ACE Think Tank and Action Team Participants

Greetings ACE Think Tank and Action Team Participants! Happy Spring!

We are very excited to remind you that the next ACE Think Tank and Action Team Meeting is Thursday, May 6, 2 - 5pm in the Milne Hall Room 200 on the Downtown Campus of the University at Albany. Bill McLaughlin, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Development, Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) will be our keynote speaker! He will share various approaches to trauma-informed care identified in New York State, discussing views of ACE response strategies. This is sure to be an informative and exciting session, and it will be great to have you there! Please share this information with colleagues and friends, and contact Heather Larkin with questions (hlarkin@uamail.albany.edu

In addition, please note that "A Taste of Albany" will be held that same evening to benefit Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless! This is a great chance to make a whole day of exciting Albany events - the ACE Think Tank and Action Team Meeting followed by a great dinner event to support services helping homeless people.

Attorney General's Children Exposed to Violence Demonstration Program: Phase I

This program will develop and support comprehensive community-based strategic planning to prevent and reduce the impact of children's exposure to violence in their homes, schools, and communities. The deadline to register on OJP's Grants Management System is 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on June 1, 2010. The due date for applying for funding under this announcement is 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on June 1, 2010.

VISIT SITE:
http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/grants/solicitations/FY2010/AGCEV.pdf

Keeping Track 2010 NYC Children

Please Join Us Wednesday, June 9, 2010 for the premiere of the Ninth Edition of Keeping Track of New York City's Children.

Space is limited. RSVP required

Location: Baruch College Conference Center Room 750
151 East 25th Street, 7th Floor
(The North side of 25th street, between Lexington and 3rd Avenue)

9:00 a.m. Registration and Breakfast
9:30 a.m. Program and Presentation of Keeping Track Online

WEBSITE:
http://www.cccnewyork.org/index.html

U of M research says early abuse tied to more depression in children

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (02/08/2010) —Although children can be depressed for many reasons, new evidence suggests that there are physiological differences among depressed children based on their experiences of abuse before age five. Early abuse may be especially damaging due to the very young age at which it occurs.

Those are the findings of a new study of low-income children that was conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota and the University of Rochester, Mt. Hope Family Center. The study appears in the January/February 2010 issue of the journal Child Development.

Children who experience maltreatment, including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse or neglect, grow up with a lot of stress. Cortisol, termed the “stress hormone,” helps the body regulate stress. But when stress is chronic and overloads the system, cortisol can soar to very high levels or plummet to lows, which in turn can harm development and health.

READ FULL ARTICLE:
http://www1.umn.edu/news/news-releases/2010/UR_CONTENT_175768.html

Babies Cry, Have a Plan!!

Shaken Baby Syndrome, sometimes called abusive head trauma, is a medical term that describes the injuries that occur to infants who are violently shaken by an adult caregiver. When babies are shaken, their heads, necks, arms, and legs “whiplash” violently. Their fragile brains move back and forth within their skulls, which can injure the brain.
Injuries caused by Shaken Baby Syndrome:

Cerebral Palsy; brain damage; blindness or eye damage; damage to the spinal cord (paralysis); fractures of the skull, vertebrae, ribs, arms, and legs; seizure disorders; delays in normal development or developmental disabilities; death.
Nearly ¼ of babies who are shaken die from their injuries. Violent shaking would be bad for any of us, but it’s worse for infants. Some reasons why are:

• A baby’s brain is still developing and is softer than an adult’s brain.
• A baby’s neck muscles are very weak.
• Blood vessels in a baby’s brain tear easily.
• A baby’s head is large compared to the rest of the body.

READ MORE: http://www.mctf.org/images/pdf/Babies_cry.pdf

Addressing Substance Abuse and Child Maltreatment: The RMQIC

First in a series of articles on the Children's Bureau's Quality Improvement Centers

How can child welfare agencies and substance abuse treatment programs coordinate their services to achieve better outcomes for children and families? This was the issue that American Humane Association's Rocky Mountain Quality Improvement Center (RMQIC) began to tackle in 2001 when the Children's Bureau awarded a 5-year grant to the regional research and demonstration project. As part of the process, the RMQIC awarded subgrants and provided technical assistance to four projects in the western region of the United States.

Program-level evaluations show a number of positive outcomes for each project, including a decrease in the recurrence of child maltreatment, an increase in children returning to or remaining in their homes, and an increase in child and family well-being. Cross-site evaluation data demonstrate that the following program and process characteristics are associated with positive outcomes:

Integrated systems for service delivery
Use of a central case coordinator/manager/substance abuse liaison
Immediate availability of the case coordinator
Skilled, knowledgeable, relationship-focused staff
User-friendly referral and engagement process
Service planning and delivery process that is mindful of the cognitive impairments caused by substance abuse
Respectful but open flow of client information across systems
Environment that supports open dialog across systems
Streamlined access to a variety of affordable services
Integrated funding

READ MORE:http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm?event=website.viewArticles&issueid=87§ionid=1&articleid=1393

Are children with disabilities at higher risk of being abused?

Children with disabilities of any kind are not
identified in crime statistic systems in the U.S., making it
difficult to determine their risk for abuse (Sullivan, 2003). A
number of weak and small-scale studies found that children
with all types of disabilities are abused more often than
children without disabilities. Studies show that rates of abuse
among children with disabilities are variable, ranging from a
low of 22 percent to a high of 70 percent (National Research
Council, 2001). Although the studies found a wide range of
abuse prevalence, when taken as a whole, they provide
consistent evidence that there is a link between children with
disabilities and abuse (Sobsey, 1994).
One in three children with an identified disability for
which they receive special education services are victims of
some type of maltreatment (i.e., either neglect, physical abuse,
or sexual abuse) whereas one in 10 nondisabled children
experience abuse. Children with any type of disability are
3.44 times more likely to be a victim of some type of abuse
compared to children without disabilities. (Sullivan &
Knutson, 2000).

READ MORE:
http://www.thearc.org/NetCommunity/Document.Doc?id=1922

Helping Families Support Their Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Children.

Ryan, Caitlin.
Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development.
San Francisco State University.
2009
Sponsoring Organization: United States. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
This practice brief was developed for families, caretakers, advocates, and providers to: Provide basic information to help families support their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) children; Share some of the critical new research from the Family Acceptance ProjectTM (FAP) at San Francisco State University. This important new research shows that families have a major impact on their LGBT children's health, mental health, and well-being; and Give families and LGBT youth hope that ethnically, religiously, and socially diverse families, parents, and caregivers can become more supportive of their LGBT children. This practice brief reports on specific findings from FAP research. (Author abstract)


View more: http://www11.georgetown.edu/research/gucchd/nccc/documents/LGBT_Brief.pdf

Team Decisionmaking and Domestic Violence: An Advanced Training for TDM Facilitators and Child Protection Supervisors. Trainer's Guide.

Taggart, Shellie.
Family Violence Prevention Fund.
2009
Sponsoring Organization: Annie E. Casey Foundation.
An advanced domestic violence curriculum for Team Decisionmaking (TDM) facilitators and child protection supervisors on safely preparing for and managing effective meetings, engaging parents around DV issues, assessing the impact of children’s exposure to DV, and making decisions and plans to increase safety for children and battered mothers. The curriculum is designed as a day long (six hour) training and draws upon several important concepts in current child welfare literature, including: Family-centered practice; Solution-focused interviewing; Signs of Safety approach to practice; Clear distinctions between danger and risk; Comprehensive family assessment; Eliminating disproportionality (over- or under-representation of various racial and ethnic groups as compared to the general population) in child protection. (Author abstract)

http://endabuse.org/content/features/detail/1468/
http://endabuse.org/userfiles/file/Children_and_Families/TDM_curriculum_Final.pdf

A Public Health Approach to Children's Mental Health: A Conceptual Framework.

Miles, Jon. Espiritu, Rachele C. Horen, Neal M. Sebian, Joyce. Waetzig, Elizabeth.
Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development, National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health.
Searchlight Consulting.
2010
Sponsoring Organization: United States. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
In the fall of 2007, the Center for Mental Health Services at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in conjunction with the National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health at Georgetown University began to develop a monograph that would present a conceptual framework for a public health approach to children's mental health. The proposed monograph would: Draw on well-established public health concepts to present a conceptual framework that was grounded in values, principles, and beliefs; Link environmental supports, services, and interventions across child-serving systems; Identify and promote shared language and definitions that could form a platform for communication between the various child-serving sectors that are integral to success of a public health approach; Provide examples of interventions and policies that have shown promise as components of the new framework; and Suggest how partners, providers, decision-makers, and consumers might use the framework in their communities to strengthen the mental health and resilience of all children. This monograph, written for a broad range of leaders who have a role in bringing about change in their system(s) or organizations and influencing children's mental health and wellbeing, represents the culmination of efforts to develop consensus around the central ideas of the conceptual framework. Because the audience for this monograph is broad, different users will find the content useful in different ways. This document can be used as a whole, or each of the chapters can be used on their own, to educate and provide a foundation for a leader to build upon. Once leaders determine how the information and ideas apply to relevant constituencies, the monograph can be helpful for implementing plans that will benefit children, youth, and families. Each chapter has a distinct purpose and content. The first chapter, in addition to providing an overview and a context, also demonstrates a sense of urgency and a justification for a public health approach. This chapter could be helpful to those who must convince stakeholders or policy makers to engage in this work. The second chapter provides a starting point for groups and coalitions in their work together to build consensus around how to communicate about the effort. Chapters 3 and 4 provide information about the practice of public health and how it has been and could be used to support the mental health of children. In Chapter 5, the conceptual framework of the public health approach to children's mental health and the intervention model are presented. This chapter provides a detailed explanation of the framework as well as a visual representation in both graphic and table form. In chapter 6, leaders will find practical information about how to move this transformation forward. This chapter includes questions that could be used as checklists for groups in any stage of their process as well as examples from the field of how a group has accomplished one or more components of the work. (Author abstract modified)


MORE: http://gucchdtacenter.georgetown.edu/public_health.html

The Nation’s Children 2010

America’s Children: A Snapshot

Child population under age 18, 20081 73,941,848
White children (not Hispanic) under age 18, 20082 56.2%
Non-white children under age 18, 20083 43.8%
Children and youth under age 14, 20084 77.1%
Children and youth ages 14–17, 20085 22.9%

America’s Most Vulnerable Children: A Snapshot

Estimate of referrals of possible child abuse and neglect, 20076 3,200,000
Children substantiated/indicated as abused or neglected, 20077 794,000
Estimated children who died as a result of abuse or neglect, 20078 1,586
Children living in out-of-home care, 20079 492,618
Children adopted from the public foster care system, 200710 51,401
Children waiting to be adopted, 200711 133,818
Children living in poverty, 200812 13,507,000
Estimated children living in low-income families, 200813 28,800,000
National Poverty Rate, 200814 13.2%
National Poverty Rate for children under age 18, 200815 19.0%
National Poverty Rate for children ages 5-17, 200816 17.7%
National Poverty Rate for children under age 5, 200817 22.2%

Child Abuse and Neglect
• In 2007, approximately 3.2 million allegations of child abuse and neglect, representing 5.8 million children, were made to child protective services agencies. Of those, 2,085,443 reports were referred for investigation, as reported by 37 states.18
• During FFY 2007, an estimated 794,000 children in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico were determined to be victims of abuse or neglect. Of these children, 59.0% were neglected, 10.8% were physically abused, and 7.6% were sexually abused. The victimization rate was 10.6 per 1,000 children, representing a 12.4% decrease from 2006, which can be explained by definitional changes.19
• Of the children substantiated as abused and neglected, only 62% received follow up services. Of the children reported as abused and neglected but not substantiated, 31.2% received follow up services. One-fifth (20.7%) of children substantiated as abused or neglected were placed in foster care as a result of an investigation.20
• In 2007, 492,818 children lived apart from their families in out-of-home care. Of the children living apart from their families, 34% were age 5 or younger, 45% were ages 6 through 15, and 21.2% were 16 or older.21
• Of the children living in out-of-home care in 2007, 40% were white, 31% were black, 20% were Hispanic, 2% were American Indian/Alaskan Native, and 7% were children of other races and ethnicities.

To view the entire report visit: http://www.cwla.org/advocacy/statefactsheets/2010/nationalfactsheet10.pdf

Evaluation of the Anchor-Site Phase of Family to Family

In 1992, the Annie E. Casey Foundation commenced its Family to Family: Reconstructing Family Foster Care Initiative. When it concluded in 2009, dozens of localities in more than 20 states had participated. In its final phase from 2006 through 2009, the initiative focused on a smaller set of “anchor sites” in nine states. This evaluation provides a historical perspective on the evolution of the initiative and describes the theory of change that helped shape the work done in the final phase.

To read this evaluation visit: http://www.aecf.org/KnowledgeCenter/Publications.aspx?pubguid=%7b0B379E86-3BD9-4FAF-A3B2-96845501B2B7%7d

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has announced the following funding opportunities

National Mentoring Programs
This solicitation invites eligible applicants to propose the enhancement or expansion of initiatives that will assist in the development and maturity of community programs providing mentoring services to high-risk populations that are underserved due to location, shortage of mentors, special physical or mental challenges of the targeted population, or other analogous situations identified by the community in need of mentoring services.

TO VIEW MORE: http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/funding/FundingDetail.asp?fi=171

Family Drug Court Programs
The purpose of the Family Drug Courts Program is to build the capacity of states, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally recognized Indian tribal governments to either implement new drug courts or enhance pre-existing drug courts for substance-abusing adults involved with the family dependency court as a result of child abuse and neglect issues.

TO VIEW MORE: http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/funding/FundingDetail.asp?fi=174

Talking With Moms About Engaging Dads: Info Fact Sheet 18

Mothers play a central role in how fathers are involved with their children. They can facilitate or hinder the father’s involvement, based on their inclusion or exclusion of the father in childrearing, parenting time, and other opportunities for father engagement. The nature and extent of gatekeeping plays an important part in the coparenting relationship between parents.

For fathers, the single most powerful predictor of fathers’ engagement with their children is the quality of the men’s relationship with the child’s mother, regardless of whether the couple is married, divorced, separated or never married. In some instances, fathers’ commitment to their children only holds when mothers also believe the father’s role is important

Respite Care for Children with Serious Emotional Disorders and Their Families: A Way to Enrich Family Life

This article provides a review of the benefits of respite care for families who have a child with a serious emotional disorder and examples of the range of respite care strategies that communities have developed to respond to the different needs and preferences of families. From time to time, all families experience stress related to financial difficulties, work, family relationships, or the challenge of balancing work, family, and other responsibilities. Stress may be particularly severe for parents of children with serious emotional and behavioral disorders. Relationships with relatives, friends and neighbors may be strained due to misunderstanding of the child’s behavioral disorder, work opportunities may be limited, and there are extra demands on time for mental health treatment and meetings with service providers.

The Roles of Parenting and Child Welfare Services in Alcohol Use By Adolescents

This study examined the impact of child maltreatment on adolescents' alcohol use, taking into account parental drinking and the involvement of child welfare services in the adolescents' lives. Nationally, in each week 60,000 child abuse or neglect reports are made; annually, there are 3 million child abuse or neglect reports, involving 5.5 million children. Two-thirds of these reports are investigated, with almost 29% of the investigations leading to substantiation of allegations.

Teenagers are the victims in some 26% of substantiated cases. Among maltreated teens, 23.3% have suffered physical abuse, 16.5% have suffered sexual abuse, and 53.6% have been neglected. Adding to the difficulty of their lives, maltreated teens tend to resort to substance use. As many as 33.6% of children who have received foster care have used illicit drugs, as compared to 22% of children never in foster care. One study reported that 50% of maltreated adolescents used alcohol, a rate exceeding 30-day alcohol-use rates for more comprehensive groups of 8th- (16%), 10th- (33%), and 12th-graders (44%) in another study