Child Trauma

The federal government is funding five locally conceived demonstration projects across the United States aimed at decreasing death and serious injury resulting from child abuse and neglect. This week, the plans for those test sites were revealed, with several focused on promoting safe sleep for infants or community collaborations on prevention.

The state of California has taken its first formal action to end the medical career of Santa Clara County’s former chief pediatrician for children in foster care, 20 years after allegations surfaced that he had sexually abused boys living in his home and patients as young as 6 years old.

The world watched with eager anticipation as power transitioned last week to President Joe Biden. The paths, priorities and policies he chooses will impact not just Americans, but citizens everywhere. Arguably, they will be felt most of all by our planet’s children.

As America headed into the coronavirus pandemic, the number of children who were confirmed to have been victims of abuse or neglect fell to its lowest point in a long time, perhaps more than two decades, according to the annual report released today by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). 

Tara Hutton remembers how the little girl she had been fostering for a year began acting out on the day a new social worker came to their house in Magnolia, Texas.

“I’ve never seen so many foster kids in one place smiling. What are you doing?”

In a recent article in The Imprint, Karen de Sá and Nadra Nittle reviewed arguments for and against universal pediatric screening for adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, in California. They noted that California Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris, who has led the push for this plan, recognizes the serious concerns of critics but does not hear alternative proposals from them that might achieve her important goal of reducing toxic stress among children.