Overwhelmed & Desperate Parents: Where to Turn

Shaquan Duley is accused of suffocating her two toddler boys on August 15. The sheriff of Orangeburg County, South Carolina says Duley is showing remorse and the 29-year-old mother is poor, jobless, and was overwhelmed after her mother had just yelled at her for not taking care of the children.
While Duley's charges are inexcusable, her situation highlights a problem that advocates say is only getting worse in this down economy: parents, who don't abuse their kids or drugs, are on the brink, desperate, and unaware there are options for them.
Don Lemon talked to Cyd Wessel, Senior Director of Healthy Families America, part of Prevent Child Abuse America, about what help overwhelmed parents can receive. Call (800)CHILDREN for programs in your area.

To view the video visit:
http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/23/17718/

How did the loss of all legislative discretionary funding impact your agency? New York Nonprofit Press needs your comments!

New York Nonprofit Press is attempting to cover the impact to nonprofit human services of the loss of all legislative discretionary funding for the current fiscal year. Would you like to share what the loss of member item grants might mean for your organization and the clients you serve?

You can simply email Fred Scaglione, NYNP Editor at editor@nynp.biz with any information you would like to share or call him at 888-933-6967.

He is happy to take comments either on the record or for background purposes. If you are emailing me, please let me know if you prefer to comment on background and not for the record.

It is his hope to use this information in an article in the September issue of NYNP as well as in upcoming daily E-Newsletter articles. While he hopes to include as much detail as possible, he may not be able to use all the comments received.

University at Albany School of Social Welfare ACE Think Tank and Action Team Meeting

Open to Faculty, Staff, Students and Community Members
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
1:30p.m – 4:30p.m
Milne 200, UAlbany Downtown Campus, Western Ave, Albany, NY

“The Biology of Loss: The Consequences and Healing of Childhood Adversity”
Gabor Maté M.D. www.drgabormate.com

A physician, author, seminar leader and public speaker from British Columbia, Dr. Gabor Maté was recently interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy NOW! Discussing “When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection.” Dr. Maté’s four books are all Canadian bestsellers, published internationally in over a dozen languages on five continents. The most recently published, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction has been a #1 national bestseller and has been awarded the Hubert Evans prize for literary non-fiction. In addition to exploring the biopsychosocial mechanisms by which adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can lead to health problems, Dr. Gabor Maté strongly emphasizes healing in a way that combines science, compassion, and mindfulness. This exciting workshop will be interactive, combining factual materials with discussion and emotional processing. Please pre-register with Dr. Heather Larkin at hlarkin@uamail.albany.edu to ensure your space at this event.

The Biology of Loss: The Consequences and Healing of Childhood Adversity

A physician, author, seminar leader and public speaker from British Columbia, Dr. Gabor Maté was recently interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy NOW! Discussing “When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection.”

Dr. Maté’s four books are all Canadian bestsellers, published internationally in over a dozen languages on five continents. The most recently published, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction has been a #1 national bestseller and has been awarded the Hubert Evans prize for literary non-fiction.

In addition to exploring the biopsychosocial mechanisms by which adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can lead to health problems, Dr. Gabor Maté strongly emphasizes healing in a way that combines science, compassion, and mindfulness.

This exciting workshop will be interactive, combining factual materials with discussion and emotional processing.

Please pre-register with Dr. Heather Larkin at hlarkin@uamail.albany.edu to ensure your space at this event.

Research examines the price of prison for children

It comes as no surprise that many children suffer when a parent is behind bars. But as rates of incarceration grew over the past 30 years, researchers were slow to focus on the collateral damage to children.

The best estimate says that at any one time, 1.7 million (about 2.3 percent) of all American children have a parent in prison, says Julie Poehlmann, a professor in the School of Human Ecology and investigator at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "By age 14, more than half of black children with a low-education parent, will have an imprisoned parent," she says.About 10 years ago, the problem finally began to spark interest from social scientists, Poehlmann says.

"School personnel and child welfare personnel are now seeing more and more children who have a current or past incarcerated parent. There is a greater awareness of the volume, and greater need to understand what's going on. What are the risks, what are the outcomes, and how can we better help these children?" Poehlmann says.

To read more visit:

http://www.news.wisc.edu/18286

Drugging kids for parents' relief is abuse

The research, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, found an average 160 annual cases in which pharmaceutical drugs were maliciously used on children."We believe the malicious use of pharmaceuticals may be an under-recognized form and/or component of child maltreatment," wrote the author, Dr. Shan Yin, a pediatrician.

Using information from the National Poison Data System, Yin found that children were most commonly receiving analgesics, stimulants/street drugs, sedatives, hypnotics, antipsychotics and cough or cold medications.

He found 1,439 cases from 2000 to 2008. Of those, 14 percent resulted in injuries, and 18 children died. More than half of the cases involved at least one sedating drug; 17 of the 18 deaths included sedatives. Yin said the poison data most likely underestimates the actual number of cases.

The circumstances around the 18 deaths were not clear, Yin said. He did not have access to case notes and legal findings. Four of them were ruled as homicides, three resulted in legal action against the mother, two were noted as highly suspicious and one included cocaine.

To view more visit:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/07/22/drugged.children.parenting/index.html

13% Of All Children Are Born Poor

According to a study from the Urban Institute "Childhood Poverty Persistence..." by Ratcliffe and McKernan, 49% of American babies born into poor families will be poor for at least half their childhoods. Among children who are not poor at birth, only 4% will be "persistently" poor as children. Those poor at birth are more likely to be poor between ages 25 and 30, drop out of high school, have a teen nonmarital birth, and have patchy employment records than those not poor at birth.

To view the entire article visit:

http://www.urban.org/publications/901356.html