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Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

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A Guide to Toxic Stress - Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

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Learn how toxic stress—which can occur with excessive or prolonged activation of our stress response systems—can impact early childhood development and how we can address it.

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About the California Surgeon General

The role of the California Surgeon General was created in 2019 by Governor Gavin Newsom to marshal the insights and energy of medical professionals, scientists, public health experts, public servants, and everyday Californians to drive solutions to our most pressing public health challenges. Dr. Diana E. Ramos is a well-recognized public health leader, and as California's Surgeon General, serves as a leading spokesperson on health disparities, social determinants of health, preconception/interconception health, preterm birth, contraception and quality improvement in health.
"My hope for every Californian is a healthier, more equitable future. That is my commitment, and the Office of the California Surgeon General's commitment to you. I look forward to serving you."
- California Surgeon General, Dr. Diana Ramos

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Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress are a public health crisis. We can take action to change and save lives.

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Data and Statistics on Children’s Mental Health

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Data and sources about mental health conditions that are most common in children.

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National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

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Explore NAMI’s back-to-school mental health resources for students, parents, and educators. Find tips, tools, and support to help kids and teens thrive emotionally and academically.

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Overview of adverse childhood experiences, the latest data, and CDC’s approach to prevention.

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Toolkit: Stress Busters for Community-Based Organizations - ACEs Aware

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The bottom line on student learning today is this: "You can't teach if you're not addressing mental health," says Rene Myers, an intervention specialist in St. Paul, Minn.

Myers has been working in public education for more than 33 years. Over the decades, the mental health needs of her students have grown, and grown, and grown, she says. The pandemic, coupled with decades of inaction by school boards and state legislators, has only made things worse.

About 214,000 U.S. children have lost a parent to COVID-19. They're adrift, grieving. Many other parents and caregivers lost their jobs. Today, 17 million U.S. children struggle with hunger-about 6 million more than before the pandemic. On top of that, recent years have reinforced how much this nation still struggles with racism and antiLGBTQ+ hatred.

So when Myers sat down at the bargaining table this year, seeking to negotiate a new contract between the St. Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) and her school district, her number-one priority was students' mental health.

"To know what our students and staff have gone through in the past two years ... to say we don't need mental health supports? It's like saying you don't need air. It's unimaginable!" she said.

In February, St. Paul educators voted to strike. Then, in early March, just hours before hitting the streets, union negotiators reached an agreement to preserve the mental health teams that SPFE won during 2020 bargaining. Those teams include counselors, nurses, social workers, and school psychologists in every St. Paul school.

These professionals are essential to providing students with what they need, says Myers.

From Bad to Worse

In the past year, even as the nation has returned to "normal" life, the latest research shows that many students are still living in a state of mental health crisis. This data isn't at all surprising to educators and parents.

"Of course we see advanced need! On top of the pandemic, everything happening with the economy also is impacting our families," says Theresann Pyrett, a Michigan middle school teacher and president of the West Ottawa Education Association (WOEA). "It's like a perfect breeding ground for mental health issues to develop."

In an April poll, nearly three-quarters of U.S. parents said their child would benefit from mental health counseling-up from 68 percent in 2021. Additionally, about a third said their child has recently shown symptoms of mental health issues, including anxiety (19 percent) and depression (13 percent).

Among parents of students with disabilities-including learning, developmental, and physical challenges-almost a third said their child has anxiety, and rates of depression are higher as well.

"The biggest misconception is that COVID makes people mentally ill. From my point of view, COVID unmasked people who have underlying vulnerabilities," said John Walkup, chair of the behavioral health department at Chicago's Lurie Children's Hospital, in an interview with the New York Times.

Before the pandemic, between 2016 and 2019, the number of children diagnosed with anxiety rose by 27 percent, while depression diagnoses rose by 24 percent. But recently, it's worse than ever.

In the past year, 15 percent of teens suffered at least one major depressive episode- that's an additional 306,000 teens over the previous 12 months, according to the 2022 data from Mental Health America. On top of that, nearly two-thirds of teens with major depression say they haven't gotten any help.

Demanding Help for Students

In West Ottawa, the local union is making sure students get what they need. That includes using local property tax revenues to hire 10 additional mental wellness coaches throughout the district and using federal pandemic relief funds to hire 16 additional interventionists.

WOEA leaders work closely with district administrators, all asking the same question: What's best for students?

"One thing I keep repeating, over and again, is that more hands on deck makes for a lighter load," Pyrett says. "We're focused on picking up kids-and if you have more hands to pick those kids up, it's so beneficial for those kids."

The Biden administration's pandemic relief plans have made the largest-ever, single investment in public schools. Now educators are making sure that money is used for the counselors, social workers, school psychologists, behavioral coaches, etc., that students need to be successful.

Unions also are bargaining contracts that include those supports. In Minneapolis, educators went on strike this spring for more than two weeks, finally settling a deal that doubles the number of nurses and counselors in elementary schools and provides a social worker in every school.

"Don't Say Gay" - Or Trans, Either

Maybe the most alarming figure in recent mental health data is this: Nearly half of young LGBTQ+ people have considered ending their lives in the past 12 months, according to a survey of 34,000 young people by the Trevor Project.

Among those young people with suicidal ideas, more than half are transgender and nonbinary youth and nearly half are Black. (Nonbinary is a term for people who do not identify as male or female.)

The numbers are troubling, but not surprising to Palm Beach County, Florida high school teacher Michael Woods. "Especially here in Florida, with the ' Don't Say Gay ' law, which should also be called 'Don't Say Trans,' we have a lot of kids in stress," Woods says. "They're just coming back to the rigors of school [after the pandemic]-and now this!"

The Florida law enables parents to sue school districts if they think their child has had inappropriate instruction on gender and sexuality. The cost of litigation will be borne by districts, which are already beginning to remove curricula on these topics.

Anti-gay laws are also spreading far beyond Florida. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered teachers to report parents of transgender youth for child abuse if the parents seek gender-affirming care for their child. NEA and state educators unions have spoken out against these laws.

For his part, Woods-an educator of 29 years-isn't afraid. He wears his "We're All Human" T-shirt and answers his students' questions. But he worries about younger teachers with less job security, living in more conservative areas.

"I tell the kids, I'm always here for you. I'm always a safe space for you. I'm not giving up on you, and you shouldn't give up on yourself," he says. "When young people don't feel like they have anywhere to turn or anyone to talk to ... well, I know why the stats are the way they are."

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Mental Health in Schools: The Kids Are Not All Right | NEA

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As students' mental health needs rise, so do educators' demands for help.

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There is a dark reality that teachers and school staff face that is coming to light and cannot be ignored.

The stress levels teachers and school staff experience on a daily basis have never been higher . A recent poll shows that 46 percent of teachers report high stress every day, tying teaching with nursing as the most stressful occupation in the United States.

Education Support's chief executive, Sinéad McBrearty stated:

COVID-19 Has Spiked Stress, But It Was Always There

While COVID-19 has amplified and exacerbated stress and overwhelm, mental health issues have been on the rise for teachers for quite some time.

COVID-19 has brought a new awareness to these issues and it is clear that changes need to be made in schools in order to prevent detrimental damage to the wellness of teachers and their students.

A rise in anxiety since COVID-19 is understandable considering teachers are now learning how to balance managing their own families and their needs while also working full-time and learning how to use new technology from home.

"My vision of finally having someone else take care of my own kids' education, even virtually, was smashed to smithereens. This requires 100% parent involvement, actually 200% because my kids are in two different grades!" a teacher commented.

The Mental Health Issue Prior to COVID-19

Despite the rise in stress and anxiety due to the global pandemic, these have been challenges for those in education for far too long.

If that isn't enough evidence, almost 75 percent of teachers and 84 percent of school leaders consider themselves to be "stressed". 49 percent of professionals in education report that their workplace has a negative influence on their mental health.

"Overwork has become normalized. Education professionals don't feel trusted," said Sinead McBrearty, the chief executive of Education Support , a charity that provides mental health support to education professionals . "They are almost twice as anxious as the general population. That's a measure of how harsh our accountability systems are and the way in which accountability in education is so reductive. This report has to be a very loud wake-up call for all concerned."

Stress Impacts Teachers & Students

With the high levels of stress and anxiety that teachers are feeling, it is inevitable that this will end up impacting students poorly. This creates a vicious cycle of stressed-out teachers, which can negatively influence the students in classrooms, causing the students to act out and suffer from poor mental health, resulting in even more stress for the teachers.

Hostility towards the teacher

Inattention during class

Noisiness

Lack of effort in class

Unpreparedness for class

Hyperactivity

Disregard for school rules

Damage to school property

Hostility toward other students

Lack of interest in learning

One in five children have, or will have, a serious mental health illness during their lifetime. When teachers don't have the knowledge or resources they need to work with these students, it not only increases teacher's stress levels, but hurts student performance and allows their condition to go ignored.

Why Emotion Management Matters

When emotions run high in the classroom, the impact can be destructive. If the teacher is not equipped with the knowledge and resources to manage their emotions properly, this could hurt their own well-being, along with that of their students. The better teachers are in control of their own emotions, the more it allows them to be mindful of the students and to manage their classrooms effectively.

Teachers who are not aware of how to effectively manage stress decrease their ability to educate their students properly.

It is vital that teachers know how to manage their emotions in the classroom because they can also impact relationships, health and well-being, and performance.

With the right tools, teachers could be prepared and understand how to address their emotions and manage them safely while maintaining a healthy relationship with their students.

Administrators Need to Take Responsibility for Teachers and Students

To create real change within the school system and address the mental health issues that teachers and students are facing, school administrators must step up.

Keith Herman , a professor in the MU College of Education, said, "Administrators set the tone in their building for how teachers are perceived and supported. Prioritizing teacher well-being and giving higher rates of recognition and positive feedback to teachers versus criticism and judgment helps set a positive tone."

Making the well-being of teachers a priority and providing them with the proper programs and resources they need to be successful is a start to creating healthier classroom environments for both the teachers and students.

Solutions to Reduce Stress & Anxiety

Research has shown that there are effective ways to combat stress and anxiety for teachers. In order to tackle this issue, it is important to understand how to identify what stress looks like so that it can be caught early on and managed.

Symptoms of Stress

Feelings of irritation and inadequacy when thinking about school

Physical symptoms such as headaches and insomnia

Withdrawal from colleagues or conflicts with colleagues

Difficulty concentrating at work

Absences or the desire to miss school

Road to Recovery

Research has also shown that in order to effectively manage stress and anxiety, both teachers and administrators must possess developed emotional skills including the "ability to recognize emotions accurately, understand their causes and consequences, label them precisely, express them comfortably and regulate them effectively".

The current situation presents an opportunity for administrators to work with teachers to improve the emotional environment of schools and the learning outcomes of students.

Student Mental Health Certifications

20 percent of students are diagnosed with a mental health condition and suicide is the second leading cause of death in people ages 10 to 34. Despite these facts, 70 percent of students with a mental health disorder do not receive proper treatment. Part of this is likely due to teachers who are not equipped with the proper training and resources they need to be effective.

Part of the reason for the stress teachers feel is they do not feel properly prepared to be able to help students with mental health issues - or identify them early on - and almost no teachers have sufficient training in mental health disorders. Knowledge in this area can truly empower teachers to help their students.

Teachers, staff, and administrators should consider completing additional training to become a Student Mental Health Specialist (SMHS) or getting a Student Mental Health Certificate (SMHC).

Mental health issues plague students, and these certifications are essential in that they equip teachers and staff with the tools they need to provide support and resources to families and students in order to enhance their school experience, safety, and learning outcomes.

In a survey involving 10,000 school administrators and special education directors in school districts nationwide, it was discovered that 81 percent of teenagers with anxiety responded positively to teacher intervention. 71 percent of teens experienced improved test scores after experiencing teacher engagement and 85 percent of teenagers with ADHD improved academically after treatment.

Learn about mental health certifications for your school today

Support Programs

Support programs, including workshops, are an effective way to address mental health issues in schools while creating a space where teachers and staff feel seen and heard.

These support programs can include teacher mentorship, constructive communication with administrators, time management, and team building opportunities.

Wellness Programs

This led to the employees having lower medical claims payments, which resulted in a savings of three times the cost of the wellness program making the investment well worth it.

Emotional Learning Programs

Social and emotional learning programs (SEL) are beneficial in that they help teachers understand how to manage students more effectively in the classroom. This can result in higher confidence levels and lower stress rates.

Implementation of Solutions is Essential

To combat the stress and anxiety teachers experience, it will take effort and due diligence, but solutions do exist.

It is time for school leaders and administrators to step forward and realize the weight that their future actions will have on both the well-being of teachers and students. What administrators decide to do will significantly impact the future of our school system along with the lives of everyone involved.

It is important to recognize that for teachers to be able to best help their students they need to be able to first take care of themselves.

They also need to be empowered to both recognize and address the mental health issues in their students. This helps them to feel more in control of their own situation and helps their students, helping to both reduce teacher turnover and make classrooms a better place for students.
Learn more about student mental health certifications
Or fill out the form below to get in touch for certification for your school.

Learn More About Student Mental Health Certification Options

Related Posts

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How to Manage Stress for Teachers and School Staff (Now)

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There is a dark reality that teachers and school staff face that is coming to light and cannot be ignored. The stress levels teachers and school staff experience on a daily basis have never been higher .

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The National Child Traumatic Stress Network

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Provides school administrators, teachers, staff, and concerned parents with basic information about working with traumatized children in the school system.

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Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity. CDC works to understand ACEs and prevent them.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Prevention Strategy Plan [3 MB, 20 Pages]
This resource outlines CDC's specific goals and objectives for ACEs prevention and response. The goals and objectives aim to prevent ACEs before they happen, identify those who have experienced ACEs, and respond using trauma-informed approaches in order to create the conditions for strong, thriving families and communities where all children and youth are free from harm and all people can achieve lifelong health and wellbeing.

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Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity. CDC works to understand ACEs and prevent them. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Prevention Strategy Plan [3 MB, 20 Pages] This resource outlines CDC's specific goals and objectives for ACEs prevention and response.

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NJDOE Releases School-Based Mental Health Resource Guide - New Jersey School Boards Association

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The comprehensive resource contains 11 chapters that address a variety of issues, such as suicide prevention and intervention.

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According to data from the National Survey of Children's Health on adverse childhood experiences, almost half of all of the nation's youth aged 17 and under have experienced at least one serious childhood trauma, which equates to nearly 35 million children.

Additionally, the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, documented that there is a strong relationship between exposure to adverse childhood experiences and risk of long-term health risks.

In order to address childhood trauma and adversity and build resilience, we must shift our perspective from "What's wrong with this child?" to "What happened to this child?" In order to shift this perspective, we first need to build awareness in our community that trauma is very common.

What is "Trauma-Informed Care (TIC)"?

With trauma-informed care, we start with an understanding that any person may have experienced some degree of trauma, and that it's supportive to work with people in ways that build resilience and prevent the possibility of re-traumatization.

Trauma-Informed Care Implementation Resource Center explains TIC:

A trauma-informed approach to care acknowledges that health care organizations and care teams need to have a complete picture of a patient's life situation - past and present - in order to provide effective health care services with a healing orientation.

This approach doesn't solely rely on mental health professionals, as Child Trends states:

TIC is not the sole responsibility or purview of mental health professionals. While evidence-based trauma treatment can play a significant role in the healing process for children who need it, there are many other ways to implement TIC. In fact, every program and service system that touches the lives of children can play an important role.

In order to build resilience among children and youth, we must implement TIC into our child and family services system through our roles as parents, educators, clinicians, organizational leaders, service providers, families and policy makers.

What Does Trauma Look Like?

Clare Norelle is a certified facilitator of Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) and the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) , who offers individual sessions through Dane County's Comprehensive Community Services (CCS) program. Clare explains how trauma affects many aspects of a person's life, and presents itself in a variety of different forms:

You can develop trauma from experiences of neglect, abuse, violence, loss, illness, injury, marginalization, or oppression-or other experiences that feel overwhelmingly harmful. Sometimes trauma can happen from witnessing or being in close contact with the trauma of other people. Sometimes it happens all at once, and sometimes it's more cumulative, with traumatic stress increasing over time.

Trauma is a condition that mainly affects your autonomic nervous system. It can make you feel wound up, anxious, angry or hyper-vigilant, with difficulty sleeping... or shut down, numb, depressed or sluggish, with a hard time feeling alert.... Or a strange combination of these and other things. Trauma can affect your moods, your memory, your appetite, your sense of time, and how or whether you're able to see and hear things. It can diminish your ability to accurately feel what's going on in your body in the present moment, to process information and make decisions, and to stay present and attentive in your life. Trauma can compromise your immune system and your overall health, and it can have a major impact on your life.

Key Components of a Trauma-Informed Approach

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Building Resilience Through Trauma-Informed Care - NAMI Dane County

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According to data from the National Survey of Children's Health on adverse childhood experiences, almost half of all of the nation's youth aged 17 and under have experienced at least one serious childhood trauma, which equates to nearly 35 million children .

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This web page from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing explores the Trauma-informed, Resilience-oriented Care (TIROC) framework that can be adopted by organizations and community systems to minimize retraumatization and support resilience. It identifies the National Council's seven domains of TIROC and provides opportunities for organizations to learn more about trauma-informed services and adaptations that can be made to their services.

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This web page from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing explores the Trauma-informed, Resilience-oriented Care (TIROC) framework that can be adopted by organizations and community systems to minimize retraumatization and support resilience. It identifies the National Council's seven domains of TIROC and provides opportunities for organizations to learn more about trauma-informed services and adaptations that can be made to their services.

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Effects of Trauma

The effects of traumatic events place a heavy burden on individuals, families, and communities. Although many people who experience a traumatic event will go on with their lives without lasting negative effects, others will have difficulties and experience traumatic stress reactions. How someone responds to a traumatic experience is personal. If there is a strong support system in place, little or no prior traumatic experiences, and if the individual has many resilient qualities, it may not affect his or her mental health.

Research has shown that traumatic experiences are associated with both behavioral health and chronic physical health conditions, especially those traumatic events that occur during childhood. Substance use, mental health conditions, and other risky behaviors have been linked with traumatic experiences. Because these behavioral health concerns can present challenges in relationships, careers, and other aspects of life, it is important to understand the nature and impact of trauma, and to explore healing.

Alternatives to Seclusion and Restraint

Seclusion and restraint were once perceived as therapeutic practices in the treatment of people with mental and/or substance use disorders. Today, these methods are viewed as traumatizing practices and are only to be used as a last resort when less-restrictive measures have failed and safety is at severe risk.

Seclusion is defined as the involuntary, solitary confinement of an individual. Restraint refers to any method, physical or mechanical device, or material or equipment that immobilizes or reduces an individual's ability to freely move his or her arms, legs, body, or head. A drug or medication also might be used to restrict behavior or freedom of movement.

Studies have shown that the use of seclusion and restraint can result in psychological harm, physical injuries, and death to both the people subjected to and the staff applying these techniques. Injury rates to staff in mental health settings that use seclusion and restraint have been found to be higher than injuries sustained by workers in high-risk industries. Restraints can be harmful and often re-traumatizing for people, especially those who have trauma histories. Beyond the physical risks of injury and death, it has been found that people who experience seclusion and restraint remain in care longer and are more likely to be readmitted for care.

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SAMHSA addresses the impact of trauma on individuals, families, and communities as a behavioral health concern that requires a healing and recovery process.

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Exposure to trauma can be life-changing - and researchers are learning more about how traumatic events may physically change our brains. But these changes are not happening because of physical injury, rather our brain appears to rewire itself after these experiences. Understanding the mechanisms involved in these changes and how the brain learns about an environment and predicts threats and safety is a focus of the ZVR Lab at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester, which is led by assistant professor Benjamin Suarez- Jimenez, Ph.D.

"We are learning more about how people exposed to trauma learn to distinguish between what is safe and what is not. Their brain is giving us insight into what might be going awry in specific mechanisms that are impacted by trauma exposure, especially when emotion is involved," said Suarez-Jimenez, who began this work as a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Yuval Neria, Ph.D., professor at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Their research, recently published in Communications Biology, identified changes in the salience network - a mechanism in the brain used for learning and survival - in people exposed to trauma (with and without psychopathologies, including PTSD, depression, and anxiety). Using fMRI, the researchers recorded activity in the brains of participants as they looked at different-sized circles - only one size was associated with a small shock (or threat). Along with the changes in the salience network, researchers found another difference - this one within the trauma-exposed resilient group. They found the brains of people exposed to trauma without psychopathologies were compensating for changes in their brain processes by engaging the executive control network - one of the dominate networks of the brain.

"Knowing what to look for in the brain when someone is exposed to trauma could significantly advance treatments," said Suarez-Jimenez, a co-first author with Xi Zhu, PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurobiology at Columbia, of this paper. "In this case, we know where a change is happening in the brain and how some people can work around that change. It is a marker of resilience."

Adding the element of emotion

The possibility of threat can change how someone exposed to trauma reacts - researchers found this is the case in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as described in a recent study in Depression & Anxiety. Suarez-Jimenez, his fellow co-authors, and senior author Neria found patients with PTSD can complete the same task as someone without exposure to trauma when no emotion is involved. However, when emotion invoked by a threat was added to a similar task, those with PTSD had more difficulty distinguishing between the differences.

The team used the same methods as the other experiment - different circle sizes with one size linked to a threat in the form of a shock. Using fMRI, researchers observed people with PTSD had less signaling between the hippocampus - an area of the brain responsible for emotion and memory - and the salience network - a mechanism used for learning and survival. They also detected less signaling between the amygdala (another area linked to emotion) and the default mode network (an area of the brain that activates when someone is not focused on the outside world). These findings reflect a person with PTSD's inability to effectively distinguish differences between the circles.

"This tells us that patients with PTSD have issues discriminating only when there is an emotional component. In this case, aversive; we still need to confirm if this is true for other emotions like sadness, disgust, happiness, etc.," said Suarez-Jimenez. "So, it might be that in the real-world emotions overload their cognitive ability to discriminate between safety, danger, or reward. It overgeneralizes towards danger."

"Taken together, findings from both papers, coming out of a NIMH funded study aiming to uncover neural and behavioral mechanisms of trauma, PTSD and resilience, help to extend our knowledge about the effect of trauma on the brain," said Neria, lead PI on this study. "PTSD is driven by remarkable dysfunction in brain areas vital to fear processing and response. My lab at Columbia and the Dr. Suarez-Jimenez lab at Rochester are committed to advance neurobiological research that will serve the purpose of development new and better treatments that can effectively target aberrant fear circuits."

Suarez-Jimenez will continue exploring the brain mechanisms and the different emotions associated with them by using more real-life situations with the help of virtual reality in his lab. He wants to understand if these mechanisms and changes are specific to a threat and if they expand to context-related processes.

Additional authors include co-first authors John Keefe, Ph.D., of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Xi Zhu, Ph.D., of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Amit Lazarov, Ph.D., of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Ariel Durosky of the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Sara Such of the University of Pennsylvania, Caroline Marohasy of the University of Washington, Seattle, and Shmuel Lissek of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Additional authors on the Communications Biology paper include co-first author Xi Zhu, Ph.D., Amit Lazarov, Ph.D., Scott Small, M.D., of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Ariel Durosky of the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Sara Such of the University of Pennsylvania, Caroline Marohasy of the University of Washington, Seattle, Tor Wager, Ph.D., of Dartmouth College, Martin Lindquist, Ph.D. of Johns Hopkins, and Shmuel Lissek, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota. The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health.

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Researchers reveal how trauma changes the brain

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Researchers have found exposure to traumatic events may physically change the brain, including the mechanism used for learning and survival. These findings could significantly advance future treatments.

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Research continues on impact of trauma on changes in brain

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The connection between trauma and the brain is a topic that’s important to acknowledge in June during Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Month. According to the National Center for PTSD, a program of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, about six of every 100 people will experience PTSD at some point in their lives for some reason. The Recovery Village reports the following PTSD statistics and facts:

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Stress, Trauma, and the Brain: Insights for Educators--The Neurosequential Model

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1. Chudzik et al., 2024 Expulsion through Trauma Lens (1)

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2. Chudzik et al., 2023_ TIC Case Study (1)

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Creating therapeutic, educational approaches for today’s complex mental health challenges.​

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Offered by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This course is aimed at anyone who is interested in trauma and education. The MOOC ... Enroll for free.

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Healing Childhood Trauma | Youth Mental Health | PBS LearningMedia

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In these videos, you will hear from experts on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). There are currently 10 identified ACEs: physical, emotional, and sexual abuse; physical and emotional neglect; mental illness in a family member, an incarcerated parent, an abused mother, substance abuse, and divorce.
A growing body of research is revealing how prolonged exposure to stress and trauma can impact a child’s long-term physical and mental health, which can have serious implications for the nation’s schools, businesses, prisons, and health care system.

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Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

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Children are among the most vulnerable after traumatic events or disasters. Traumatic stress occurs when a child (0-18 years) feels intensely threatened by an event they experience or witness. Young people often need time and emotional support to feel secure again after experiencing trauma or a disaster. Their reactions are influenced by how parents, relatives, teachers, and caregivers respond. These individuals provide comfort and stability, and play a vital role by maintaining normal routines or establishing new ones after a crisis. With proper caregiving and access to trauma-informed services, many children recover and thrive.

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The Neurosequential Model is a developmentally-informed, biologically-respectful approach to working with at-risk children.

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It takes courage to help child and adult victims of sexual abuse, assist survivors of acts of terrorism and mass violence, fight fires that may have taken people's lives, or respond to shootings and other crime scenes. It also takes commitment to do this work despite the personal, physical, emotional, and mental impact it can have.

The Vicarious Trauma Toolkit (VTT) was developed on the premise that exposure to the traumatic experiences of other people-known as vicarious trauma -is an inevitable occupational challenge for the fields of victim services, emergency medical services, fire services, law enforcement, and other allied professionals; however, organizations can mitigate the potentially negative effects of trauma exposure by becoming vicarious trauma-informed.

The VTT includes tools and resources tailored specifically to these fields that provide the knowledge and skills necessary for organizations to address the vicarious trauma needs of their staff. To begin exploring the VTT, select one of the disciplines below and visit the comprehensive Compendium of Resources.

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The Vicarious Trauma Toolkit | Introduction

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It takes courage to help child and adult victims of sexual abuse, assist survivors of acts of terrorism and mass violence, fight fires that may have taken people's lives, or respond to shootings and other crime scenes. It also takes commitment to do this work despite the personal, physical, emotional, and mental impact it can have.

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We partner with executives, managers, and emerging leaders to develop the clarity, courage, and skills needed to lead through complexity. Through these sessions, we support leaders to embody and embed trauma-informed practices individually, interpersonally, and across the institution.