Unburdened by false humility, postmodern trauma activists claim to have understood for the first time what drives all of human suffering
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Trauma DispatchTrauma news you can't get anywhere else. |
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CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT PROJECTS: COUNTY Zoe Lyons, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Jackson County Director Source: Washtenaw County government Read time: 3.4 minutes This Happened On April 9, 2024, Washtenaw County government posted on their website about how their Handle With Care Program is successful. Who Is Doing This? Washtenaw County, MI, and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services The Premise The Handle With Care program appears at first glance to be a simple and innocent-looking intervention. According to the Michigan Implementation Guide: "The Handle With Care Model: If a law enforcement officer encounters a child during a call, that child’s name and three words, HANDLE WITH CARE, are forwarded to the school before the school bell rings the next day. The school implements individual, class and whole school trauma-sensitive strategies so that traumatized children are “Handled With Care.” If a child needs more intervention, on-site trauma-focused mental healthcare is available at the school."[1] The types of situations officers are instructed to report include life-threatening traumas and everyday stressors of neglect, betrayal of trust, the normal loss of a loved one, illness in a caregiver, bullying, and witnessing police activity. The program was first piloted in West Virginia in 2013. Headquartered at the West Virginia Center for Children’s Justice, the program spread to other states. In 2017, the program was launched in Michigan by Zoe Lyons of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in Jackson County. The program next spread to Eaton and Washtenaw counties in 2018, and now, according to Second Wave Michigan [2], it is in 49 of 83 Michigan counties. The post noted that since February 2018, when the program was launched, Washtenaw County schools–public and private–have received 3,796 Handle With Care notices from law enforcement officers. The post did not include the number of children in the notices or the base rate of the number of total students in the county. Each notice can include multiple children. Based on a different source [2}, each notice averages 1.5 children, meaning that the 3,796 notices probably involved over 5,700 children. This averages to over 1,100 children annually. The Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD) website lists a base rate of 43,482 total students in approximately 130 schools. Hence, notices are received on about 2.5% of students annually. How do schools handle these children differently? First, teachers are instructed to observe for signs of distress, such as inattention, crying, anger, or withdrawal. Then, teachers may reteach a lesson, postpone a test, or suggest the student can go to the nurse’s station to take a nap. If distress is more severe, teachers can call in the school counselor who may meet with the student and may or may not decide to contact parents in order to initiate a referral to outside counseling. The only type of evidence of success in the post was an anecdote when “a substitute teacher looked up to see a student in her class crying. Because she’d seen the notice, she knew to check in with the girl right away, and to refer her to the school social worker for follow-up care.” Analysis “Wanting to help is not the same as helping.” Abigail Shrier, Bad Therapy (2024) This program raises at least five concerns. (1) It is probably not harmless. The program is an intervention for individuals and families who are not seeking one. The field of psychology has been down this road before with research on critical incident stress debriefing which showed repeatedly that making people talk immediately following stressful events often made them worse. The Handle With Care program advises teachers to not ask children to talk about their events, but if they proceed to the higher step of sending them to school counselors, that seems inevitably what will happen. (2) It is a breach of confidentiality. This program flies past the safeguards that other professions, such as health care systems, work under. Federal laws protect the privacy of patients. Doctors face sanctions for disclosing details about patient visits and even for acknowledging that patients attended their clinics. The privacy laws serve to prevent health care professionals from disclosing sensitive information about individuals that could harm the reputations of patients or influence the services they receive (or do not receive). There are few extreme situations where doctors are allowed to violate that privacy. (3) Parents are left out of the loop. The school does not call the student’s home when notices are received or acted upon. It’s a concern that some teachers may use this sensitive information to gain confidence with children or drive wedges between their parents. With the recent revelations that a subset of teachers and schools have implemented critical race theory teaching open racism towards whites, and fostered gender transition activities hidden from parents, it’s not so clear any more how some teachers perceive their role in society. (4) Teachers don’t need notices to pay attention to their students. Teachers already observe their students and make accommodations as needed every day. Also, there are already federal laws for public schools to create accommodations for children with emotional and behavioral problems. The program seems to assert, without data, that teachers don’t already notice changes in their students or make accommodations. It’s not clear that this program provides skills to teachers that they don’t already have. (5) The program is impossible to evaluate. There are no data on what teachers actually do with notices or whether the things they do make any difference for children. It is conceivable that 99% of the notices are unnecessary because children are not distressed, and/or teachers ignore the notices. There is no way to measure whether the effort and taxpayer money invested in the programs make a substantial difference. The only testimony that the program helps is anecdotes. The old maxim, however, “anecdotes are not evidence” is fitting. Why Is This Happening? The program teaches the unproven doctrines of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and toxic stress that stress and trauma permanently damage brains and physical health. If this is believed, then interventions must be implemented to prevent and alleviate stress on a massive public health scale. This program creates another entry point to indoctrinate professionals in the ACEs and toxic stress narratives. Like Trauma Dispatch? You can subscribe to our email notices of new posts on this page. REFERENCES [1] Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (2019), Handle With Care Michigan Implementation Guide. https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/mdhhs/Folder4/Folder12/Folder3/Folder112/Folder2/Folder212/Folder1/Folder312/Handle_With_Care_Implementation_Guide_Final.pdf?rev=f6d24de6ca41417494783ffb6f37518e. Accessed 5/7/2024. [2] Slootmaker E (December 8, 2022), State program helps Michigan schools handle students with extra care if they've experienced trauma, Second Wave Michigan. https://www.secondwavemedia.com/features/handlewithcare12082022.aspx. Accessed 5/7/24. Can you model social change as linear line graphs? The Cincinnati City Council presentation5/4/2024
CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT PROJECTS: CITY Daniel Chen, DrPH, George Washington University Source: Cincinnati City Council Read time: 2.4 minutes plus a short video This Happened A professor of public health demonstrated a “system dynamics modeling” software program as one component of a larger plan to persuade Cincinnati city government to implement systemic social changes. The professor was one of six presenters in the group who came before a committee of the Cincinnati City Council on April 2, 2024. Who Did This? Daniel Chen, DrPH, from the Global Health Department of George Washington University’s school of public health, presented the software. He has been the first author on one peer-reviewed paper and secondary author on five others focused mostly on trauma-informed care. The Presentation Chen’s software demonstration was one component of a larger strategy claiming that adverse childhood experiences (ACE) cause permanent brain and body damage that leads to a wide variety of mental problems, physical diseases, and social dysfunctions. Hence, the group argued, government investments are needed to relieve these stressors. The purpose of the software modeling is to provide a tool for policy makers to make informed decisions. Chen said his system dynamics modeling was based on 300 variables and about 500 equations. For the first simulation, Chen input a “policy lever” on the model’s dashboard—a program to provide financial assistance for renters to become homeowners. The model then spit out a line graph to show how the percentage of homeowners increased every year. A bit later, Chen input another policy lever to provide financial assistance to prevent foreclosures, and again, this produced a line graph, this time showing, predictably, fewer foreclosures every year. Lastly, Chen ran both policy levers simultaneously to show how they would impact “population health” by increasing the number of individuals with Good or Excellent Health. Analysis One concern about modeling of complex public health problems, in general, has been unreliability. Take, for instance, the infamous Imperial College London model at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that predicted peak mortalities above 215 deaths per million in Great Britain. This announcement played a large role world-wide to drive harsh distancing measures and lockdowns. In reality, Great Britain flattened the curve at 13.9 deaths per million [1]. The COVID model failed because the humans using it made pessimistic and unchanging guesses about the infection rate, death rate, time to recovery, and the rate of passing the virus between persons. In addition, it did not account for motivations to misattribute deaths to COVID, how lockdowns would prolong the epidemic, or how therapeutics would shorten it. Put simply, almost nothing in nature or human society changes in a straight line. The video (below) shows the first simulation. As noted above, Chen inputs a “policy lever” on the model’s dashboard—a program, called ADDI, to provide financial assistance for renters to become homeowners. He set the lever at 1% in the neighborhood of Avondale starting in 2025, meaning that of 4,085 renters, 40 would become homeowners the next year, and 1% more would be added in each successive year. The percentage of homeowners increased from about 25% in 2025 to a nearly miraculous 50% in 2055. As you watch the line graph in the upper right, note how it is a perfectly straight upward-trending line for thirty years. Another concern, and perhaps the inherent fatal flaw of models, is that they almost never can predict how individual behaviors vary over time. Consider Daniel Partick Moynihan’s famous scissors graph in his 1965 report (below). For decades, as unemployment for nonwhite males rose or fell, applications for welfare logically rose or fell in tandem. But in 1960, something changed; unemployment dropped but applications for welfare increased. Moynihan attributed this to a shift in Black family structure towards single-parent households. Put simply, almost nothing changes in the real world as policy makers intend. In the graph above, note how, starting in 1960, unemployment and applications for Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) welfare assistance suddenly went in opposite directions [2]. When showing models in this manner to legislators, it can easily be misleading:
Chen and his group pitched the model as being based on empirical evidence, when actually it’s based on a utopian idea that everything goes according to their plan. Like Trauma Dispatch? You can subscribe to our email notices of new posts on this page. References [1] Boretti A. After Less Than 2 Months, the Simulations That Drove the World to Strict Lockdown Appear to be Wrong, the Same of the Policies They Generated. Health Serv Res Manag Epidemiol. 2020 Jun 17;7:2333392820932324. doi: 10.1177/2333392820932324. PMID: 32596417; PMCID: PMC7301657. [2] Daniel Geary, The Moynihan Report: An annotated edition, The Atlantic, September 14, 2015. Accessed May 4, 2024. CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT PROJECTS: STATE Bill sponsors, clockwise from top left: Dafna Michaelson Jenet (D), Brianna Titone (D), Nancy Todd (D), and Dennis Hisey (R) Source: 9News Denver and Colorado H.B.20-1312 Read time: 2.7 minutes plus video This Happened Denver’s 9News outlet ran a story April 4, 2024 on the implementation of Colorado’s new mandate for training of teachers in trauma-informed practices (TIP). The law was passed and took effect in 2020. Who Did This? Sponsors of the bill were Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet (D) (now a state senator), Rep. Brianna Titone (D), Sen. Dennis Hisey (R) (served one term before losing reelection in 2022), and Sen. Nancy Todd (D) (left office in 2021 after a sixteen-year career). Titone, born a biological male, was the first openly transgender person elected to the Colorado legislature. The Premise The theory of TIP is that trauma-exposed individuals ought to be sensitively handled by professionals in many spheres to both prevent worsening through re-traumatization and promote healing through new knowledge and skills. The mandate comes from Colorado Statute § 22-60.5-110, Section 3.f., which dictates conditions for renewal of professional teacher licenses. It includes the following:
The text of the bill did not provide a rationale as to why this type of training would facilitate teachers’ skills and competence in the delivery of academic instruction. While the law covers teachers in all grades, the 9News story focused on the launch of the mandate within Colorado’s universal pre-K program. Anchor Corey Rose chatted with Dr. Rosemarie Allen, the station’s “race and equity expert.” Allen’s doctorate is in Equity and Leadership in Education; she is the president and CEO for the nonprofit Institute for Racial Equity and Excellence which licenses child care providers in Colorado. In the 1.3-minute video below, Dr. Allen asserted that trauma impacts child development, and this new training will give teachers “amazing strategies.” Analysis The premise of TIP is based on several controversial assertions. (1) It is based on the ideology that trauma permanently damages the brain and derails child development, neither of which are proven. (2) The concept of TIP is not a clear or testable theory. TIP can be any or all of the following: train professionals, professional self-care, educate victims, teach coping skills, tweak customer service to avoid retraumatizing victims, arrange environments to make people feel safer, include trauma victims in advisory roles, track customer satisfaction outcomes, communicate between service areas, allow drop-in service, change hiring practices, create women-only environments, and, of course, direct clinical care to treat trauma symptoms. Many of these do not represent evident mechanisms or effective paths to improve victim outcomes. (3) Besides direct clinical care, the interventions by themselves or in combination have not been shown to consistently improve mental health or learning outcomes. Nearly all the non-clinical studies on TIP have measured perceptions of professionals on whether they believe they and/or their workplace are better informed or more competent. (4) In regards to school settings, it is controversial whether teachers ought to be assuming responsibilities that have previously belonged only to parents to intervene in social and emotional issues outside their scope of expertise. The Colorado legislature estimated the cost of this program to the state to be between $8,000 to $600,000. Why Is This Happening? Despite assertions by supporters, TIP is not an empirically-driven scientific model. It is an ideological-based movement consistent with progressive leftist ideas that humans are highly malleable. Statutes like this have been adopted in a growing number of states and cities to authorize government interventions in a wide range of environments. Direct clinical trauma care, based on evidence, and delivered with common sense of sensitive and empathic professionals, has been commonly available for over three decades. What’s new in TIP is the mandate to train non-clinical professionals and trauma victims on an ideology, embed this model into statute, and create new administrative agencies and infrastructures that will inevitably increase in size and cost over time. Like Trauma Dispatch? You can subscribe to our email notices of new posts on this page. CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT PROJECTS: CITY Wendy Ellis, Dr.P.H., Assistant Professor, George Washington University Source: WCPO ABC 9 news Read time: 1.7 minutes This Happened On April 2, 2024, a committee of the Cincinnati City Council hosted a presentation titled Building Equitable & Resilient Neighborhoods. This was the latest step in a process over recent years by a coalition of community leaders demanding government action for large-scale systemic change by trying to address stress and trauma as underlying causes of inequity in child outcomes. Who Did This? The coalition consists of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, the University of Cincinnati, and George Washington University’s Center for Community Resilience. The group presentation was led by Wendy Ellis, Assistant Professor at George Washington University. Her 2019 dissertation was a model that conceptualizes adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as outcomes of systems driven by institutional racism; and these outcomes, including racial disparities in evictions, income inequity, and economic mobility, must be addressed through public health initiatives. The Premise The coalition is trying to press city government to adopt new policies and enact reforms aimed at addressing trauma because they assert those cause inequities in child well-being outcomes. Their language tends to emphasize trauma, but their model includes everyday stress experiences—household disruption, parental incarceration, food insecurity, and poverty—that are not life-threatening trauma. Proposed reforms include to alleviate poverty (cash assistance, child tax credits), increase entitlements (preschool and childcare), educate children on relationship skills, educate parents on how to parent, provide mentoring and after-school programs, and teach everyone about the ACEs narrative. Analysis Consistent with the postmodern trauma activism of the past several decades that draws extraordinary causal interpretations from shaky science, these ACEs models claim to understand for the first time in history what drives nearly all human suffering. It cannot be overemphasized that supporters of ACE movements intend large-scale expansion of entitlements and government power. Their intent is to “transform,” as the subtitle of the presentation stated: “Vision: Transform the City of Cincinnati into a national beacon of healing, community resilience, and racial justice by centering the experiences and interests of trauma exposed children and families in organizational planning, partnerships, and policies.” Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, and other cities have embarked on similar public health models based on the ACEs narrative. Each are different in details and stage of implementation, but none have achieved major success. No reports from these models have provided evidence that these strategies work. It is unlikely the programs can work because the ACE research on which they are built is controversial and unproven. Dr. Ellis says “The science is clear,” but she and other ACE supporters seem unaware that all ACE research comes from cross-sectional studies that have zero power to prove causative links. Another concern, besides the science, is that none of this reform for large-scale culture shift has been adequately presented to or voted on by the public, who are mostly unaware of what is happening. Like Trauma Dispatch? You can subscribe to our email notices of new posts on this page. CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT PROJECTS: COUNTRY Suzanne Mooney, PhD Source: BNN news Read time: 1.7 minutes This Happened A government report assessed the status of implementation efforts and new recommendations to advance their agenda for Trauma Informed Approaches (TIA). The 44-page executive summary of the report was released February 22, 2024. The full report is not yet available. Who Did This? The Safeguarding Board of Northern Ireland (SBNI), which oversees child protection and other safety issues, commissioned the report. In 2017, the government funded new administrative positions to focus on adverse childhood experiences (ACE), which produced the first report in 2019 on efforts to embed TIA. The new report is an update on the first report, and was led by Suzanne Mooney, PhD, professor of social work at Queen’s University of Belfast. The Claim The report was organized by three domains of implementation: (1) Organizational development, (2) Workforce development, and (3) Service design and delivery. The sources of data included an online survey completed by SBNI member agencies and partner organizations, eight focus group discussions with managers, and a look at four implementation projects. Because the data were perceptions of whether services had improved, there were no standardized or quantitative measures of child outcomes. The report noted that “outcomes, however, were not always clearly specified in measurable terms and it was not clear whether any current evidence existed to support” the respondents‘ perceptions that services had improved (page 27). Despite the lack of evidence, the report made recommendations to deploy TIA principles into policies, produce a “government mandate” to change policies, and create a new government agency. Analysis Trauma informed approaches present insurmountable problems for project evaluators. The concept of trauma is purposefully broad by including non-traumatic stressful experiences of everyday life. Most importantly, the theory that ACEs cause a massive range of health problems is unproven, despite the assertions to the contrary from supporters who claim the ability to find causal relationships from weak, cross-sectional research studies. The burden of proving that their actions are evidence-based ought to be on the supporters of TIA, but by their chorus of assertions that the ACE theory is fact, they have managed to put the burden on others to disprove that which is unproven. Organizing the bulk of the report around organizational development and workforce development was revealing about the stakes involved. Most of their attention is on growing the governmental administrative state. In America, this is often referred to as the “deep state," or the unelected “fourth branch” of government that was never granted law-making power in the Constitution but now dwarfs the Congress in size and power. Why Did This Happen? Attempts like this to implement TIA are derivative of the ACE movement, which is an ideology masquerading as government-by-science. The ideology that human nature is almost endlessly malleable conflicts with the evidence that genetics are highly determinative of personality and health outcomes. The science of ACEs is seriously flawed but the assertions of ACEs have proven remarkably effective for leveraging actions from leftist-leaning governments. Like Trauma Dispatch? You can subscribe to our email notices of new posts on this page. CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT PROJECTS: CITY Erika Rajo, PsyD, trauma psychologist Source: WDSU News Read time: 1.8 minutes plus 1.2-minute video This Happened Seeds of NOLA Trauma Recovery Center opened in early 2024 to provide free treatment and case management services for victims of trauma. Their mission: The first-ever service aiming to reduce the chronic violence in New Orleans by preventing intergenerational transmission of trauma. Who Did This? The program is part of University Medical Center. Some or all of the funding was provided by the New Orleans Department of Health. The amount and duration of the funding was not announced. The Premise According to the Center’s website, their mission is “Rooted in principles of health equity and social justice, the center provides wraparound services to people whose lives have been disrupted by traumatic injury and violent crime.” The Center’s “trauma psychologist,” Erika Rajo, PsyD, asserted that much of the violence in New Orleans is due to “unhealed trauma.” She hopes to prevent PTSD, heal trauma symptoms, and prevent intergenerational transmission of trauma, which in turn will reduce violence in the city. The Center aims to eventually provide, all at no cost to clients, individual and family psychotherapy, support groups, psychiatric medication management, case management, assertive outreach, legal assistance, and violence interrupters in the community. Analysis Intergenerational transmission of trauma. This theory postulates that parents who develop psychological problems from traumatic experiences can pass those problems to their children through the interactions of daily living and the children absorb the problems into their own minds through repetition. The theory is widely accepted despite the only type of research support for it in humans comes from cross-sectional and retrospective studies. There are no pre-trauma prospective longitudinal studies to support it. In addition, the mechanism of how transmission occurs, whether psychological or biological, is speculative and controversial. Prevention of PTSD. There is little to no evidence that PTSD can be prevented or is even possible. It is a common misconception among clinicians that there is a window of time between trauma exposure and development of PTSD symptoms. Research is clear, however, that nearly all PTSD symptoms begin immediately following trauma exposure. There is a small amount of research evidence that PTSD severity can be substantially reduced (not entirely prevented) with early intervention, but it comes from pharmacological interventions in burn patients (i.e., morphine). Psychotherapeutic interventions at early intervention have all failed, and some may have worsened symptoms. Why Did This Happen? New Orleans is among a handful of large American cities that have experimented with so-called trauma-informed approaches to tackle intractable histories of violent crime and racial inequities. The efforts have yet to produce measurable benefits. Should This Be Attempted? Efforts such as this, plus similar efforts in Chicago, Baltimore, and Philadelphia have originated as orders from executive branches of city governments or from votes of city councils without much public debate. The brief discussions that have occurred at city councils have been from invited local stakeholders who uncritically support trauma-informed ideology. Most citizens are unaware that city funds are being spent on untested approaches with little to no research support. Like Trauma Dispatch? You can subscribe to our email notices of new posts on this page. CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT PROJECTS: STATE Josh Green, Governor of Hawaiʻi Source: KITV News Read time: 1.3 minutes This Happened Governor Josh Green signed Executive Order 24-01 on 2/20/24 to make Hawaiʻi a "trauma-informed state." This makes at least the seventh state to promote trauma-informed approaches across all state departments following Alaska, California, Delaware, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Who Did This? Green, a Democrat, worked as a family practice and emergency room physician before becoming Lieutenant Governor of Hawaiʻi in 2018 and Governor in 2022. During the COVID pandemic, Green stated that protestors against the vaccine were “people who don’t believe in science.” He said he was a lightning rod for protestors because he was outspoken in support for the vaccine and he was “a voice of reason on behalf of science.” The Claim The executive order claims that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) studies have shown that ACEs cause problems with a person’s “health, opportunities, and stability throughout their lifetime.” By implementing a variety of so-called trauma-informed approaches, this will lead to better self-care, wellness, and resilience for state employees and communities. Analysis In 2021, a Trauma-Informed Care Task Force was created in Hawaiʻi. In 2022, the Office of Wellness and Resilience was created. Tia Hartsock, who holds a masters in social work, was appointed the first Director of the Office in December 2022. These efforts led to the governor’s Executive Order 24-01. All executive state departments now fall under the purview of the Office of Wellness and Resilience. They must move towards becoming trauma-informed with activities and goals that are to be determined. Each department must identify a Trauma-Informed Care Liaison. Additional activities may include administering surveys to employees about stress and health, trainings to educate staff on how ACEs causes health problems, teaching self-care to staff, and recommending new laws and policies for citizens. There were few details in the executive order, but it did include one rather specific mandate: All state departments must use “trauma-responsive language that supports reducing the impacts of adverse events without re-traumatization in requests for proposals and in-service contracts with providers.” It is unlikely that any meaningful outcomes will be achieved because the premise of ACEs as a causal agent of health problems has never been proven. Since Dr. Vincent Felitti’s initial 1998 ACE study, one hundred percent of the ACE studies have been cross-sectional studies, which have zero power to make causal conclusions. The relationship between adversity and health problems is far more complex than the simplistic ACE narrative. Also, there is no good evidence that implementation of a trauma-informed culture prevents ACEs, reduces stress, or improves meaningful outcomes. Why Did This Happen? Despite the lack of research evidence, these trauma-informed projects provide a strong sense for its supporters of doing something for the ills of societies. The advantages for politicians include that this provides another avenue for expansion of bureaucracy and for the administrative state to rule by science, and they get to decide what the science is. Like Trauma Dispatch? You can subscribe to our email notices of new posts on this page. CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT PROJECTS: STATE From left: Sen. Kimberly Lightford, Gov J.B. Pritzker, and Rep. Carol Ammons Source: Mike Miletich, WAND Read time: 1.9 minutes This Happened The Illinois state legislature passed a law mandating the creation of a Child Adversity Index survey, training for teachers and school board members on trauma-informed practices, and a committee that will determine how data collection is rolled out. The new law took effect January 1, 2024. Who Did This? The Illinois state legislature, led by the House sponsor, Carol Ammons (D), and Senate sponsor, Kimberly Lightford (D). Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) signed it into law. The Premise The new mandates are based on the theory that exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) causes a host of medical illnesses and mental problems, including permanent changes to the brain, commission of crimes, poverty, poor learning, and a huge range of other disadvantages. Activists believe that collecting data on ACEs and implementing trauma-informed practices will somehow either prevent ACEs or remediate the impact of ACEs. Analysis The new Illinois law, Public Act 103-0413, essentially did six things. (1) The Department of Education must create a Children’s Adversity Index for children 3 through 18 years of age by May 31, 2025. (2) Days allowed for teacher training, called teacher institutes, must include instruction on trauma-informed practices and include this law’s definitions of trauma and trauma-responsive learning environments starting with the 2024-2025 school year. (3) All school board members, beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, must receive four hours training on trauma-informed practices, which may include the concept of implicit bias. (4) In-service trainings that are required for teachers must now include trauma-informed practices, and may include the concept of implicit bias. (5) Licensure for teachers will require demonstrated proficiency in ACEs, trauma, secondary traumatic stress, and creating trauma-responsive learning environments or communities by October 1, 2024. (6) The Whole Child Task Force was charged with an array of tasks to codify how the child adversity index data will be collected and reported, and other related reforms needed to shift resources and procedures. The research evidence does not support the premise of the ACE theory. Since Dr. Vincent Felitti’s initial 1998 ACE study, one hundred percent of the ACE studies that have been cited by activists are cross-sectional studies, which have zero power to make causal conclusions. It is almost certain that these efforts at data collection and training educators will not improve children’s well-being. Why Is This Happening? Activists have been relentlessly pushing the ACEs agenda for years, and are finally succeeding at passing state-wide laws. California was the first. The activism is based on the moral foundation of progressive liberals that care for the disadvantaged trumps other moral concerns (such as tradition, loyalty, patriotism, and liberty) and that human nature is almost completely molded by life experiences instead of genetics. What’s Next? The task force shall reconvene by March 2027 to review progress. It is probably a foregone conclusion that these data collections and trainings are a prelude to the inevitable recommendation for expansion of new government social welfare entitlement programs to address ACEs. Like Trauma Dispatch? You can subscribe to our email notices on this page. CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT PROJECTS: CITY/COUNTY Eunice Lumsden, Professor of Child Advocacy, University of Northampton. Consultant on project. Source: Alex Pope, BBC News
Read time: 1.5 minutes This Happened A United Kingdom national government fund has awarded £195,111 (US $248,378) to a Northampton charity to treat trauma in children in order to prevent them from going into care or committing crimes. The project will run through April 2025. Who is Doing This? The National Lottery Community Fund is a government fund that raises money from lottery players. It is the largest community funder in the UK. The recipient, Crysalys Foundation, will partner with the University of Northampton, including Professor Eunice Lumsden, and several other local programs. The Premise The project seems based on the theory that trauma experiences can cause individuals to commit criminal acts. Under the postmodern trauma-informed model in which trauma can cause every type of dysfunction and disadvantage in life, treating trauma should therefore prevent crime. Analysis There are no good data, however, to support that theory. Many studies have shown associations between trauma and criminal behavior but they are of weak quality, being cross-sectional in nature. Cross-sectional data could also support the more likely theory that genetic reasons account for some children to both more frequently commit criminal acts and experience trauma. Criminal behavior does not happen at random. Parents who commit crimes do so for largely genetic reasons (i.e., sociopathic traits, lack of empathy), and they pass their genes on to children who are then more likely to commit crimes. These parents are also more likely to raise children in settings where trauma exposures are more likely. Crime and trauma exposure co-occur, but neither causes the other. It is almost guaranteed that providing resources for trauma care will have no impact on children’s future criminal behavior. According to a BBC report, “up to 25 young people and their families will be offered free interventions that will include one-to-one support, group work, mentoring, life skills and professional therapy.” The tiny sample size is underpowered to find any reliable causal effects. Why Is This Happening? The National Lottery Community Fund supports a range of projects to build healthier communities and individuals. The Crysalys Foundation is focused on providing resources to care for psychological trauma victims. What’s Next? Details of the project are not yet available on the Community Fund website. We’ll keep checking and hope to report on the methods in the future. We‘ll be most interested in how the outcome of committing crimes is measured, and how the project is able to determine the cause of crimes. Like Trauma Dispatch? You can subscribe to our email notices of new posts here. Send comments and questions to (pending) |
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