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KARA (Kids At Risk Action) tracks current news about at risk children bringing transparency and  attention to our youngest and most vulnerable  citizens. KARA’s reporting is only sampling of what should be reported –  the great majority of child trauma & abuse is never known.

American states are struggling to find answers for ending adverse childhood experiences and saving at risk children by reversing the explosive growth of child abuse and neglect.  Today, many state ward children are the 4th and 5th generation of abused children raising their own families without parenting skills and with serious drug, alcohol and mental health issues

37% of children overall and 57% of Black children are reported to child protection services in America by the time they turn 18.  (American Journal of Public Health 1.17)

12 million children a year are reported to child protection services each year and in many states, 1/3 of foster children are required to take psychotropic medicines

ALL ADULTS ARE THE PROTECTORS OF ALL CHILDREN

Caseworkers get resources to better help children in trauma

Great Falls Tribune

The Department of Public Health and Human Services is partnering with Billings Clinic and a program within the University of Montana School of Social Work to hold monthly video conferences offering education and feedback from national experts on child trauma. The training sessions include at least …

Caseworkers get resources to better help children in trauma – CapitalGazette.com

Consultation available for difficult child protection cases – KULR8.com | News, Weather & Sports in … – KULR-TV

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Opinion | Home visits a key to trauma-informed care for kids

The Commercial Appeal

As evidence of the impact of childhood trauma continues to permeate child-serving institutions, teachers, social workers, pediatricians and caregivers are changing the way they interact with children who have been subjected to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Of the many techniques and …

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Consultation Available for Difficult Child Protection Cases

U.S. News & World Report

The health department is partnering with Billings Clinic and a program within the University of Montana School of Social Work to hold monthly video conferences offering education and feedback from national experts on child trauma. The training sessions include at least one case discussion.

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New Washington Law Aims To Help Children Who Experience Trauma

Spokane Public Radio

A new law in Washington state is aimed at helping kids who have experienced trauma succeed in preschool. It’s focused on training caregivers … “The child actually took a small plastic knife and was holding it up to the neck of one of the little girls in the classroom,” Irvis said. That’s what he had seen his …

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Provo man charged with child abuse homicide following infant death

fox13now.com

The infant was taken to the Utah Valley Hospital, and was later flown to Primary Children’s Hospital by Life Flight. Hospital staff at Primary Chidren’s told police they found severe trauma to the outside of the child’s head and bleeding in the child’s brain. The infant later died at the hospital after being on life …

Provo man charged with child abuse homicide – KSL.com

Dozens rally to prevent child abuse – WLKY Louisville

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SJSD Hosts Trauma Training Workshop

KQ2.com (press release) (blog)

West said one of the biggest indicators of toxic stress in a child’s life is sleeping problems and behavioral outbursts. According to West, children who have experienced trauma or extreme stress often exhibit behavioral signs like irritability, clinginess, aggressiveness and intrusive thoughts. “It’s not that we …

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Teachers get insight for working with traumatized children

Chillicothe Gazette

The session was led by a pair from Findlay City Schools who have trained their district’s 800-member staff to recognize when a child’s behavior may be the result of trauma or home-life circumstances, how to address it differently, and when to refer for additional services like counseling. “It’s really about …

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Let’s make life better for kids: No more trauma

Orlando Sentinel

Never has it been more important to focus on creating a more trauma-informed culture in Central Florida than now. Bad events anywhere are visible 24-7 to adults and children all over the globe. In our own community, we have daily news cycles of the trauma and displacement of over 100,000 people …

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Child protection specialists across Montana have new tool to get help make difficult choices

Helena Independent Record

The Child and Family Services ECHO project, launched in February, connects medical experts from the University of Montana’s Center for Children, Families and Workforce Development, the … It involved a child who’d been exposed to extreme trauma in the past and is still dealing with symptoms.

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Impacts Of Child Trauma And Ways To Recover

WCBI

GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Over the weekend, two heartbreaking situations took place across our viewing area, involving young children. One tragic case is out of Monroe County, where a 9-year-old boy allegedly shot and killed his 14-year-old sister and in Union County, a child was an …

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Robert Feikema: Dealing with and preventing childhood trauma

Winston-Salem Journal

On Sunday, CBS’s “60 Minutes” aired an important segment on childhood trauma and resilience. The story was the brain child of Oprah Winfrey, who said, “Trauma leaves a hole in the soul, and unless you fix the trauma that has caused people to be the way they are, you’re working on the wrong thing.

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Countering the Effects of Childhood Trauma

North Carolina Health News

At the Hope Center last Tuesday, nearly 100 people gathered to watch “Resilience,” a film that details the genesis and growth of using the knowledge about ACEs in approaching kids who’ve experienced trauma. After the screening, Hope Center staff and others discussed how this knowledge is being …

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Report: Drugs or alcohol factor into half of Texas child abuse and neglect deaths

Texas Tribune

The number of Texas children dying from abuse and neglect decreased by 22.5 percent in fiscal year 2017, according to a state report, but drug and alcohol use among caregivers is still leading to deaths from trauma, accidental smothering while sleeping and auto accidents, among other causes.

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Moderate-Severe Brain Trauma in Children Linked to Increased Risk for ADHD

PR Newswire (press release)

Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center said the observational study used an analysis of information for 187 children ages 3 to 7 hospitalized overnight for traumatic brain injury or orthopaedic injury at four Ohio hospitals from 2003 to 2008. Forty-eight (25.7 percent) of the children …

Traumatic Brain Injury in Children Can Lead to ADHD Years Later – Healthline

Kids with severe head injuries may develop ADHD later on, study finds – Valley News Live

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Senate backs program that would prevent childhood trauma

vtdigger.org

Initiatives in the bill include strengthening support for children of incarcerated parents, linking pediatric primary care to social services, providing “trauma-informed” training to child care providers, improving opioid-abuse treatment, and including questions about adverse childhood experiences in the …

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Emergency foster home to open June 1

Temple Daily Telegram

“We want to provide an environment for a foster child to thrive with the least amount of trauma,” Ocasio said. “The life of a foster child is traumatic. They get yanked from their home and are separated from their family, their school, their friends and are put in another house with strangers and new rules.

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Funda Wazi Foundation organizing Teachers’ Mentoring Program to help avoid child abuse and …

Guardian (blog)

Young children exposed to five or more traumatic events in the first three years of childhood face a 76% possibility of having one or more delays in their language, emotional or brain development. The traumatic events experienced during childhood also causes an increased the risk for the following …

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There’s No Easy Way to Talk About Violence With Your Kids—But You Have to Do It Anyway

SELF

“No matter what age, you need to avoid avoidance, because that’s what makes anxiety and trauma grow,” Jacob Ham, Ph.D., director of the Center for Child Trauma and Resilience and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in NYC, tells SELF.

Letter to editor: Gun violence in schools must be stopped – Daily Local News

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Baby simulator shows dangers of head trauma caused by shaking

KMVT

The baby is a simulator, with a clear head, so that participants can see the brain inside and the space between the skull. An infant’s brain is like Jell-O inside, so when it is shaken, it can cause serious injuries very quickly. Using lights, you can see what area of the brain is impacted during the trauma.

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Report: How Early Childcare Providers Can Help Young Children of Trauma

Salud America!

Most early childcare providers deal with children who have experienced or will experience neglect, poverty, or other traumatic events that can harm long-term health. But not all providers know how to best help these children. Fortunately, a new report from Child Trends and the National Center for …

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Treating childhood trauma

CBS News

In 1850, a Catholic orphanage called St. Aemilian was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to take in children whose parents had died in a cholera epidemic. 168 Years later, that same organization — now known as “SaintA” — is still finding shelter for thousands of children who need it, often kids who have …

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Oprah Putting Trauma-Informed Care, and Bruce Perry, Front and Center

The Chronicle of Social Change

Winfrey focuses on the research of Dr. Bruce Perry, head of the Houston-based Child Trauma Academy, and the programs that have begun to absorb the lessons of his work into service models to help children and families. It is a major piece of publicity for a neuroscientist that has quietly become one of …

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Abuse survivors, trauma experts push for Child Victims Act

Buffalo News

Melanie Blow was 24 years old when she identified to police the man she said raped her as a teenager, a man who was now suspected of abusing another child. “I just figured that a conviction was a sure thing and I was going to get my day in court and this was all going to end,” said Blow, a Rochester …

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Childhood trauma changes the way kids brains are wired causing lasting health issues

AZFamily

In their Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) research study, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that there is a significant relationship between toxic stress in a child’s life, their future overall health and their ability to focus in school. The ACE study has conducted a list of ten …

Arizona ranks last in nation for adverse childhood experiences – KTAR.com

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Childhood trauma and chronic pain: What’s the relationship?

Missouri State News

The Children’s Bureau’s most recent child abuse statistics reveal that 7.2 million children were reported as abused in 2015. This number had unfortunately grown from the previous report by more than half a million children. Dr. Paul Durham is a distinguished professor of biology at Missouri State …

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Clark County experts: Overdoses traumatic for children

Springfield News Sun

Children who witness overdoses experience trauma, Clark County experts said, and need mental health assessments and treatment. A parent in an overdose situation is clearly in a crisis and might appear dead, said Pam Meermans, deputy director of the Family and Children Services Division at Clark …

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Oklahomans gather to discuss responding to childhood trauma

NewsOK.com

Leaders with the Potts Family Foundation hope Oklahoma can increase its collaborative focus on preventing and healing early childhood trauma. A crowd of more than 500 this week at a summit on the topic indicates growing interest. “We need to help people see that they are not alone, they are more …

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Treating childhood trauma

CBS News

No longer a residential orphanage, SaintA primarily places orphaned, abandoned, neglected and abused children in foster homes, and then coordinates their care. On any given day, it’s looking after some 2,000 children, almost all of whom are part of a 21st century epidemic of childhood trauma.

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Initiative Focuses on Trauma

The Missourian

Trauma is a broad term, Thoenen said, and includes the more obvious issues of child abuse and neglect, but also homelessness, lack of food, a parent’s death, divorce, a major car accident, natural disasters like the flooding that has occurred in this county, and family substance abuse, violence and/or …

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Why “Toxic Stress” in Children Is More Common Than You’d Think

Babble (blog)

Babble is partnering with PACER Center to help readers better understand and navigate the needs of young children. This month, we’re talking about the warning signs of emotional trauma. Heartbreaking though it may be, many children experience stressful events in their lives that can be traumatic.

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Understand Your Foster Child’s Trauma: 3 Books to Help You Meet Your Child’s Needs

New Horizons

Helping a child who has been through a traumatic experience such as physical and sexual abuse or neglect takes guts. Your child’s experiences have shaped how he or she acts and responds to the world around them. Read these books to better understand and ultimately help heal your child.

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Watch Oprah Discuss Child Trauma and the ACE Survey Here!

ACEsConnection

Watch Oprah Discuss Child Trauma and the ACE Survey Here! Samantha Sangenito 50 minutes ago. Watch Oprah’s report on 60 Minutes: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/o…ng-childhoodtrauma/. Like This Blog PostFollow This Blog Post. Likes (1). Laura Pinhey. Views: 30 …

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Oprah reports on childhood trauma’s long-term effects

CBS News

A leading authority on childhood trauma tells Oprah Winfrey that adverse events early in a child’s development increase the child’s chances of experiencing physical, social and mental problems later in life. Winfrey speaks to Dr. Bruce Perry, a psychiatristand neuroscientist who authorities have …

Oprah Winfrey explores revolutionary approach to childhood trauma for “60 Minutes” – CBS News

Oprah explores revolutionary approach to childhood trauma – WDEF News 12

Oprah Winfrey shifts views on people, philanthropy after studying childhood trauma – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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The Trauma of Child Trafficking, Hidden in Plain Sight

The Epoch Times

WASHINGTON—Human trafficking—whether sex or labor, adult or child—has devastating consequences on the victims. “We see an extraordinary amount of physical and mental health effects from child and adult trafficking,” said Dr. Jordan Greenbaum, medical director of the Child Protection Center at …

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Washtenaw County program to alert schools when children witness trauma

MLive.com

ANN ARBOR, MI – Children were outside playing on a sunny Sunday afternoon last fall when gunshots rang out, killing a man in the parking lot of their Washtenaw County apartment complex. What happened next in the story, as told by leaders of an informational forum held Tuesday, Feb. 27 by the …

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Barry Crimmins, comedian who transformed childhood trauma into advocacy, dies at 64

Washington Post

Barry Crimmins, a standup comedian who was at the center of Boston’s comedy scene for years and whose political satire took a serious turn in the 1990s when he became an advocate for abused children after revealing that he had been raped as a child, died Feb. 28 in Syracuse, N.Y. He was 64.

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Oprah Winfrey says studying childhood trauma in Milwaukee ‘definitively’ changed her life

USA TODAY

Oprah Winfrey said Tuesday that a newfound understanding of childhood trauma has “definitively changed” the way she sees people, the way she wants her school in South Africa to operate, and the way she will direct her future philanthropic efforts. Winfrey is devoting an upcoming 60 Minutes segment …

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Barry Crimmins, comedian who transformed childhood trauma into advocacy, dies at 64

Chicago Tribune

In the 1990s, while living outside Cleveland, Crimmins began using the then-new medium of the Internet to join chat rooms with other survivors of childhood trauma. What he found was an unregulated marketplace of pornography and pedophiles. Posing as a 12-year-old boy, he recorded the identities of …

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Brain/Trauma 201 class offered Thursday

Newnan Times-Herald

The training session teaches participants about the physical effects childhood trauma can have on the developing brain, and actions they can take to promote resilience to support the physical and psychological safety of children and families who have experienced child trauma and child traumatic stress.

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Barry Crimmins, comedian who transformed childhood trauma into advocacy, dies at 64

Frederick News Post

Barry Crimmins, a standup comedian who was at the center of Boston’s comedy scene for years and whose political satire took a serious turn in the 1990s when he became an advocate for abused children after revealing that he had been raped as a child, died Feb. 28 in Syracuse, New York He was 64.

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Court hearing: Shawnee man bound over for trial in toddler’s death

Shawnee News Star

Both are accused in the first-degree murder count of acting conjointly with each in the death of a child, court records show, which resulted from the willful or malicious injuring, torturing, maiming or using of unreasonable force when causing blunt force trauma to the head and torso of the child, court filings …

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A Pediatrician’s Advice for Treating Student Trauma

Education Week

Even for a pediatrician like Nadine Burke Harris, who works with children who experience trauma, the data are startling: Nearly two-thirds of adults report having at least one adverse childhood experience, or ACE, such as abuse, neglect, or a family crisis. But these challenges aren’t limited to the world …

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Child Trauma VISTA (Draft)

SERVE Philadelphia

Want to volunteer or get involved in Philly? SERVE Philadelphia can help! Find resources to help make a difference in your community.

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CSU’s Child Trauma and Resilience Assessment Center honored

Source

“Over the last 3 years, CTRAC clinicians and supervisors have been working above and beyond to build our new Resiliency Center to support children and families who have experienced trauma. In this center we are training clinicians to provide trauma-informed care in agencies and organizations …

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A foster mothers’ tale of parenting a traumatized child

Kenya Broadcasting Corporation

The small frail looking boy seated on the couch at the corner of the house is fully engrossed in what appears to be his favorite daytime activity – watching cartoons. His eyes fixated on the Television screen, his palm supporting the left side of his chin as he leans in and totally glued, he occasionally lets …

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Road accident child victims account for nine percent of trauma patients : HMC

Gulf Times

Approximately one in 11 trauma patients seen at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC)’s Hamad Trauma Center is a child victim with a road traffic injury (RTI), HMC has said. Also, only one out of seven children who die in Qatar from an RTI is treated at a hospital, and the majority sustains injuries so …

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Snohomish County teachers studying impacts of trauma

The Daily Herald

Larsen is one of many people involved in an initiative called “trauma-informed communities.” It has been taking hold and growing across the country, including in Snohomish County, where 17 schools are on board. Leading the local effort is the county’s human services department and children’s …

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CoastLine: Childhood Trauma Can Change DNA, Adult Health Outcomes; Building Resilience Is Key

WHQR

North Carolina’s latest child health report card, just out this week, gives the state an ‘F’ in “Housing and Economic Security” due to the high percentage of children living in low-income homes and neighborhoods. Children from families that are not financially secure, according to NC Child, fare worse in …

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How Would a Robot Process the Trauma of War? This Powerful Ad Shows Us

Adweek

It’s a reductive question, given that using robots in a military contexts begs a far more serious one: How will we deal with the effects of robotics in warfare? But charity organization War Child U.K. uses a childlike approach in “Escape Robot” to great effect. Created by agency Raw London and directed by …

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This child psychologist went to school at Stoneman Douglas. Her advice on how kids can cope

USA TODAY

Other areas of the country where gun violence is more common and where children have more experience with it in some ways can make this event even more traumatizing for them to witness. Kids who have not been through a trauma before and generally do not fear for their safety — these are …

After Florida shooting, ‘Honor how kids want to deal with their feelings’ – Inquirer.net

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After Parkland shooting, Penn prof of childhood trauma wrote op-ed on health consequences

The Daily Pennsylvanian

A Penn professor wrote an op-ed denouncing gun violence and calling it an epidemic that leads to long-term psychological repercussions for everyone involved. Steven Berkowitz, an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine and the director of the Penn Center for …

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BY Spencer Durham – sdurham@chronicle-tribune.com

Chronicle-Tribune

Traumatic experiences can include witnessing domestic violence and growing up in a household where mental, emotional and physical abuse take place. Other environmental factors, such as poverty, adversely impacts children, as well as adults, who have experienced trauma as well, Stiles said.

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Why Surviving A Traumatic Childhood Takes A Toll On The Mind And Body

KERA News

On how to help children get past this: “Early detection and early intervention makes a big difference. And for parents who are out there, who are experiencing this, one of the things that’s really important is to understand that in order to be a buffer to a child’s stress response, we have to have our own …

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Trauma-Informed Integrated Care

National Child Traumatic Stress Network

By age 16, two-thirds of children in the US are exposed to a potentially traumatic event. For many children, these traumatic events can be associated with serious and life-long medical and mental health problems,1,2 such as depression,3,4 suicidal ideation,5,6 alcohol and sub- stance use,7,4 obesity,8 …

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Senior Training Consultant WA SYD VIC NT | The Australian Childhood Foundation

HOBAN Recruitment

The organisation has developed a reputation for providing high quality education and training programs for a range of professionals on child abuse trauma and related issues. It is a Registered Training e Organisation and has also hosted a number of national child abuse and child trauma conferences.

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