Healing Horizons: Weekly News & Research - October 3, 2024
Welcome to our weekly news show, Healing Horizons, hosted by experts Bri Twombly and Alison Cebulla. Dive into the most recent updates on trauma-informed care practices, positive and adverse childhood experiences, and the critical concept of psychological safety. Each episode is designed to keep you informed on the latest research, trends, and best practices in these essential areas. Whether you're a healthcare professional, educator, or simply passionate about mental health, our show provides valuable insights and practical advice. Stay tuned for in-depth discussions and expert interviews that will enhance your understanding and application of trauma-informed care and psychological safety.
Here are the news stories and research we featured:
Kennesaw State’s SAFE Center: A beacon of safety and support in Georgia
The Safety, Advocacy, Forensics, Empowerment (SAFE) Center provides comprehensive services to students and employees who are victims of crime on or off campus. What sets the SAFE Center apart from other campus-based sexual assault and domestic violence centers in the state is KSU’s law enforcement-based, collaborative approach to providing services.
In partnership with the Wellstar School of Nursing, the SAFE Center engages in interdisciplinary treatment strategies to effectively provide trauma-informed and victim-centered care and assist with restoring the victim’s well-being. The center’s team believes in a holistic approach to help people cope with the negative effects of victimization such as PTSD, poor academic performance, depression, anxiety, and substance use.
The SAFE Center’s staff are highly trained in providing trauma-informed advocacy support, medical care, counseling, support groups, and workshops. The staff is supported by two Wellstar School of Nursing faculty members who are certified as sexual assault nurse examiners.
ournal of Community Safety and Wellbeing, September 2024
In this article, the authors explore the early integration of trauma-informed policing into the training of police recruits in Tasmania since 2023.
Trauma-informed policing is an approach that recognizes the psychological, emotional, and physical impact of trauma on individuals and supports a more compassionate and empathetic response from law enforcement at various stages of the policing process. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of mental health and well-being for officers themselves
The training aims to equip recruits with knowledge to recognize signs of trauma, understand its effects on behaviour, and respond appropriately.
The survey evaluation of all training conducted in 2023 received a 70.8% response rate and indicated significant satisfaction with the training.
The training and its evaluation, to date, have demonstrated promising results, both in terms of enhancing the understanding and sensitivity of police recruits towards trauma and in providing a new level of sophistication to their interactions with vulnerable people.
New program at two South-Western schools addressing preschooler trauma
South-Western City Schools in Columbus, Ohio is partnering with the Buckeye Ranch, a nonprofit behavioral and mental health services facility, on a program to help pre-K students and their families in the district proactively tackle childhood trauma before kindergarten.
The program aims to close a gap in mental health services for young children in a proactive way.
"Oftentimes, when our students are struggling — our preschoolers are struggling — that's because our families are struggling, right? We need to not look at kids in a vacuum, (and) look at what everybody has going on." Andrew Weisberger, director of education and early childhood mental health
The program, called the PRESCHOOL program, seeks to equip Black students and their families with the tools they need to thrive in the kindergarten environment and beyond, and possibly avoid making existing mental health problems worse by over-disciplining children.
Black children are disproportionately affected by disciplining and expulsions from the youngest levels of education, research shows.
A substantial part of the program is working with parents or caregivers who may have trauma responses themselves in how they are raising their children, giving them the parenting tools and tips they need to manage things like temper tantrums or problems at school.
"We see that oftentimes parents will be triggered by their child's behaviors because it's bringing up some kind of trauma from them, because we know trauma is generational," Weisberger said.
BMC Psychology, October 2024
The aim of this study was to examine how emotional abuse and neglect experiences may lead to the occurrence of psychological distress in pregnant women, and whether prenatal attachment might explain this association.
128 Italian pregnant women ranging in age from 21 to 46 years
Researchers found a link between childhood neglect and perinatal psychological distress and a link between childhood neglect and prenatal attachment scores.
No significant correlations were found for emotional abuse
Prenatal maternal attachment was shown to be the result of the relationship between neglect and perinatal psychological distress.
The transition to motherhood is a sensitive period, particularly for women who have experienced abuse and neglect during childhood. These experiences may negatively impact a woman’s disposition to emotionally and behaviorally engage in the formation of a bond with their unborn baby.
Study reveals high prevalence of childhood trauma among Taiwan’s female drug users
The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences among women with histories of drug use should be considered when shaping drug harm prevention policies, according to the lead researcher of a study that highlighted the link. Researchers believe factoring negative childhood experiences into the planning of prevention and rehabilitation services could improve long-term outcomes for women.
The recommendation comes after survey results revealed that over 75% of women with a history of drug use had experienced at least one “highly stressful or potentially traumatic” event before the age of 12
The findings were published by the government non-profit National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) and based on responses from 219 women between the ages of 16 and 45 with histories of drug use.
Incorporating these findings into policy could pave the way for “trauma-informed care” and enhance the understanding of the unique challenges faced by female drug users.
Brain, behavior and immunity, January 2025
This prospective study, examined the associations between combined exposure to sexual and physical/emotional abuse during childhood with risk of post-COVID-19 conditions (aka long COVID) in adulthood. Additionally, we explored the extent to which lifestyle, health-related and psychological factors explain this association.
Of 2851 participants, the mean age was 55.8 years; 97.8 % were females, and 96.5 % identified as white.
Researchers observed a dose-dependent relationship between severity of childhood abuse and post-COVID conditions
participants with severe versus no childhood abuse had a 42 % higher subsequent risk of post-COVID conditions
Key lifestyle, health-related, and psychological factors led to 25.5 % of this association.
The study found that physical, emotional, and sexual abuse were independently associated with post-COVID conditions. This means that any form of childhood abuse could increase the risk of long-term COVID-19 symptoms.
Despite the important insights this study provides, there are some limitations that should be considered. First, the sample was predominantly composed of white women, most of whom were healthcare professionals. This raises questions about whether the findings would apply to more diverse populations, including men or individuals from different racial or socioeconomic backgrounds. The researchers noted that future studies should aim to include more diverse groups to better understand how childhood abuse might affect different segments of the population.
Latent Profiles of Childhood Adversity, Adolescent Mental Health, and Neural Network Connectivity
Psychiatry, August 2024
University of Michigan
The study tracked over 4,000 youths from birth to age 15, examining how a range of childhood adversities—such as maltreatment, family violence and maternal depression—affect later mental health and brain function.
Using a clustering method, researchers identified four profiles of childhood adversity:
Low adversity: Minimal exposure to adverse experiences
Medium adversity: Moderate levels across various domains
Maternal depression: Moderate adversity with high levels of maternal depression
High adversity: Significant adversity across all measured domains
The findings showed that youth exposed to high levels of adversity in multiple contexts (home, family, neighborhood) experienced worse mental health outcomes and altered brain function.
An important finding was that even in the absence of high levels of other types of adversities, youth growing up with mothers with depression showed similar mental health symptoms and emotion-related brain connectivity patterns to those youth exposed to the highest risk factors. This underscores the critical contribution of maternal mental health on children’s emotional development.
Intergenerational Chain of Violence, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Elder Abuse Perpetration
JAMA Network, September 2024
New research reveals that people who experience adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a higher likelihood of committing abuse against older adults.
The study had 13,318 survey responses by women and men (almost evenly split) aged 20 to 64 in Japan and found that 8.5% of those with ACEs admitted to physical or verbal abuse of seniors.
“Our study confirmed that people who had adverse childhood experiences (when aged zero to18), had a higher risk of committing violence and verbal abuse against adults aged 65 and older.
The risk of perpetuating elder abuse was over three times higher for people with one ACE and almost eight times higher for people with two or more ACEs, compared to those without.
Mental health and personal well-being were significant contributors, as ACEs often lead to poor physical and mental health.
Other factors which most notably contribute to whether a person with ACEs committed elder abuse included depression, other mental illnesses and how respondents rated their health. Lesser but still relevant factors were living arrangements, marital status, income and whether the person went out at least once a month.
The findings highlight the importance of understanding the cycle of violence and developing support systems to break this intergenerational pattern.
Science and Engineering Ethics, August 2024
To better understand the ethics of team decision-making, researchers interviewed scientists working at a public research university, asking them about their experiences and observations with ethical dilemmas within research.
The most prevalent dilemma reported was research misconduct, with 75 percent of participants reporting issues around data fabrication, falsifying information, or copying work from another researcher.
The second most reported ethical dilemma was around the protection of human subjects, with 55% of researchers saying they had experienced an issue where a team member was not following ethical procedures surrounding the protection of the rights and welfare of study participants. The participants said that issues could become awkward if the person acting unethically had more seniority over the other members.
Watts also emphasized the importance of fostering an environment where everyone feels empowered to voice concerns.“It’s important for teams to create a culture of psychological safety within the research group so that people without power feel comfortable speaking up,” Watts said.
