A recent issue of Virginia Child Protection Newsletter focused on the mental health needs of children entering foster care and children at risk to enter care.
The article explores:
- The range of mental health needs
- Ways to address those needs using evidence-based practices
- Ways to work with the children
- Methods for parent and foster parent training
http://psychweb.cisat.jmu.edu/graysojh/volume%2085.pdf
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Emotional Resiliency Resources while pursuing Higher Ed
Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Former Foster Youth in Campus Support Programs,December 2, 2008.
California College Pathways conducted a web seminar to provide ongoing learning opportunities and resources for professionals working with current and former foster youth. Mental health experts from Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside discussed the relationship between mental health support and educational attainment for foster youth in higher education. They shared their evidence-based approach to addressing the mental health needs of former foster youth on campus.
Information provided in the training included:
- Issues foster youth present when transitioning into college.
- Strategies for working with foster care with mental health needs (e.g. medication management, therapy).
- Signs and symptoms of depression and anxiety.
- How to refer a student psychological services.
- Types of counseling and support resources are available on college campuses
- Issues foster youth present when transitioning into college.
- Strategies for working with foster care with mental health needs (e.g. medication management, therapy).
- Signs and symptoms of depression and anxiety.
- How to refer a student psychological services.
- Types of counseling and support resources are available on college campuses
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
A sense of home in exile
Quote from the article A Sense of Home in Exile by Sandra Dudley:
Displacement inevitably complicates and changes people's relationships with objects and places, as well as with each other. In order to live as 'normally' as possible within a new place, Karenni refugees seek to make it familiar in material ways...
-They are attempting to connect two points in space and time.
-They affirm their connections through the ritual of food, clothing and everyday activities.
-They are re-creating a sense of home.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Thoughts on Easter 2009
“Our scars have the power to remind us that the past was real.” – Red Dragon
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Thoughts on the shift from victim to survivor
"The 'big click' for survivors comes after seeing a purpose for the pain, and a venue to help others. When pain seems meaningless, folks fall into despair."
~ Lisa Dickson
~ Lisa Dickson
Friday, March 06, 2009
After Abuse, Changes in the Brain
After Abuse, Changes in the Brain
By Benedict Carey, NY Times, Feb. 23, 2009.
For years, psychiatrists have known that children who are abused or neglected run a high risk of developing mental problems later in life, from anxiety and depression to substance abuse and suicide.
The connection is not surprising, but it raises a crucial scientific question: Does the abuse cause biological changes that may increase the risk for these problems?
Over the past decade or so, researchers at McGill University in Montreal, led by Michael Meaney, have shown that affectionate mothering alters the expression of genes in animals, allowing them to dampen their physiological response to stress. These biological buffers are then passed on to the next generation: rodents and nonhuman primates biologically primed to handle stress tend to be more nurturing to their own offspring, Dr. Meaney and other researchers have found.
Now, for the first time, they have direct evidence that the same system is at work in humans. In a study of people who committed suicide published Sunday in the journal Nature Neuroscience, researchers in Montreal report that people who were abused or neglected as children showed genetic alterations that likely made them more biologically sensitive to stress.
The findings help clarify the biology behind the wounds of a difficult childhood and hint at what constitutes resilience in those able to shake off such wounds.
The study “extends the animal work on the regulation of stress to humans in a dramatic way,” Jaak Panksepp, an adjunct professor at Washington State University who was not involved in the research, wrote in an e-mail message.
He added that the study “suggests pathways that have promoted the psychic pain that makes life intolerable,” and continued, “It’s a wonderful example of how the study of animal models of emotional resilience can lead the way to understanding human vicissitudes.”
In the study, scientists at McGill and the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences compared the brains of 12 people who had committed suicide and who had had difficult childhoods with 12 people who had committed suicide and who had not suffered abuse or neglect as children.
The scientists determined the nature of the subjects’ upbringing by doing extensive interviews with next of kin, as well as investigating medical records. The brains are preserved at Douglas Hospital in Montreal as part of the Quebec Suicide Brain Bank, a program founded by McGill researchers to promote suicide studies that receives brain donations from around the province.
When people are under stress, the hormone cortisol circulates widely, putting the body on high alert. One way the brain reduces this physical anxiety is to make receptors on brain cells that help clear the cortisol, inhibiting the distress and protecting neurons from extended exposure to the hormone, which can be damaging.
The researchers found that the genes that code for these receptors were about 40 percent less active in people who had been abused as children than in those who had not. The scientists found the same striking differences between the abused group and the brains of 12 control subjects, who had not been abused and who died from causes other than suicide. “It is good evidence that the same systems are at work in humans that we have seen in other animals,” said Patrick McGowan, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Meaney’s lab at McGill and the lead author of the study.
His co-authors, along with Dr. Meaney, were Aya Sasaki, Ana C. D’Alessio, Sergiy Dymov, Benoît Labonté and Moshe Szyf, all of McGill, and Dr. Gustavo Turecki, a McGill researcher who leads the Brain Bank.
Because of individual differences in the genetic machinery that regulates stress response, experts say, many people manage their distress despite awful childhoods. Others may find solace in other people, which helps them regulate the inevitable pain of living a full life.
“The bottom line is that this is a terrific line of work, but there is a very long way to go either to understand the effects of early experience or the causes of mental disorders,” Dr. Steven Hyman, a professor of neurobiology at Harvard, wrote in an e-mail message.
By Benedict Carey, NY Times, Feb. 23, 2009.
For years, psychiatrists have known that children who are abused or neglected run a high risk of developing mental problems later in life, from anxiety and depression to substance abuse and suicide.
The connection is not surprising, but it raises a crucial scientific question: Does the abuse cause biological changes that may increase the risk for these problems?
Over the past decade or so, researchers at McGill University in Montreal, led by Michael Meaney, have shown that affectionate mothering alters the expression of genes in animals, allowing them to dampen their physiological response to stress. These biological buffers are then passed on to the next generation: rodents and nonhuman primates biologically primed to handle stress tend to be more nurturing to their own offspring, Dr. Meaney and other researchers have found.
Now, for the first time, they have direct evidence that the same system is at work in humans. In a study of people who committed suicide published Sunday in the journal Nature Neuroscience, researchers in Montreal report that people who were abused or neglected as children showed genetic alterations that likely made them more biologically sensitive to stress.
The findings help clarify the biology behind the wounds of a difficult childhood and hint at what constitutes resilience in those able to shake off such wounds.
The study “extends the animal work on the regulation of stress to humans in a dramatic way,” Jaak Panksepp, an adjunct professor at Washington State University who was not involved in the research, wrote in an e-mail message.
He added that the study “suggests pathways that have promoted the psychic pain that makes life intolerable,” and continued, “It’s a wonderful example of how the study of animal models of emotional resilience can lead the way to understanding human vicissitudes.”
In the study, scientists at McGill and the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences compared the brains of 12 people who had committed suicide and who had had difficult childhoods with 12 people who had committed suicide and who had not suffered abuse or neglect as children.
The scientists determined the nature of the subjects’ upbringing by doing extensive interviews with next of kin, as well as investigating medical records. The brains are preserved at Douglas Hospital in Montreal as part of the Quebec Suicide Brain Bank, a program founded by McGill researchers to promote suicide studies that receives brain donations from around the province.
When people are under stress, the hormone cortisol circulates widely, putting the body on high alert. One way the brain reduces this physical anxiety is to make receptors on brain cells that help clear the cortisol, inhibiting the distress and protecting neurons from extended exposure to the hormone, which can be damaging.
The researchers found that the genes that code for these receptors were about 40 percent less active in people who had been abused as children than in those who had not. The scientists found the same striking differences between the abused group and the brains of 12 control subjects, who had not been abused and who died from causes other than suicide. “It is good evidence that the same systems are at work in humans that we have seen in other animals,” said Patrick McGowan, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Meaney’s lab at McGill and the lead author of the study.
His co-authors, along with Dr. Meaney, were Aya Sasaki, Ana C. D’Alessio, Sergiy Dymov, Benoît Labonté and Moshe Szyf, all of McGill, and Dr. Gustavo Turecki, a McGill researcher who leads the Brain Bank.
Because of individual differences in the genetic machinery that regulates stress response, experts say, many people manage their distress despite awful childhoods. Others may find solace in other people, which helps them regulate the inevitable pain of living a full life.
“The bottom line is that this is a terrific line of work, but there is a very long way to go either to understand the effects of early experience or the causes of mental disorders,” Dr. Steven Hyman, a professor of neurobiology at Harvard, wrote in an e-mail message.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Self Verification
Developed by William Swann, the theory of Self Verification is that once individuals develop firmly held beliefs about themselves, they come to prefer that other people see them as they see themselves - even if their self-views are negative.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Replace traumatic memories with positive ones
Emotional memories engage different brain structures than do normal memories, and are stored in a particularly powerful and lasting way by the brain.
There is evidence for a self-reinforcing "memory loop" whereby the brain's emotional center triggers the memory center, which in turn further enhances activity in the emotional center.
Because of this, traumatic memories can have a powerful effect on human behavior – including placing restrictions in the way that people go about their daily lives.
Survivors may avoid places, smells or objects that remind them of the traumatic experience, because they may trigger severe anxieties.
Learned knowledge may dissipate, but emotional memories still remain.
According to researcher Karsten Baumgärtel, “It is entirely possible for facts to vanish completely from the memory, whereas in extreme cases emotional recollections remain stored for a whole lifetime.”
Isabelle Mansuy, Professor of Cellular Neurobiology explains that, “Emotional memories are not simply erased. Oppressive negative memories need to be actively replaced by positive memories.”
How are you replacing the negative experiences in your life?
There is evidence for a self-reinforcing "memory loop" whereby the brain's emotional center triggers the memory center, which in turn further enhances activity in the emotional center.
Because of this, traumatic memories can have a powerful effect on human behavior – including placing restrictions in the way that people go about their daily lives.
Survivors may avoid places, smells or objects that remind them of the traumatic experience, because they may trigger severe anxieties.
Learned knowledge may dissipate, but emotional memories still remain.
According to researcher Karsten Baumgärtel, “It is entirely possible for facts to vanish completely from the memory, whereas in extreme cases emotional recollections remain stored for a whole lifetime.”
Isabelle Mansuy, Professor of Cellular Neurobiology explains that, “Emotional memories are not simply erased. Oppressive negative memories need to be actively replaced by positive memories.”
How are you replacing the negative experiences in your life?
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Marriage as crucible
My husband's prediction about a mutual friend: "All the issues that she thought were dealt with will come springing back up out of her once she gets that ring on her finger..."
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Children, foster care and PTSD
Link to articles about how to help and treat children who have PTSD as a result of abuse: http://hubpages.com/profile/krillco
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit
http://www.nctsnet.org/nccts/nav.do?pid=ctr_cwtool
Some of the many insights available in this valuable resource:
"Trauma can change children’s world views, their sense of safety, and how they interpret the meaning of the behavior of others—including people who are trying to help them...
"Children often have multidimensional trauma histories, and adults should not assume that they know what was most traumatic for the child. The event(s) thatled to child welfare involvement may not be the child’s most significant trauma experience...
"There is a difference between physical safety and psychological safety. Child welfare workers should not only aim to keep a child physically safe but should also provide a psychologically safe setting for children and families when inquiring about emotionally painful and difficult experiences...
"System-Induced Trauma: (def).Traumatic removal from the home, traumatic foster placement, sibling separation, or multiple placements in a short amount of time."
Some of the many insights available in this valuable resource:
"Trauma can change children’s world views, their sense of safety, and how they interpret the meaning of the behavior of others—including people who are trying to help them...
"Children often have multidimensional trauma histories, and adults should not assume that they know what was most traumatic for the child. The event(s) thatled to child welfare involvement may not be the child’s most significant trauma experience...
"There is a difference between physical safety and psychological safety. Child welfare workers should not only aim to keep a child physically safe but should also provide a psychologically safe setting for children and families when inquiring about emotionally painful and difficult experiences...
"System-Induced Trauma: (def).Traumatic removal from the home, traumatic foster placement, sibling separation, or multiple placements in a short amount of time."
Friday, March 28, 2008
At the Root of Addiction
"Addiction is never really about fun...
It's always about pain."
- A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read
It's always about pain."
- A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read
Monday, March 24, 2008
Psychosocial Trauma and Restitution
"The concept of “psychosocial trauma” developed by Ignacio Martin-Baro can help us understand the restitution process. He believed that when an injury that affects people has been produced, nourished, and maintained through a certain set of social relations, then individual solutions are not effective.
"The social context responsible for the injury has to be taken into account. A new “social contract” to heal the trauma is needed, incorporating individual and socio-political factors into the equation.
"In the case of the disappeared children, their loss of identity represents a trauma affecting not only their individual lives but also their relationship with society. For this relationship to be restored, the social distortions that took place need to be exposed.
"Restitution brings into focus the trauma’s social dimension, as it provides the wider context for each individual story. Truth and justice must be part of the picture, if the children are to construct a meaningful future for themselves as individuals and as members of society."
Sunday, March 23, 2008
This statement makes no sense
Quote from Erick Nicklas, associate commissioner of the Family Permanency Division: "The whole idea of foster care is not to disrupt children's lives."
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Foster Care Alumni and Relational Permanence
http://www.chapinhall.org/article_abstract.aspx?ar=1466
Gina Miranda Samuels interviewed 29 young adults who aged out of foster care in order to understand their existing support networks and how they learned to cope with people coming in and out of their lives.
Gina Miranda Samuels interviewed 29 young adults who aged out of foster care in order to understand their existing support networks and how they learned to cope with people coming in and out of their lives.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Wearing a Mask to Face the World
http://translucence.multiply.com/journal/item/284/Masks_Repost
"We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.”
- Andre Berthiaume
"We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.”
- Andre Berthiaume
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Abuse, Females and Testosterone Levels
“Trauma, at any age, produces anatomical changes in the brain, and even if those changes do not have an obvious effect on behavior, they can still shape our deepest responses to anxiety.
“A NIMH study (discovered that) abused girls were found to have abnormally high levels of testosterone, increases in immune system abnormalities and abnormal changes in the regulation of heart rate under stress.”
Source: Lui, Aimee. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders.
“A NIMH study (discovered that) abused girls were found to have abnormally high levels of testosterone, increases in immune system abnormalities and abnormal changes in the regulation of heart rate under stress.”
Source: Lui, Aimee. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders.
Feeling like a "failed anorexic"
Recovery from anorexia comes with a deep sense of shame, because it feels somehow like a failure. Caroline Knapp has referred to this as “the post-anorexic riddle of identity, a sense of wild shapelessness.”
Aimee Lui writes accurately that;
“Eating disorders sabotage identity… You’ve failed to reduce yourself to a perfect object…
“For years you’ll move along just fine, gaining weight, gaining confidence, gaining all the trappings of a thriving life, and then, unexpectedly, a shadow of your past will resurface in the face of a long-lost friend or a moment on revived anxiety, and your bright new self will cringe, yearning for that old mask of perfection.”
Sheila Reindl has valuable insight into this area as well:
“We all have to integrate the light with the dark… the noble and ignoble aspects of ourselves. That’s a normal developmental task. It’s just harder for people with eating disorders.”
Source: Lui, Aimee. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders.
Aimee Lui writes accurately that;
“Eating disorders sabotage identity… You’ve failed to reduce yourself to a perfect object…
“For years you’ll move along just fine, gaining weight, gaining confidence, gaining all the trappings of a thriving life, and then, unexpectedly, a shadow of your past will resurface in the face of a long-lost friend or a moment on revived anxiety, and your bright new self will cringe, yearning for that old mask of perfection.”
Sheila Reindl has valuable insight into this area as well:
“We all have to integrate the light with the dark… the noble and ignoble aspects of ourselves. That’s a normal developmental task. It’s just harder for people with eating disorders.”
Source: Lui, Aimee. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders.
Anorexia and Bulemia
According to Shelia Reindl, “With anorexia, the act of losing weight serves as a metaphor for feeling that one is emotionally invisible… (it’s a) disciplined emptiness. So, for her, the message is that you don’t have to be perfect to be loved.
“The bulimic, on the other hand, binges and purges in secret – hiding the beast she knows is in there. The issues of shame are stronger. I think that’s why, when anorexics hit a bulimic patch in recovery or difficulties later in life, they often want to go back to the anorexia. It feels cleaner and tidier – they didn’t have to deal with all these messy feelings and conflicts.”
Reindl’s research has demonstrated that the most enduring obstacle to healing in the aftermath of anorexia and bulimia is vulnerability to a sense of not being enough, not having enough, feeling empty, unlovable, unworthy.”
Lui, Aimee. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders.
“The bulimic, on the other hand, binges and purges in secret – hiding the beast she knows is in there. The issues of shame are stronger. I think that’s why, when anorexics hit a bulimic patch in recovery or difficulties later in life, they often want to go back to the anorexia. It feels cleaner and tidier – they didn’t have to deal with all these messy feelings and conflicts.”
Reindl’s research has demonstrated that the most enduring obstacle to healing in the aftermath of anorexia and bulimia is vulnerability to a sense of not being enough, not having enough, feeling empty, unlovable, unworthy.”
Lui, Aimee. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders.
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