After a young woman is accused of lying about a rape, two female detectives investigate a spate of eerily similar attacks. Inspired by true events.

In Washington state, Marie Adler, 18, reports to police that a man broke into her apartment, tied her up and raped her. She’s told to be more specific about everything… and she recounts everything she can. Moments later, two detectives arrive to question Marie and demand that she repeat herself.

​

Marie, as played by Katilyn Dever in Netflix’s eight-episode series Unbelievable, is asked to share her story over and over again by the people who are meant to be helping her, though they seem to have little regard for the psychic toll of reliving one’s trauma. Marie’s report is bungled almost immediately. After the people closest to Marie, including one of her former foster mothers, tell police they have doubts about whether her story can be trusted, the male detectives hound Marie into recanting her report. They then charge her with filing a false report. Marie, who grew up in foster care and survived a childhood of frequent abuse, loses her friends and what little support she’s accrued as she emerges into early adulthood.

​

​Three years after Marie reports being raped, two female detectives in Colorado (played by Merritt Wever and Toni Collette) begin investigating a string of assaults with some clear similarities to one another—and which they eventually learn are similar to what Marie recounted before recanting.

The AAP, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) and Children’s Hospital Association have declared a national emergency in children’s mental health, citing the serious toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on top of existing challenges.
 
They are urging policymakers to take action swiftly to address the crisis. “Young people have endured so much throughout this pandemic and while much of the attention is often placed on its physical health consequences, we cannot overlook the escalating mental health crisis facing our patients,” AAP President Lee Savio Beers, M.D., FAAP, said in a statement. “Today's declaration is an urgent call to policymakers at all levels of government — we must treat this mental health crisis like the emergency it is."

Powerpoint presentation from CAC's in-service training with Chelsea Morales from the Post Traumatic Stress Center.

​

The Post Traumatic Stress Center, located in New Haven, is a private, specialty clinic for people of any age who have experienced trauma, abuse or neglect including sexual assault, domestic violence, childhood abuse, sudden death of loved ones, combat, sex trafficking, harmful discrimination, accidents, natural disasters, and stress among first responders  such  as healthcare, emergency, fire and police professionals.  

​

The in-service focused on the impact of trauma on children and how the pandemic is impacting children and adolescents. If you have further questions, Chelsea is available to connect via email at: chelsea@misskendraprograms.org

The Ezra Klein Show podcast 8/24/21: This Conversation Will Change How You Think About Trauma

​

The author of "The Body Keeps the Score" on how trauma transforms the body and the brain.

​

“Trauma is much more than a story about something that happened long ago,” writes Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. “The emotions and physical sensations that were imprinted during the trauma are experienced not as memories but as disruptive physical reactions in the present.”

​

Van der Kolk, a psychiatrist by training, has been a pioneer in trauma research for decades now and leads the Trauma Research Foundation. His 2014 book, “The Body Keeps the Score,” quickly became a touchstone on the topic. And although the book was first released seven years ago, it now sits at No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list, a testament to the state of our national psyche.
 

Catherine Gildiner is a bestselling memoirist, a novelist, and a psychologist in private practice for twenty-five years. In Good Morning, Monster, she focuses on five patients who overcame enormous trauma--people she considers heroes.

The five cases include... a young woman whose father abandoned her and her siblings in a rural cottage; a young woman whose abuse at the hands of her father led to a severe personality disorder; and a glamorous workaholic whose negligent mother had greeted her each morning with "Good morning, Monster."

​

Each patient presents a mystery, one that will only be unpacked over years. They seek Gildiner's help to overcome an immediate challenge in their lives, but discover that the source of their suffering has been long buried. It will take courage to face those realities, and creativity and resourcefulness from their therapist.

In “Dear Child,” Romy Hausmann explores the aftermath of an abduction. Her debut is equal parts mystery, thriller and family story. 

But the overall experience is as enthralling as it is thought-provoking. Hausmann creates a dark solar system studded with twinkling stars: parents who won’t give up hope, children trying to make sense of an unfathomable situation, neighbors watching out for one another and an estranged friend who not only shows up but stays. At the core of “Dear Child” is the constant hope that characters will be drawn back to people who mean the most to them, no matter how far apart they’ve been pulled. 

Webinar from Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH) 

​

Being a victim of a crime is a highly traumatic experience that can devastate every aspect of one's life. Often times people do not know their rights or where to go for help. The Victim Rights Center of Connecticut (VRCCT) will be joining us for this webinar to discuss legal rights, fighting discrimination, and resources around housing, employment, education and benefits that are often disrupted following a crime.

​

Webinar Slides

Materials from CAC's in-service webinar on Intimate Partner Violence Training hosted by the Center for Family Justice:

• Powerpoint Presentation: HPO CCADV IPV & Children (June20) Training Institute pdf

• CCADV Safe Connect COVID-19 HPO Awareness Toolkit

• CCADV_Statewide Map 2016

• HPO Preventive Medicine Service Codes

• LAP Screen Form (English)

• CCADV Safe Connect COVID-19 8.5x11 poster English

• CCADV Safe Connect COVID-19 8.5x11 poster Spanish

​

About The Center for Family Justice (CFJ):
The Center for Family Justice provides free and confidential trauma-informed services and coordinates care for all victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, human trafficking, and child abuse in six towns in Fairfield County, Connecticut: Bridgeport, Easton, Fairfield, Monroe, Stratford, and Trumbull.

Recording of 5/8/20 webinar from The Center for Family Justice: Intimate Partner Violence: Screening and Interventions

During this pandemic, victims and survivors of intimate partner violence are more isolated and at increased risk for abuse and violence. This webinar focused on the prevalence and dynamics of intimate partner violence and the best practices in effective screening and intervention. In addition, this training also provided screening tools and resources to strengthen interventions and support for victims and survivors.

​

About The Center for Family Justice (CFJ):
The Center for Family Justice provides free and confidential trauma-informed services and coordinates care for all victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, human trafficking, and child abuse in six towns in Fairfield County, Connecticut: Bridgeport, Easton, Fairfield, Monroe, Stratford, and Trumbull.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Conference, notes from session "The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Development" by Sufna John, PhD, Co-Director, Arkansas Building Effective Services for Trauma, Licensed Psychologist, Assistant Professor, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Objectives:

1. Recognize traumatic events and their current prevalence.

2. Understand the impact of traumatic events on childhood development across domains.

3. Reflect on the unique risk factors and needs of children with disabilities who have experienced trauma. 

David Finkelhor, Professor of Sociology, University of New Hampshire

​

It is well established that child maltreatment and other childhood adversities are associated with poor outcomes later on in life.

As a result, many child advocates have embraced the idea that we should screen all children for adverse childhood experiences.

​

California is putting $45 million into such a plan. The notion is that if doctors and teachers can discover just who has suffered these harms, steps can be taken to forestall possible negative outcomes like mental illness, substance abuse and chronic diseases.

In principal, universal screening can be a tremendous tool to prevent harmful repercussions. But many experts on childhood adversities have concluded it is premature and problematic to start screening all children for traumatic experiences.

Health News article from NPR

​

Childhood trauma causes serious health repercussions throughout life and is a public health issue that calls for concerted prevention efforts. That's the takeaway of a report published Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

​

Experiencing traumatic things as a child puts you at risk for lifelong health effects, according to a body of research. The CDC's new report confirms this, finding that Americans who had experienced adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, were at higher risk of dying from five of the top 10 leading causes of death.

Powerpoint presentation from CAC's In-Service on 9/20/19 with Edward Ruiz from FCA.

Powerpoint presentation "The Impact of Trauma" (facilitators guide) which was produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. FCA uses Modules 1 thru 4 as part of the Foster Parent training curriculum for their Family & Community Ties Program; this powerpoint contains the slides from Module 1.

APRIL 24, 2019 SEASON 1 EPISODE 11

Saturday Night Live veteran Darrell Hammond, filmmaker Michelle Esrick, and Mount Sinai psychologist Jacob Ham, PhD, discuss childhood trauma, complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and healing. Mr. Hammond's experience with trauma, addiction, and recovery is explored in a new documentary film about the lifelong effects of childhood trauma called Cracked Up, directed and produced by Ms. Esrick. 

Treating childhood trauma

Oprah Winfrey reports on how trauma plays a role in childhood development and what new methods are being used to help kids who have experienced it.

PowerPoint Presentation from CAC's 2/9/18 in-service on PTSD by Kat Lee, MA, CCLS, RDT with the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Center.

​

Related materials:

The CDC-Kaiser ACE Study: 

The CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is one of the largest investigations of childhood abuse and neglect and later-life health and well-being.

​

"Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults," published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 1998, Volume 14, pages 245–258.

NYTimes Op-Ed by David Bornstein

​

Over the past decade, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, the founder of the Center for Youth Wellness, in Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco, has emerged as one of the country’s strongest voices calling for a national public health campaign to raise awareness and a sense of urgency about the devastating and potentially lifelong health effects of childhood trauma.

Since the original research on adverse childhood experiences, known as the ACE Study, was published in 1998, a growing body of evidence has indicated that severe or prolonged levels of childhood adversity (often measured in terms of an “ACE score” ranging from 0 to 10) are far more common and harmful than has been appreciated. Dr. Burke Harris, a pediatrician, has led in developing methods to screen and treat children and families suffering health problems attributable to what is known as toxic stress.

Science has confirmed the damaging effects of trauma on a child's brain and the relevance and importance of good mental health. As a child's brain architecture is being built, early experiences and toxic environments are major determinants of the capacity of a child's later functioning. But as children grow, they encounter increasingly complex tasks and demands. Like the structure of a house, the brain needs to become functional in a variety of ways to accommodate new expectations and demands. The experiences and environments that adolescents have available to them become the building materials that allow them to adjust to new demands, to support new skills, and to become reliable members of society. Each year in the United States, more than 6 million referrals are made to the child welfare system and more than 600,000 of these children are determined to be substantiated victims of abuse or neglect.

NYTimes article by Nicholas Bakalarnor

​

The daughters of women exposed to childhood trauma are at increased risk for serious psychiatric disorders, a new study concludes.

This is a bulletin from the Child Welfare Information Gateway. Studies indicate when children feel unsafe or threatened, their brain development may be negatively impacted with long-lasting effects on their learning ability as well as their social, emotional, and behavioral development. Additionally, their risk for developing mental health disorders such as depression, posttraumatic stress, anxiety, bipolar disorder and others significantly increases. Child welfare professionals have an opportunity to identify this earlychildhood trauma—either chronic or acute—and respond with early intervention that can offset the negative consequences.

From NPRed

​

At first, 13-year-old Hart felt uncomfortable. But, gradually, she learned to use the poses and breathing to relax, and she loved it.

"Most of us [in juvenile hall] come from traumatic childhoods," she says. "It was the only time you experienced a quiet time, when everything was so chaotic." She believes the practice helped her cope with symptoms of bipolar disorder.

​

A new report from the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown University's law school, says that for young women like Hart, who have been through trauma, there is mounting evidence that yoga can have specific benefits.

CT Mirror Article

The effort builds on work done in recent years to dramatically expand the availability of proven trauma treatment models to children and teens across the state. But much of that work has been focused on school-aged children, leaving gaps in the availability of services for children under 7, said Judith Meyers, president and CEO of the Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut, which is leading the effort.

​

That’s in spite of significant needs. According to data from the Child Health and Development Institute, 44 percent of children aged 2 to 5 have experienced a potentially traumatic event such as physical or sexual abuse, violence, or the death of a loved one. Forty-nine percent of maltreated children in Connecticut are under 6. And because trauma can affect brain development, learning, relationships and health, young children are particularly vulnerable to the effects.

The acclaimed New York Times bestseller by Sue Klebold, mother of one of the Columbine shooters, about living in the aftermath of Columbine.

The factsheet is a result of collaborative effort among the Schools Committee, Justice Consortium, and Culture Consortium to address race and trauma in the classroom. This resource for educators is a tool that is particularly important at the outset of the school year and provides support for educators to address ongoing national conversations in a trauma-informed manner.

Recently, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Yale School of Medicine's Child Study Center ("Yale"), in partnership with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) at the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice, released the Enhancing Police Responses to Children Exposed to Violence: A Toolkit for Law Enforcement ("Toolkit") to address violence and victimization faced in homes, neighborhoods and communities around the country.  

A haunting, richly atmospheric, and deeply suspenseful novel from the acclaimed author of The Enchanted about an investigator who must use her unique insights to find a missing little girl.