Community Action Guide

Supporting Babies and Families Impacted by Caregiver Mental Health Problems, Substance Abuse, and Trauma: A Community Action Guide

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has issued a publication that serves as a guide for service providers, advocates, and practitioners to use in their communities when dealing with children whose caregivers have been negatively impacted by mental illness, substance abuse or trauma.

The publication provides organizational resources, hotline contact information and screening tools and tips on how to evaluate your efforts.

This FREE, downloadable, resource is available online. To download, Click Here.

Webinar: The Fiscal Showdown and Children - What's At Stake?

WEBINAR
November 14, 2012 at 4:00 PM EST

CO-SPONSORED BY

• Children's Leadership Council
• Coalition on Human Needs 
• Voices for America's Children

The election is over. Now the Administration and Congress will start coming to grips with impending service cuts, Pentagon cuts, and tax increases.

If Congress does not act by the end of December, millions of long-term jobless people will lose unemployment benefits  If Congress fails to act for months to come, services children need will be cut deeply - from education to WIC to Head Start to child care to the EITC and the Child Tax Credit.

If Congress tries to spare pending Pentagon cuts, will it cut children's priorities more? Will it move towards cuts in Medicaid and SNAP/food stamps? Will another fight about the debt ceiling threaten vital services for children and families even more? Who will be protected - upper-income households or families struggling to make ends meet?

All of this matters a lot. If you care about children and families - you need to know what to expect and what you can do.

Top experts will speak plainly to help make sense of all this:

• Ellen Nissenbaum, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs
• Alan Houseman, Executive Director, Center for Law and Social Policy and Chair, Children’s Leadership Council
• Joe Theissen, Senior Vice President, Programs, Voices for America’s Children, Moderator

Click here to register today! All registrants will receive links to useful information.  Please share this invitation widely.

Hurricane Sandy: Supporting Children In Disasters

The following letter is from Chris Deyss, Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse New York.

On behalf of the Prevent Child Abuse New York family, I send our heartfelt thoughts and well wishes to everyone affected by Hurricane Sandy. We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and the recovery from this terrible storm will be swift. 

The aftermath of natural disasters can leave us all feeling scared, insecure, confused and stressed. This is especially true for children. It's important to talk to children after a disaster occurs and remember a child does not have to personally experience the trauma to be affected. They may have heard other adults discussing the event or watched something on TV.

FEMA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services put together a guide for talking to children after a disaster. Children’s coping with disasters or emergencies is often tied to the way parents cope. They can detect adult’s fear and sadness. Parents can help children by taking steps to manage their own feelings and plans for coping. Remember, parents are almost always the best source of support for children in disasters. 

SUGGESTED TIPS:

• Don’t be afraid to admit that you can’t answer all questions.
• Be honest with kids and share age-appropriate information with them.
• Encourage your children to talk about their feelings. Reassure them the world is a good place, but sometimes bad things happen.
• Personal contact is reassuring. Hug and cuddle your children.
• Spend extra time with your children. An extended bedtime routine may be especially reassuring.
• Re-establish your daily routine for work, school, play, meals and rest. Kids gain security from the predictability of routine.
• Use this as an opportunity to establish a family emergency plan. Knowing what to do in an emergency can be very comforting to both children and adults.
• Monitor and limit exposure to the media; watch reports of the disaster with the children. Encourage communication and provide explanation at this time.
• Help children identify good things, such as heroic actions, grateful families, and the assistance offered by people throughout the country and the world.

Parents and professionals should be informed and ready to help if children show signs of stress. Stressed kids may demonstrate fears, sadness, or behavioral problems. Listed below are common signs a child is experiencing trauma.

Preschool Age (ages 1-5)
At this stage it’s hard for children to adjust to change. They have yet to develop their own coping skills. Some behaviors you might encounter are:

• Thumb sucking, bedwetting, and sleep problems.
• Fear of strangers, animals, darkness or “monsters”.
• Separation anxiety from places where they feel safe, their parents or teachers.
• Changes in appetite, unexplainable aches and pains.
• In some cases, disobedience, hyperactivity, and speech difficulties.

Early Childhood (ages 5-11)
Kids in early childhood may have the same reactions as younger children. They might find it hard to concentrate and may be intensely preoccupied with the traumatic event. Other signs include:

• Withdrawal from play groups and friends; clinging or neediness.
• Fear of going to school, aggressive behavior, and loss of interest in school.
• Fear of the disaster happening again, and anger that it wasn’t prevented. 

Adolescence (12-18)
As children grow older, they develop a more sophisticated understanding of the disaster event. Their responses may be more similar to adults.

• Risk-taking behaviors or withdrawal.
• Rebellious and/or disruptive behavior at home or school.
• Alcohol or drug use to cope with emotions.
• Feeling overwhelmed and unable to discuss their feelings with others. 

Hopefully these tips and resources can assist you in your time of need. You can always contact our Parent Helpline at 1-800-CHILDREN for additional information and resources. It is heartbreaking for us all to see the images of the tremendous losses experienced by our friends and neighbors up and down the East Coast. Our mission is to provide parents with the tools and support they may need in difficult times. We will continue to keep you and your loved ones in our thoughts.


Cordially,

Christine Deyss

Executive Director
Prevent Child Abuse New York

NEW YORK TIMES PARENTING ARTICLE

A recent article in the New York Times by Nicholas D. Kristof underscores the importance of parenting education programs. Kristof uses outcomes of clinical research, examples of effective parenting programs, and stories that demonstrate the direct relationship between a positive influence of parents and productive outcomes in children.

Full Article - CLICK HERE

McDonald's Threatened With Law Suit For Using Toys To Promote Happy Meals, US

A US consumer group has threatened legal action against the fast food company McDonald's if it does not stop using toys to promote its "junk food" Happy Meals: the group says using unfair and deceptive marketing to "lure small children" is illegal under consumer protection laws in various states of the US.

The nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) announced on Tuesday that it had served McDonald's with a 30-day notice of its intention to sue. Giving such notice is a legal requirement under several states in which the group might bring the lawsuit, they said in a statement. The lawsuit will go ahead if the company does not agree within 30 days to stop its toy-related promotions.

Stephen Gardner, litigation director for CSPI, told the press that:
"McDonald's is the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children." He said the way the fast food company uses toys exploits the fact children are developmentally immature and undermines the authority of parents. "All this to induce children to prefer foods that may harm their health. It's a creepy and predatory practice that warrants an injunction," he added.

In CSPI's notice letter addressed to Jim Skinner, vice chairman, CEO, and president of McDonald's, and to Jan Fields, the corporation's USA president, Gardner wrote that: "McDonald's marketing has the effect of conscripting America's children into an unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers, causing them to pester their parents to bring them to McDonald's."

The letter goes on to state that McDonald's use of toys to promote its food products is violating state consumer protection laws in Massachusetts, Texas, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and California, and that the company has 30 days to agree to stop the practice before a suit is filed.