Healing Horizons: Weekly News & Research - May 2, 2024

Healing Horizons
Written By Alison Cebulla

The latest news in trauma-informed care, positive and adverse childhood experiences, and psychological safety hosted by Bri Twombly and Alison Cebulla.

Here are the news stories and research we featured:

Transcript:

Alison Cebulla 0:02

Go. Hi everyone, we get a countdown on our end, and it tells us to go with an exclamation point. So that's really enjoyable. So, welcome to healing horizons. What is this? This may be the sixth week, I think, which is pretty exciting, where every 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 0:34

And hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us, I'm Bri Twombly. And Alison and I are both at on 10 Collective and we're really working to try to create a world where we genuinely care for one another, we really want you to kind of consider hiring us here at tend to help kind of implement any trauma informed care, or psychological safety BS programs that you were doing, as well as policies, evaluation, grant writing, there's lots of different ways we can help you and definitely take a look at our website, which is 10 Dash collective. And you can take a look at that. There's a forum on there, if you want to reach out and schedule a meeting, learn more about what we do. So please, take some time, if you're interested in check that out.

Alison Cebulla 1:20

Great. So let's get into the news. People are really doing a lot of a lot of trauma informed care intervention. So there's a lot to share this week, and we're not even really going to touch the surface. Today is Thursday, May 2 2024. And as always content advisory we will be talking about trauma, which sometimes includes violence. So this one was was interesting. Savage River Lodge pays $150,000 in E OC discrimination and retaliation suit. I always want to define acronyms. This is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Is that right? I

Bri Twombly 2:11

think so.

Alison Cebulla 2:15

I always want I always trying to find them before we go live, but I totally forgot, because I don't like when things Yeah, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And things are too jargony. And even there's certain terms that we use like intervention, which is such a public health term that before I went to school to get my master's in public health, that word would mean the same thing that it means to meet now. And so I do try and really define every acronym, even if it should be obvious. So the EEOC is where people go to File discrimination cases against employers. And so this is a case, savage River Lodge in Maryland, and there was a lawsuit filed because they fired an employee due to pregnancy, something pregnancy related some sort of an or a pregnancy trauma. And what was interesting to me about this piece of news was that trauma informed care was actually restitution in the case. So they paid the fine, but they were also ordered to implement a trauma informed care training aimed at educating the workforce about pregnancy loss, reducing stigmatizing behavior regarding pregnancy loss, and protecting those who have experienced pregnancy loss from discrimination. So haven't seen that before. Although if you know of other cases, send them our way, but that's very interesting. Okay, the next one, a workshop that aims to improve services for those experiencing homelessness. And so this is in Canada, the city of Yellowknife. And so the city and Housing Authority hosted a workshop from April 22 to 23rd to improve services for people experiencing homelessness and the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, providing guidance for staff and Frontline organizations working with vulnerable populations. We love to see that this sounds like a great opportunity to serve a vulnerable population with more trauma informed care. This seems like a really good use of trauma informed care. You were Bree you had some thoughts about systemic change versus you know, every time we see these, we love to see the training happening. Everyone needs to understand what trauma is and the signs especially when we talk about the brain so kinds of trauma so that we can take better care of, of people. But what we, what we often don't see that we really would like to see are is maybe some more structural, and, and systemic level. So, okay, it looks like the trainers have a good understanding what a Jody, you're kowski pace national training consultant explained that. policies need to address poverty, and a variety of individual and personal issues, as well as structural and societal issues that affect people and require adjust approach. She explained that homelessness is not only about losing a place to live, but also from an indigenous standpoint about the loss of culture, language and displacement from the land. To address this, she said it will require collaboration in a reconciliatory way, by understanding the roots of colonization and the impacts of intergenerational trauma. Okay, so that's her hope. But the program at this point doesn't include that yet.

Bri Twombly 6:09

Yeah, so I, one of the things that I was running this that I was curious about curious about is that there is going to be training, and she's part of the program that's providing the training. So I'm hoping that there's some integration of that within the training. And it just, again, makes me wonder about, we can provide these things in training, and what's happening on that systemic level, like when we recognize that there needs to be this change that colonization has a huge impact. Intergenerational trauma, what is happening to change policies to help break cycles of intergenerational trauma, to support culturally appropriate healing, all of those different things. So I was just really curious about training is a great first step. But what else is happening?

Alison Cebulla 6:55

For me, I always just think, where's the money. reparations are due for people harmed in in Canada and the United States. And that's what we need to see. And that's what we really don't see. And so while we do love to see trauma informed care trainings, especially when they're called culturally appropriate, I will say every time give people money, and especially if you've harmed them, give them money. You know, people's wealth was stolen in the US through labor, in, you know, the enslavement that was lasted hundreds of years. And that the the wealth was stolen, and continues to be stolen through various practices, whereby, you know, different people have different access to different opportunities. So, and then in Canada, and the US, obviously, massive genocide happened for Native people. So we need to pay up.

Bri Twombly 7:57

Yeah, and I just think of like the impact. When we think about in I know, in the US, as well as in Canada, when you think about removing indigenous people from their families, and putting them in boarding schools and trying to strip them up all of their culture. Like, just the impact that that has had. And again, like, Where where is the money in the funding to be able to support to like, continue to strengthen that I know, that's always continued to be like, a really strong point of resilience for those in indigenous communities is continuing on with their culture. But again, like, where's the money to be able to put behind that? Yeah, so an interest definitely an interesting one. And something that I just I want to know a little bit more about what's going on in training and what other ideas they have.

Alison Cebulla 8:54

I know, these articles often don't tell us what the curriculum is. And I'm like, tell us

Bri Twombly 9:00

that told me question. Um, so our next piece is out of England. So one of the universities there St. Mary's University, they are starting to offer a course that can either be online or in person. That's called resources for trauma informed practice. And really, this course is trying to help to enable the students within the course to explore different tools for engaging with safe and effective trauma informed practice in the future. So it's really trying to develop an ethical and trauma informed reflection for those who are engaging in kind of art space and alternative forms of Survivor care in practice. A lot of it is really trying to help those people who are engaging in those services to kind of those practitioners to really be able to reflect and gain insight into their current work that they're doing, including the effect that the work is having on their own experience. and how then that is impacting their ability to stay engaged and in relationship with the people that they are partnering with. And also then to think about methods for self care. I really liked that a big piece of this is really trying to understand the way in which trauma might be affecting them within their practice within the research. It has a lot around trying to understand like, the somatic aspects of trauma, how is it being stored in her body? How is it impacting our bodies, and the importance of those embodied regulation practices, I feel like we don't hear that talked about a lot when we're thinking about like self care, or kind of these these types of programs. So I really liked that that was a big focus. I couldn't take a look at what their whole kind of curriculum was. But they had a few things saying, like, here's some of the things that we're going to be talked about. And they're some of the topics are care and power dynamics. So I really loved that they're talking about, like, love to

Alison Cebulla 11:06

love to see that, yes. They

Bri Twombly 11:10

have a choreographer specializing in movement, who is going to like teach some of the classes of things, yeah, on spiritual practice. And then again, that like somatic regulation piece, so just loving how they're bringing in different ways to think about healing and understanding the impact of trauma for those who are practicing, and then for also, though, when they're kind of partnering with their clients in the work. I also really love for this one, that a big piece of it, too was that like reflection, how are we slowing down and taking time to recognize what the impact could be on us, and then how that could be impacting those that kind of we're partnering with. And in a lot of times, especially in like fields, where it's helping or caregiving, it's just like, go, go, go, go go and not having that time. And it's incredibly important, if we don't want to get just very burnt out, develop secondary traumatic stress, all of those types of things. So I think that this sounds like a really interesting kind of program that they're starting to offer.

Alison Cebulla 12:23

Sounds great. Sounds amazing.

Bri Twombly 12:25

There also was a new kind of report that came out this week, it was by the National Women's Law Center, and then Southern Poverty Law Center. And the report is examining the experiences that black girls have with school safety in school policing. We will link in kind of our notes in it kind of in our blog to the actual report, if you want to take a look at it, I highly encourage you to it contains really good quotes from a lot of the girls that are really powerful to look at. So just without your radar and maybe schedule some time to be able to take a look at that and then process kind of what's coming up for you and what you're thinking kind of related to action steps for that. And so the report is called keeper safe, centering black girls in school safety. And they did surveys and interviews with a group of black girls and young women ages 14 to 24, who really shared their own personal experiences within the Miami Dade County Public Schools. So some of the things that the report found that these girls and young women were encountering were things like harsher treatment from school based police and security guards. Sexual harassment, often in the form of inappropriate comments about their looks, body policing and profiling through dress code enforcement, public humiliation and shame during in class searches by police officers, lack of autonomy and privacy due to strict bathroom regulations. Discipline settings such as detention with prison like conditions, minimal education and support for students at risk, who have survived sexual harassment and assaults. So some pretty heavy, traumatizing things. And when we talk about the school to prison pipeline, thinking about, okay, now you're in detention, and the conditions are pretty much like you're in prison, just we expect you're gonna go to prison, we're going to push you in that direction. So here's what it's like we're getting you ready, which is appalling.

Alison Cebulla 14:41

I am glad that this report is out. It sounds really important. So but of course all of these items are are heartbreaking. However, we can't fix anything until we know the facts and we acknowledge the truth. So, just like you said, I would encourage folks to follow the link on our blog and check this out.

Bri Twombly 15:07

Yeah, the report does outline some different kinds of recommendations for schools and lawmakers. And they're really trying to promote that holistic school safety, and really focusing on strategies that address psychological, emotional and physical safety needs for all students. So they talked about things like investing in Student Support Services, avoiding school policies that police surveil and harshly punished students. And instead use proven positive behavioral interventions. Taking steps to ensure girls are safe from sexual harassment and assault, an expanding understanding of school safety by engaging students in the conversation. So again, yes, like involve, involve the students involve the people who are about to see it in these conversations. And also, like, there's such a punishment policing mentality instead of providing communities of care. So how are we supporting and caring for one another, recognizing that people have different experiences and histories that impact them? Instead of doing that, and coming from a place of empathy, we go, here's the punishment, here's the policing, here's how my bias is showing up and impacting what I think about you and how that's going to impact the treatment of you. Yeah, so just more supporting positive childhood experiences, and less of creating additional trauma for children.

Alison Cebulla 16:41

Yeah, and then it sounds like the school is going to be changing the environment, which, you know, I just, and I think this comes up again, in another piece, but I really hate to see the onus of responsibility placed on children. And I will be against that every time, it's really not these children's responsibility to ensure that they are safe. And it's actually really quite a huge burden to expect them to have to heal at such a young age when they shouldn't be traumatized in the first place. And so we do need schools to say, how can we change what we're doing? And then of course, it can be a lot for schools, as well. So that's also hard. Yeah,

Bri Twombly 17:25

there's that conversation about like, children are so resilient, or like, let's develop the resilience in children. And there could be a lot of resilience being developed. But why does that resilience need to be developed? That's the question that gets left out of the conversation, so often, is the thing that can lead to these policy, these programming changes. We're children, we need some resilience, we need to be able to learn how to deal with stressful things. But it doesn't need to be learning how to deal with trauma and adversity, it can be that kind of healthy, positive stress that we learn how to deal with instead.

Alison Cebulla 18:04

So yeah.

Bri Twombly 18:09

The next kind of program that we wanted to highlight is near and dear to my heart. And I was really excited reading about it because I recognize many of the names in there for when I lived in Michigan, and was providing infant mental health therapy myself, I'm very involved in that world. But this is about a new clinic. That's called the Social Work early childhood support clinic that's opened in Detroit, Michigan. And it involves a lot of infant mental health clinicians and infant mental health really works with ages kind of zero to five, zero to six in their families. And it's really Sherpa, focused around supporting kind of the bond between the caregiver and the child supporting those positive childhood experiences, those positive factors. And so they have on now some clinicians who are kind of integrated within their health care system there. This is not the first time that this has been happened, that this has happened. There's a lot of integrated health care happening within Michigan with info mental health clinicians already, but this is just a new program that's being rolled out. And they're really trying to provide support to children under the age of five and then their parents who might be struggling with perinatal mood disorders. So things like postpartum depression, anxiety, PTSD, and there's been a lot of research that shown that perinatal mood disorders and a parent's own history of trauma can have an impact on how the parent bonds with the baby and then how they end up engaging in parenting. So we also know from research that infants, really young children don't have the language kind of capacity or development, to be able to kind of sort through to catalogue traumas to help to assign them context, their brains don't work in the same way that ours can as adults. So instead, really, for little kids, and this happens to us as adults, too, but especially as little kids, that trauma, those feelings, that pain that fear, that neglect gets absorbed and stored within that child's body. So they might not have an actual memory of something happening, but their body has memory stored in there. And so really, the infant mental health clinicians, they're trying to partner with parents to support the development, again, of those positive childhood experiences. So helping to develop moments of safety for the baby, so the baby can feel secure to understand the world around them to build relationships and kind of ability to deal with any types of stressful situation that comes up. There was a really good quote from Becca Wheeler, who's one of the imH clinicians that said, if you can make any small shift toward positive, resilient, secure parent child relationships, that attachment relationship is the number one protective factor for people facing any kind of hardship later in life. She said, It's like any investment strategy, the earlier you get in the more interest compounds. And I think it's just another thing of that, like, importance of early intervention, supporting that parent child like dyad. And again, this happens when we think about like, how is that relationship being supported? And again, from a systemic level? How is that relationship being supported? So thinking about, we don't have things like paid parental leave? That's mandatory? So many of those different policies that just don't exist in the United States? And again, like, how are the systems supporting the development of children? Or creating barriers toward kind of healthy development virtual during

Alison Cebulla 22:00

us? Not a good track record for taking care of children?

Bri Twombly 22:04

You do not. So yeah, so go into mental health. Clinicians Keep up the good work.

Alison Cebulla 22:14

Um, so Okay, next one. Area officers learn science of trauma responses in Johnson City, Tennessee. I scan this one because friend of 10 collective Becky hos is based in Johnson City and does a lot of work with police didn't see you in here, Becky. So if you're doing this work, let us know. But a year after a third party investigation found the Johnson City Police Department's handling of sexual assault cases to be inadequate. Offers officers gathered Wednesday at the department's training facility to learn how trauma can cause victims to behave in unexpected ways. So I am positive that some sort of unfortunate event happened to spur the need for a third party investigation. However, I'm glad that happened. And I'm glad that they're learning about trauma and how they can have a better response to handling sexual assault cases which are very traumatic. So it looks like they're learning about the brain science within this training of what is happening. And the reason we love to see brain science included in trauma informed training, is because people can't really argue with it. It's not as touchy feely as some of the other trauma topics. This is what happens to the brain. In trauma. This is what happens when there's too much stress over time. This is how a brain will work every time. When there's trauma, and it's predictable. And once you know what it is you can treat people better. And with more compassion. So that's what we like to see that brain sciences included in the training. So this checks that off, I love that they're holding this institution accountable. And I hope they make some change happen.

Bri Twombly 24:21

Yeah, and I feel like I'm just very much like on a soapbox today for this like systemic level change. But I think the like Harvey Weinstein and like overturning, like the appeal in that, like that's just coming to mind as we're talking about this and just thinking about, again, like so many of those systemic things related to these survivors of sexual assault and just again, like the systems are not set up to be, like, supportive for them in those situations, and there's a lot of retraumatization and That can happen throughout different practices. So I'm just holding that in mind right now, too.

Alison Cebulla 25:08

Yeah, Louise Godbold wrote a good piece for Slate. And so we will also include that in this list of pieces about. She's a Harvey Weinstein survivor and accuser. And she wrote a really good piece about what it's like for actual survivors to have to deal with this and then including when they're asked by the media to comment on it, so highly recommend reading that piece. And we talked last week, we talked about trauma informed media. Yeah, so something to be aware of. Okay, next piece office of the California Surgeon General launches awareness campaign for youth impacted by adverse childhood experiences. So California has really gone full speed ahead with like the ACES aware program, screening aces and clinics, which we've talked about in the past. And so this looks like their latest offering. It's called the live beyond campaign to increase awareness and understanding of adverse childhood experiences toxic stress and their potential impacts. The campaign provides science based healing centered resources for all Californians. More than 250 Young Californians including a Youth Advisory Board share their personal stories, insights and perspectives to inform campaign development. And the goal is to increase knowledge about ACEs toxic stress and the science behind their potential impacts on everyday life, including physical and mental health, interpersonal relationships, and more. Influencing attitudes about help seeking by sharing stories of healing, building skills with accessible tools and resources by providing scientifically proven, culturally relatable, actionable steps to healing, manage stress, and inspiring action to overcome the impacts of ACEs and toxic stress and prevent them from continuing into future generations. So it's always good to raise awareness, knowledge skills. And I what I like about this one is that they included a youth advisory board when they created this program. So that is really wonderful. Again, the people being impacted are being included in the creation process, we'd love to see that. However, when it comes to California, my home state, what's often constantly missing is the vast wealth and income disparity. So this is a state that has some of the biggest wealth in the world, some of the wealthiest counties, wealthiest people, Silicon Valley, and also some of the very poorest people, the poverty rates in California are very high. And when it comes to aces, while aces can impact people of all income levels, poverty is the biggest predictor of having an ACE score, and especially a high aces score. And so when it comes to California, I've been perpetually disappointed in their offerings, being at an individual level and asking children to learn how to manage their stress, which is of course, wonderful. But we need to be talking about poverty, and the massive wealth disparity in California when we have these conversations. So let's definitely help people cope with trauma, but let's also prevent trauma.

Bri Twombly 28:47

I mean, Mic drop. I don't have anything to add to that.

Alison Cebulla 28:54

Yeah, we get riled up about California approach to aces around here. Love the enthusiasm. So I'm addressing childhood trauma. You know, though, you know what, I will say? They're doing more than a lot of other states.

Bri Twombly 29:18

There's something Yeah, yep. Yeah.

Alison Cebulla 29:22

And I do love that Governor Gavin Newsom, it seems that he really does understand a lot of a lot of issues and and finds that it's important and of course, the systemic changes that we like to see can be very difficult to me, so I'm okay addressing childhood trauma before it becomes adult trauma. Um, let's see. Let's see on this one. Let's, are they asking children to do all the work? Let's see, that can be a little a game that we play when we read these who has to do the healing work? United Way's 80 by three initiative um, And I am so sorry, but I never did get to the bottom of why it's called 80 by three provides the resources for trauma informed care in early childhood. Oh, by three years old and must be right. But they're getting 80 of something before they're three, no. Okay, we'll figure it out. Um, so this is so United Way does a lot of trauma informed programs all across the United States. So this, it looks like it's a national level program, they interviewed someone from the Greater Twin Cities in Minnesota, who set and this is Jamie bonds, bonds sick. If we are in a healthy environment, both physically and emotionally, we continue to look for environments that are physically and emotionally safe. The brain is pattern seeking, if we live in chaos, or heavy classroom of chaos, our brain will continue to look for that, and our bodies will continue to bring those behaviors forward. So I love that quote, Jamie gets it. This is a wonderful person to have working on this initiative. We do need to be thinking about healthy environments. So in regards to this program, they said in essence, trauma informed care is about being responsive rather than reactive. So they gave an example in this article. Again, you can read the full piece when you visit our website. So about a boy that would come in to early childhood child care, and throw a tantrum saying that he is hungry. So they listen to him and change the breakfast time so that it was earlier and his tantrums stopped. And it kind of amazed me, because that seems that seems pretty simple. But unfortunately, with so many of the systemic problems when it comes to child care and child education, teachers are often and care providers extremely overwhelmed. And it can be hard to address individual level issues, like if he's hungry, feed him. So it looks like what this intervention is really trying to do say how can we slow down, make incremental small changes as needed, really think about what our students are needing. So that you know what Bree was saying earlier, instead of just sending a kid that sort of a tantrum to detention, let's slow down and be like, there's probably a basic human need that's not being met here. And it does sound simple, but it really is not happening in schools or preschools. It's really not so love to see this, really like that. The educators must be able to access healing for themselves. So that's a huge part of this intervention is actually just making sure that the educators are know how trauma shows up for themselves, I hope they're getting the support that they need. And it looks like it's also a culturally relevant program that is seeking to decolonize mental health. So the environments need to change the adults need to change so that that onus of responsibility is taken away from children, it's too much to ask. So yeah,

Bri Twombly 33:18

I think one of the things from experience within early childhood is that there's this phrase, challenging behaviors, that's used a lot to describe when kids have tantrums when they have aggression. And there's been this change, really, that I saw for the first time from Bridlington center that was talking about addressing behaviors that challenge, and instead of putting, again, like the onus on like the child is, what about this behavior is challenging to me as the adults? What is the aggravating in me? Is there a bias coming up? Is there a belief? Is there something for my own childhood that's coming up? And so I like the shifts in these opportunities to have space to slow down and be reflective, in order to understand like, what's what's happening beneath this behavior? What's that mean? That's maybe there and then how can we support that? And oftentimes, that really helps to kind of address those behaviors that we're seeing from kids because that's how they're communicating to us. They don't know how to come in and say I'm feeling really hungry Can we please move our classroom breakfast time up? Well,

Alison Cebulla 34:35

there's no way they would be able to Yeah. Yeah.

Bri Twombly 34:43

Okay, uh, interviewed week so the first one is about childhood adversity linked to how we engage with health care services. This is research by Bangor, Bangor University and public health Wales. where they found that adults who suffer? Yep, yep. So the UK, thank you for that, who have experienced aces. So things, they looked at things like child maltreatment living in a home and domestic violence, that they reported lower engagement with health care services. So this was a study that looked at 1696 adults living in Wales in England, it was an online survey 50 56% female majority 80 something percent of respondents were white and this I'm going to read a little bit of like their findings just to do it correctly. So they found that individuals who had experienced four or more ace types were over two times more likely to report low comfort and using hospitals in general practice and dental surgeries. Compared to those with no aces. There were also over three times more likely to perceive that health professionals do not care about their health or understand their problems. People who experienced four or more ACEs were also one and a half times more likely to report that they were currently taking prescription medicines, and to report that they did not always take medication as instructed compared to those with zero aces. And then those with four or more ACEs were almost two and a half times more likely to have not received all childhood vaccinations than those with zero aces. So one of the kinds of research studies, researchers and research studies, researchers, Professor Karen Hughes had a really good quote where she said, Aces can also affect how people respond to stress and their trust in others, which may influence their perceptions of services and advice. The development of trauma informed healthcare services may help to improve people's relationships with help help health professionals and adherence to public health guidance. So I really liked that kind of talking about that trauma informed approach. Just the importance of that, like, trust, I'm developing relationships with people makes

Alison Cebulla 37:13

me think of reassessment of the classic marshmallow study. Do you remember when that got re assessed a few years ago, with more of an attachment lens? You remember, the the classic marshmallow study is the give a kid a marshmallow and they say if you don't eat it, and the researcher comes back, you can have another one, or you can just eat it now and you won't get another one. And so the the, the old interpretation was about willpower, and they tracked these kids over time, and the kids with more willpower were more successful later in life. But I guess they looked at it again, with more of a more of an attachment and aces lens and realize that the kids who ate the marshmallow before the researcher came in, didn't trust that the researcher was going to come back. Yep. That's a huge reframe. So it sounds like this study really touches on on that.

Bri Twombly 38:13

Yeah, that that, like a piece about trust, I think is huge. Are they going to come back? I also was like, really curious. I think that this this study is a good kind of beginning place. And I want like a follow up to this study. That's more like qualitative, just about the why. So what what was it that made it maybe so the family wasn't going or they didn't have that trust? And why I'm finding myself curious about that is, even though this study, I would also like the study to have some more racial diversity to it, than it did. But I'm curious about if there was more racial diversity to this study, especially then what people's why wise would have been just thinking about the racial disparities and trauma and racial trauma that have happened within healthcare, and how that also contributes to that, like, just mistrust. And we're not going there, I think at the United States to just thinking about mandated reporting, and like, what that could look like and how that could impact families. So again, what are some of those larger systems and like practices that exist? That could be contributing to that? Why? Absolutely. Then the next one is, this is actually from October of 2023, in the BMC, Oral Health Journal, but there's a recent article about it, where it got brought to my attention, but it's talking about associations of ACEs with Karis, which is decay tooth decay. I'm in toothbrushing, and adolescents. So they asked 6351 Young Norwegian participants to kind of complete a survey. And what they found in the results was that young individuals with a background of ACEs were more likely to report not brushing their teeth daily. And then among kind of other factors, young people aged 16 to 17, who experienced bullying, were more likely to hurt bad teeth cleaning habits. So they, what they found was

Alison Cebulla 40:39

it touches every single last. Oh, does it touch on tooth brushing habits? Yes, it does.

Bri Twombly 40:49

And so the researchers said, they can't tell from this research, if like, experiencing an ace does lead to the other, right. And that's what like the larger ACE study to there isn't any like this, if you have this, then this happens. It just there's an association, there's a chance a higher risk that it could happen. So that's really what they found. They also found that the higher number of aces, someone had the stronger effect it had on their tooth brushing habits, and decay. And they really talked about how dental health clinics need to take a holistic approach. Talking about remaining curious, so when children come in with decay, being curious about multiple reasons why that could be happening. Instead of just kind of focusing in on like poor diet or poor dental hygiene habits. One of the quote said, creating an environment where young people feel safe enough to be honest about their habits and share their experiences is a prerequisite for helping certain vulnerable patients. So again, what is that environment feeling? Like? How is that trust being developed? And then also adding in some like language for people to use in the clinic. So instead of saying things like, you need to be better at brushing, brushing your teeth and flossing, which I know I've heard you need to be better at flossing, like,

Unknown Speaker 42:16

right three times in your life.

Bri Twombly 42:20

Instead, being curious in saying in wondering things like, why has it become like more difficult for you to clean your teeth? And just wondering for ourselves, like, what might this patient have experienced, that has caused this change? And kind of like their dental hygiene? So I love that. And I love that. Yeah, I love that the article gave like some examples of like, how this could be implemented in practice and right, like, how are we changing the way that we're acting in thinking, to kind of support this new research and really put that into practice quickly? Yeah. So then, I think this is our, our last study for this week. But this is from the February 2024 edition of development, and psychopathology. And so they looked at 561 adopted children, their birth parents, and then their adoptive parents over a decade. And they collected this data at like different time points, when the children were six, or seven, and then again at age 11. And what they discovered was that there was a link between birth mothers who experienced stressful childhood events, and then their own children's behavioral problems. So they found that this was holding true even though the children were adopted as newborns. They were raised by their adoptive parents, and they were never directly exposed to the stressors that their birth mothers have experienced. They also found that if the child's adoptive mother had experienced a stressful events as youth, then the child's behavior issues were even kind of bigger. With that, so if birth mom and adoptive mom both had stressful events, then there were often kind of bigger behaviors. So they saw challenges around age seven related to what they called effort, effort, full control. So that is things like being able to wait before a new activity, being able to stop being able to like hear that they're told no. And like, do and stop in or be whatever they kind of know is kind of indicating. And then around age 11, their children were often showing more externalizing behavior. So that's kind of more of the aggressive behavior of rule breaking those types of things. So since the biological mother was not the one parenting the child, this they really said is consistent with a genetic Transmission pathway making stress in one generation, two externalizing problems.

Alison Cebulla 45:06

It was a while.

Bri Twombly 45:09

Yeah. And so this one was really interesting to read about that, and just the way that our bodies and our genes can change due to stress. Thinking about what that means for our children for future unborn children, based on what's going on in our bodies, it again made me think about the importance of strengthening those positive childhood experiences, those protective factors. And then also thinking about, we know that if the mother is pregnant, and is experiencing stress or trauma, that can have a direct impact on the developing baby, within side, the mom, so just thinking about so many different layers, and how even when a baby is born, their genes can already be kind of predisposed in different ways, based on the experiences that the mom had. So really interesting one, that one

Alison Cebulla 46:07

is so interesting. Wow. Amazing, amazing studies this week.

Bri Twombly 46:14

Yeah, there are some really good studies this week. So we will end with our two psychological safety. So I'll do one, and then I'll hand it over to Allison to kind of close things out for us for this week. But the first is just talking about how discrimination is not reported by the majority of employees. So this was something that they did in the UK, where they talked about how three in 10 UK workers say that they've been discriminated against. But 64% of those who experienced discrimination did not report it. So they wanted to understand a little bit about like, why maybe that was not being reported. So they talked about fearing like that their jobs would be at risk. They talked about just the treatment that you could receive, if you reported it. And so because we want to keep our job, because we rely on it financially, sometimes, we end up just kind of letting that behavior slide. Because we need that money, we need that income. Sometimes we also just want to keep the peace and instead of risking relationships. And then they also talked about organizational hierarchies, and how those can impact. So if someone who is more senior than you is the one who makes the comment, if you don't have trust in faith, that your organization has a zero tolerance policy, and a commitment to psychological safety, then, often people are just feeling fearing what could happen. If they do report it, what the fallout could look like. Especially speaking against up against someone that's in a senior position, and the impact that that could have on their career. So they just don't report it. And so it really talked about like HR teams like helping to support that trust, by making sure that there are clear reporting channels that organizations are holding people accountable, when there is discrimination, and then again, that like commitment to psychological safety. So hopefully there are environments where that behavior isn't happening, because there's that safety. And when there is there is you you have a sense of trust that you can report that and it won't be you won't have any negative repercussions toward you.

Alison Cebulla 48:38

Yeah, that's so tough. And that's a big component of coercive control. Is that economic control? Yeah. So if you don't feel like it's a see, and this is at the heart of psychological safety when people are like, well, what is that? Can you push back at your organization without fear of retribution? is the number one. Yeah. Okay, so closing us out here with with a dark 180 2% of the workforce is at risk for burnout. So this was a piece that came out in Forbes. Just a few days ago, there was a 2024 global talent Trends report by Mercer, a comprehensive study involving over 12,000 participants globally, globally. I want to know where including 9500 employees at for investors 845 C suite leaders and 1900 HR leaders and it delivers a sobering revelation. More than 80% of employees are at risk of burnout this year. This complex issue stems from a multitude of factors including excessive workload 37% Exhaust Jen 40% and financial strain 43%. And I can I can, I can affirm the global nature of this, I was on a run today I'm presently in Serbia. And I stopped to pet someone's cute dog. And we ended up talking about, you know, Serbian versus US economic conditions. And I guess they're really feeling the strain here as well. And so it does seem to be a global a global issue where this workers are feeling that their paychecks are not going very far that there is this wealth hoarding at the top that's preventing people from having access to all sorts of things that can that contribute to life satisfaction, mental wellness. So just on my, on my pet the dog excursion today was was finding this to be true. So, let's see, psychological safety had four distinguishing features and feelings desired by employees, one, I can bring my authentic self to work, to, I feel empowered to make decisions independently. Okay, three, our work and work practices promote autonomy and dignity, love to see that and for I can voice my opinion openly without fear of repercussion. There it is, um, and so 46% of employees prioritize well being benefits over pay increases, according to the report, although it is interesting, because financial strain is a big component there. So, yes, you're not it's like, we all have to make a certain base level to pay our bills. And you know, but then after that, I think people really do prioritize the right boss over the right salary I've seen, I have seen people take pay cuts to leave abusive work environments. So yeah. So again, you can reach out to us and talk about how we can help your workplace with psychological safety. We would love to help. It's all fixable. And then you will have employees who are happier, they stay around longer and they're more productive. So talk to us about what 10 collective can do for your organization. Thank you so much for tuning in this week. A lot of really good stuff. That was That was great, Bree. So we will see you all next week. Okay, bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Alison Cebulla
Previous

Community Care: Putting the Kinship Worldview into Practice
Next

Healing Horizons: Weekly News & Research - April 25th, 2024