brutal. So they the PTSD is real, yeah, yeah.
Carey Sipp 3:46
And especially when you think about the wildfires, where they're on call and working many days in a row in the worst conditions in heavy equipment, the hydrated, oh my goodness,
Alison Cebulla 3:59
yeah, absolutely. So in response to increased awareness of first responder burnout and mental health struggles, struggles which we love to hear that there's increased awareness about that, the Delaware State Fire Prevention Commission has set up a mental health and resiliency program. That warms my heart. I love to hear that in April, the Delaware State Fire Prevention Commission announced that the new mental health and resiliency program would be set up specifically for the state's firefighters and EMTs. So apparently, there's a lot of stigma surrounding mental health treatment among first responders. I can definitely see that as being a cultural component preventing folks from getting care, and they're trying to address that, so services will include trauma informed care to the first responders and their family members. Okay, we love to see something that includes a whole family. Yeah, so, okay, so it's just, it was just set up. So we will be watching. To see how that turns out. So one thing that Bree and I usually talk about here on this program is that it's just so important to evaluate programs. You know, there's a lot of money right now in trauma informed care, and we love to see these kinds of things set up. But then we do also need to see the evaluation. We need to make sure that these programs are working and that we're spending our money well, because if it's not working, let's spend our money on something that works. And so we, you know, this is exciting and new, and it's a new field, and we'll be, we'll be really looking forward to, in a year and a couple of years, reading those evaluations and saying, Well, what, how, what outcomes are we measuring? Is the mental health getting better or not? So that's what this this intervention makes me think of immediately. And I wanted to also say thank you to our regular host, Brie Twombly for compiling this week's news list. All right. Carrie,
Carey Sipp 5:53
great. Okay, so the second one on the list is Seminole County is one of Florida's first to bring kids a trauma informed camp after hurricanes, and this is so critical, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, primary age school, kids are at the highest risk for mental health problems after a storm. Some kids are going to have trouble sleeping. They're going to lash out at school. They're going to lash out at home. Others will go silent and develop depression or anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder. And I'm going to speak from experience here after Hurricane Michael hit in Florida, I had 11 southeastern states that I was working to build communities. And when I was the southeastern regional community facilitator for places connection and the Florida communities were so hard hit by Michael and I had daycare center owners who were so hungry for anything. We had some wonderful books from Sesame Street that was sent them, but little children who were at the sound of thunder would wet their pants, would wet their palates that they were sleeping on. This is real, so this summer camp is going to be so important to help the kids who've experienced this to run programs so that they can have the pop up camp in 48 hours and get the supplies all built out, work with the YMCA of Central Florida and have everything that's needed for 48 hours. Because if a child can have a positive experience right after a traumatic event, even if it's something like playing a video game, that can help the brain from being wired into that hyper trauma state. So it's so important, and one of the people who is working on this said that the program that we have really helps them kind of process through play process with their peers. Kids process event, these events in a very different way than adults do. I mean, kids play things out. That's a kid's job is to play things out. So this is really a wonderful thing. The Rollins, College of psychology is helping with this, the camp project, because they love it, because it gives kids space to talk about their feelings and learn how to process them. And again, I join Alison and saying, we hope that they'll do the evidence based pre and post surveys off the children and the children's parents before and after camp to see what happens. But these are the kind of things that can help kids not grow up and be the 68 year old person who jumps under the bed when there's a thunderstorm,
Alison Cebulla 8:49
right, right, right? If we're starting young and already helping to treat trauma in real time, we're not going to see those lasting health impacts throughout the whole lifespan, you know, for, for, I mean, there may be other traumas in their life, but if we're catching it young, and we're saying, here are the resources you need young, that is the whole reason that we work in this field, so that later on, there's less cancer, there's less heart disease, there's there's less Addiction, there's less criminal justice, yeah,
Carey Sipp 9:21
yeah. Olive and for these kids at a very early age to learn in many families, it is not modeled to talk about your fears or to talk about your traumas. It is modeled to suppress them, but for these kids to get in community, for little kids to start learning how to build community and look to community, or for help, and hope. I've seen kids teach their parents the community resiliency model, and that is so fun, so kids can take this home, and that'll be when we get the multiple generations involved. That's really powerful.
Alison Cebulla 9:57
Thanks. Alison, yeah, okay, the next. One is in Melbourne, Australia supporting family violence victims. The northwestern Melbourne Primary Health Network is on a mission to protect and support patients experiencing family violence through its program, primary care pathways to safety, and I do love to see interventions that are addressing violence, because that is still just such a huge part of our, of our lived experience as human beings. And it's, it's, it exists, it's real. And so I am curious what they're up to, funded by the federal government, Department of Health and aged care, the program offers tailored trainings to general practitioners, practice nurses, practice managers and reception staff. The aim is to enable them to effectively assist patients disclosing intimate partner violence or other forms of domestic abuse. Support ranges from providing information on local services to alerting emergency organizations for immediate protection. So yeah, family violence, intimate partner violence, domestic violence, these are all terms for the same thing, and this is a primary source of adverse childhood experiences. So when we're talking about our field, and we're saying, well, if someone has a high aces, score, a big contributor to that can be experiencing violence in the home. So it looks like they are going to be training all of their medical staff to help prevent violence. And that is, that's what we the reason this type of article is so important, even though it doesn't mention trauma informed is because we would rather see prevention than the trauma informed aftercare. And so that is such a key component we want to actually prevent the violence before trauma informed care is ever needed. So anything that prevents violence, prevents ACES is trauma informed care, but it's trauma informed prevention. So this is great, okay, well, point Care Network breaks ground on on a stormwater infrastructure project in Northwest Milwaukee. Well, point Care Network, welcome the community to their capital drive campus to kick off the green stormwater infrastructure project taking place as part of a multi year project to transform well point cares, 18 acre campus, into a vibrant neighborhood anchor where families and neighbors will find trauma, informed social services, mental health resources and a place to connect. The project includes major improvements to the existing building, a state of the art mental health clinic, a community social hall, a trauma care training center and a redevelopment of the surrounding grounds and walking paths, a peace garden and community gardens. Wow. This sounds incredible. What is this?
Carey Sipp 13:02
Well, it's great and Alison, it actually ties neatly into the next story about juvenile crime actually increasing during summer months. Yeah, we know. We know this. And Alison and I are the queens of upstream prevention, if going as far upstream as you possibly can to give children positive childhood experiences. And we know that the difference of five miles a zip code can be the difference between a person living to be 60 or 80 because in places where there are no green spaces, where there are no gardens, where there is not access to community, where people are locked in hot buildings all summer. Yeah, that is the worst for people being able to to connect and heal and do what humans need to do. We are we are animals that are wired for connection. So knowing that juvenile crime increases in southern months, it's great to know that there are some programs happening. The heat goes up, crime goes up. Shelby County, Tennessee is doing some things about this, as are many communities across the United States, but they show that research that how to discourage youth misconduct during summer is really linked to structured programs, such as having access to summer camps. Here, again, going back to those camps in Florida, camps may be our theme of the day. Alison, getting people outside together, doing something fun. We know that really helps. And the Icelandic Youth Project, when kids in Iceland were so steeped in juvenile delinquency, they went in the opposite direction, when most people go in, and instead of cutting out, instead of making. Study more and do more homework, they went away from studying more and doing more homework, and gave them more recreation and arts programs, the kind of things that you do in the summer camp, programs that mean so much. And people in the United States are pulling that Icelandic Youth Project in but offering youth these overnight summer camps is so critical. So this is another great story. Alison, thanks to Bree for finding this one, helping these children learn about gratitude and how to think about forgiveness and then also resilience through our Cure Violence initiatives. So for these kids to be able to express themselves with each other, not using violence, but using their words, using their play. What a gift.
Alison Cebulla 15:48
Absolutely that, yeah, love to hear that, especially as as we enter, enter a summer here that there's opportunities for kids to thrive. Wonderful. So why don't I read an ACEs study, and then I know Carrie, you have to hop off. Okay, so prioritizing early childhood for a happier, healthier society. So this was prepared by Deloitte and published by the Royal foundation business Task Force for early childhood. And the report sets out the business case for prioritizing early childhood. And, you know, people really listen to business cases. So
Carey Sipp 16:37
yeah, and I'm looking for my wonderful little book right here. Okay, yes, the first 60 days, prioritizing even the first 60 days, Bruce Perry's in seminal study with a lot of psych nurses in 2018 that points to it's the timing of the adversity in the first 60 days of of life. If you have a hard and traumatized for 60 days of life and a great next 12 years, you're probably going to have a worse life outcome than the early, relational, healthy child who has a nurtured, consistent for 60 days and a great next 12 years. That's how important. So this is great, that Deloitte is behind us. Yeah,
Alison Cebulla 17:18
absolutely. And I love I love you. Remind me of of that. It's that report quite a bit, and I always forget about it. So thank you for Yeah. So, so good, yeah. And we'll link to that. And we have a blog page for every single episode that has everything that we talk about. So we'll link to that. There just go to 10 collective.com and so the task force was established in 2023 and so it details how investing in early childhood could could generate at least 45 point 5 billion in value added for the national economy each year. This includes 12 billion from equipping people with improved social and emotional skills in early childhood. 16 billion from reducing the need to spend public funds on remedial steps for adverse childhood experiences, and 17 billion from supporting parents and caregivers of under fives who work? Yeah, this sounds like the British version, doesn't it?
Carey Sipp 18:22
If Alison, this is so great, and this is the thing that that we point to. And you and I've had this conversation before, how much we have flourish envy, how in Finland they send mothers a box when they find out they're pregnant in a box, yeah, if we could get our corporations in the United States to do this with their employees and support and nurture their mothers while they're pregnant, there would be so much loyalty and less turnover. I believe would have to study it. But this is fabulous, and the more that we can get corporations that would be attending that would be a wonderful thing to support pregnant women in their work,
Alison Cebulla 19:08
absolutely, those
Carey Sipp 19:11
upstream things that if the mother is nurtured, the mother can nurture the baby, and then you're going to see less of the effects of not having that secure attachment later in life with a baby, being able to trust and learn and not isolate,
Alison Cebulla 19:27
absolutely, absolutely. Well, Carrie, I know you need to hop off, and I'll stay and read a few and I just want you all to know, those of you who are tuning in, either live or to the recording later that we're thrilled that Carrie will be joining tend to organize a very special event this fall, so stay tuned for news on that, and it's really good to be working with Carrie again. So couple more items, mental health, negative life events and resilience among at. Lessons in contact with the child welfare services. So this is in ScienceDirect, okay, Children and Youth Services review, June 2024 and again, all the links to read these pieces and studies are on our website. So Norwegian study to see the impact of paces so positive and adverse childhood experiences on children involved with child welfare, living in foster care or receiving in home services. Data stem from the population based youth. Youth at hortaland study conducted in 2012 comprising 9492 adolescents age 16 to 19 years in total, 283 youth confirmed contact with okay received in home services or living in foster care. So both groups reported significantly more negative life events, mental health problems and fewer Protective Factors compared to the general population. Okay, right? So what? So, essentially, just confirming what we know, which is that living in foster care or other transitional housing as a child will then set you up for negative life events and mental health issues. So that confirms what the original 1998 ACEs study and subsequent studies in the US. So this is also the case in Norway, approximately 30% of the association between contact with the child welfare system and mental health problems was mediated by negative life experiences. Okay, higher scores on the protective factors predicted lower levels of mental health problems. Okay, so we love to see that. And there's been a huge move away from just talking about the abuse and the stress and towards looking at, what are the protective factors, what are the positive forces? And so that is great to see that that is helping those protective factors. So higher scores on the protective factors predicted lower levels of mental problems, independent of the number of experienced negative life experiences. So basically, what they're saying is those protective factors do a lot. That's great. So okay, next piece, this is silent murder. Are we medicalizing human distress caused by the reality of life as an asylum seeker in the UK? So this was in the Journal of Royal Society for Public Health may 2024 the UK's asylum process is damaging to the health and well being of people seeking sanctuary. According to a new study from the University of East Anglia, researchers worked with more than 70 people seeking asylum and with refugee status from 14 countries to better understand the mental health needs of displaced people, they found that the distress felt within the asylum system is often an entirely natural response to that situation, and that the mental health of displaced people could be better improved through community activities and employment than by prescribing antidepressants. The research team ran engagement events in conjunction with the organization supporting people seeking asylum and refugees in the East of England. The events aim to introduce the concept of Health Research, increase inclusion and remove barriers between academic research and this under research community. So I encourage you all to dive into that one. It sounds like this is culturally appropriate intervention would be actually meeting this community where they are and providing them community activities. And that being, you know, an asylum seeker is already it's already traumatic, so their response is normal. And, you know, like, there's so many memes about, you know, here in the United States, how high the rate of antidepressant use is, but that it's like, this is a very normal response to the lifestyle that we have created. So it's very interesting to see this study. And I wonder how we could look at this to similar, similar things that are really stressful, that we've kind of built our society around in the United States, such as, you know, overworking, you know, the high burnout, work culture, low pay, high wealth and income disparities and These sorts of things. So how that may be viewed more as a natural response to something that's inherently abusive and stressful and oppressive, okay effects of expanded adverse childhood experiences, including school bullying, childhood poverty and natural disasters, on mental health in adulthood. Scientific Reports. May 2024 so the study aimed to examine the association of expanded adverse childhood experiences aces with psychological distressed adulthood. So there were about 28,000 participants, and 75% of Japanese people had one or more ace so this must have been a population of Japanese people. Yeah, the questionnaire was developed to measure individuals exposure to various adversities during their childhood in Japan. So for example, incarcerated household member was excluded, reflecting Japanese culture. Okay, so they adapted the original aces questionnaire so it had 15 items. And so, okay, the original ACEs study had 10, so this one had 15, and all 15 of the individual aces showed the negative impact on mental health. So that's right in line. Okay, be sure to check that out. We wanted to note that it's important that tools used in studies are culturally valid, so the fact that they adapted this study to be appropriate for Japanese culture is really important. Okay, so, great. We will wrap up for today with all of those.
Let's see I can do one psychological safety piece so associations between medical student stress, academic burnout and moral courage, efficacy. So this is in BMC psychology, may 2024, this study examined the associations between perceived stress, academic burnout and moral courage, efficacy, which includes components of psychological safety. So a cross sectional study among 239 medical students who completed self reported questionnaires measuring perceived stress, academic burnout, which included exhaustion, cynicism, reduced professional efficacy and moral courage efficacy, the burnout dimensions of reduced professional efficacy mediated the association between perceived stress and moral courage, efficacy towards others actions. The burnout dimensions exhaustion and reduced professional efficacy mediated the associations between perceived stress and moral courage, efficacy toward self actions. So the results emphasize the importance of promoting medical students well being in terms of stress and burnout, to enhance their moral courage efficacy. Medical education interventions should focus on improving medical students professional efficacy, since it affects both their moral courage efficacy, that word is being used a lot toward others and their self actions, this can help create a safer and more appropriate medical culture. So be sure to dive into that one to learn more on the details on our website. And thank you so much for tuning in, and we will see you again next week. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
