CareSTL Health’s Post

We were excited to see this recent cost-benefit analysis by Drexel University researchers showing the financial benefit of a school-based diversion program in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program (PPSDP) is a school-based, pre-arrest diversion initiative that results in better, more equitable student outcomes. According to the Drexel team, the initiative is not only better for students - it also saves the city millions of dollars. Connecticut also has a successful school-based diversion model, the School-Based Diversion Initiative (SBDI), which emphasizes addressing behavioral health needs as an alternative to exclusionary discipline and arrest. In fact, CHDI's Dr. Jeana Bracey (a "school responder model" expert and lead for CT's SBDI) worked with the Philadelphia program back in 2018 to strengthen its behavioral health components. SBDI has helped 73 schools across Connecticut reduce arrests and connect more students to behavioral health services. (Learn more about SBDI: https://ow.ly/7E2E50QrtTz) Read the Drexel cost-benefit analysis in Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice: https://ow.ly/bfqZ50QrtTy?

These are helpful tips from Place2Be but what would be even better is if we removed these unnecessary pressures especially in primary education.

So very important

🌱 Dr. Bruce Perry’s words remind us: "What is adaptive for children living in chaotic, violent, trauma-permeated environments becomes maladaptive in other environments—especially school." As School Social Workers, we recognize that behaviors often reflect survival strategies. By approaching students with compassion, we can help them transition to environments where they feel secure, supported, and ready to thrive. 🌟 #TraumaInformedCare #SchoolSocialWork #EmpathyInAction

Last month, the NASSP Principal Recovery Network (PRN) met with Congress to advocate for an additional $5 million in Project SERVE grants. The PRN, founded in April 2019, is a network of school leaders who have experienced gun violence tragedies, offering immediate and long-term support. In March, nearly 400 school leaders urged Congress to address the student mental health crisis and educator shortages. Despite these efforts, Congress has proposed slashing essential programs that support the educator workforce and student mental health recovery. “This proposal threatens to drive beloved teachers out of the classroom, leave suicidal students without lifesaving care, and hobble the ability of students to learn the skills they need for their dream job. It’s time for the House to listen to educators and students and reconsider these harmful cuts to programs our communities desperately need,” - NASSP CEO Ronn Nozoe. Learn more about Principal Recovery Network's efforts by Education Week: https://bit.ly/45LwDbi #SupportEducators #StudentMentalHealth #NASSP

A whole school approach to emotional health for all members of the school community pays dividends. Evidence from our 2023 schools report suggests that where the Nurturing Programme Approach is embedded into settings, those settings experience stronger impacts for all, including calmer happier schools, with more positive relationships across the school community & a better understanding of what good emotional health looks like. To find out more have a read of our schools report here 👉 https://lght.ly/c5dc2o And watch what teachers we have worked with have to say about the impact that a focus on #emotionalhealth & #TheNurturingProgramme can have in schools 👇 https://lght.ly/53jejea

Not only physical

The countdown begins! The Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health at the University of Oregon is set to welcome the first cohort of undergraduate students training to become the country's first child behavioral health specialists to the UO Portland campus next week . If you've been curious about the University of Oregon's first of it's kind in the nation undergraduate program in child behavioral health this article provides a fantastic overview. #GoDucks https://lnkd.in/gc-C6-_k

I have not read the articles fully as yet. It is a complex tapestry for sure, how habituated forms of life/cultural codes are prequel to our capacity to understand their impact on our status as human. If its true that memory requires a competency for language and sense of self, then the stakes could not be higher. Did we feel accelerated as part of our inheritance legacy, where we feel the amplified roar of the amphitheatre complexly interwoven in an amalgamated/ affective clustering that imprints on cognitive appraisals; typed curations/response shifts as outcomes of bigger pictures; predictions of our pathways etc (eg the spirit level on the inner level). Some often report feeling punch drunk even prior to touching a drop of the 'Quare Fellow.' The idea below is that trauma informed may unwittingly fill us up with declaratives for a poisoned chalice, which inclines some to be slackers and feel sorry for themselves, and reduces our capacity for hardiness (eg suffer-mongering/self-pitying victims). But my understanding of trauma theory is that most trauma appraisals are dynamic, and, are not indicative of coherently concretising peoples in immutable/fixed diagnostic categorical imperatives. The latter view is largely the dominant ways of interpreting over two centuries and more. And more recently, over the last five decades, there has been an exponential growth in childhood/adolescent disorder categories. Trauma informed is not in the same league. Far from it. Yes, multiple adversities in early contexts can inflame our spokes, and these impacts can become more overt through time. In fact, if we ask a kid who is on fire, some toe the line 'soft day' -meaning nothing to see here. In fact, many of us can reinforce non-victim status and instead endorse a proud legacy of avoidance, wide berthing such terminology that we might believe makes us look decidedly weak and unattractive. Even more so, if trauma is not picked up early, where the young person is propelled by the energy of trauma impact, and may not see the woods from the trees. In the main, that energy is not sustainable through time, law of diminishing returns. Traumatic/coercive experiences does impact social freedom (excitatory/inhibitory/disinhibiting). Traumatic experiences as reduced awareness also sets people up for exploitation in multiple settings (eg guilt persecutory complexes etc) https://lnkd.in/eW9BpXif "Every year, approximately 505,507 people visit the hospital due to suicide-related injuries throughout the USA. Prevention of suicide-related deaths is a major unmet public health challenge. The challenge is further complicated by the fact that nearly 80% of suicidal patients who subsequently died by suicide denied suicide ideation during their last communication with a hospital" Suicide Prevention: A Practical Guide for the Practitioner 2018

Creating trauma-informed schools and organisations is complex. These two publications highlight potential issues needing to be considered. Looking beyond the simple ‘transferring of information’ about trauma and psychological distress is imperative.… we need to ensure that practitioners, researchers and policy makers consider nuances, cultural contexts and potential unintended harms. Evaluating programs/interventions (including brief PD sessions) is vital in this field of work. Attachment and the (mis)apprehension of Aboriginal children: epistemic violence in child welfare interventions A. Wright, P. Gray, B. Selkirk, C. Hunt & R. Wright 2024 https://lnkd.in/gyufUAv8 https://lnkd.in/gsgtwYgd