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National Child Abuse Prevention Conference: Call for Workshop Proposals

Posted: 17 Aug 2009 07:24 AM PDT

Proposals are now being accepted to present workshops for Changing the Way We Think About Prevention: Making Children Our Priority, Prevent Child Abuse America’s National Conference, to be held May 17-19, 2010, in Jacksonville, Florida.

The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2009.

Conference Audience: Estimated 1,000 professionals and volunteers engaged in the prevention of child abuse and neglect, the promotion of healthy child development, and in support of strong communities in a variety of ways.

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Counting What Counts

Posted: 29 Jul 2009 10:19 AM PDT

The 20th annual KIDS COUNT Data Book provides a national and state-by-state look at the status of children in the United States. This year’s companion essay (pdf) outlines a series of action steps to improve the nation’s use of data in creating policies that improve outcomes for children and families.

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SOMETHING ON THE SOCIAL BRAIN!

I like this article (below) because it ties into how our social (right limbic) brain is SUPPOSED to operate!  If we do not get the mimicking from our early caregivers we need as infants while our social brain is developing (and we get a different brain as a result of this lack), the kinds and quality of social interactions the article (below) is talking about do not work right for us as adults.  This leads to all kinds of problems for us — including increased social interaction stress (and resulting risk for belly fat!).

Lack of adequate infant social interaction influences everything about how we later function in the world as members of a social species, including our ability to experience empathy and to communicate with others!

Monkey see, monkey do: Why we flatter via imitation

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THE BAD THING ABOUT OUR STRESS-RELATED BELLY FAT!

It turns out that the kind of belly fat I developed post-chemotherapy and cancer (steroid) treatment IS directly related to stress.  Reseachers are finding that post-menopausal women tend to gain that awful belly fat mostly because by that time of life our levels of responsibility and stress are often nearly ‘through the roof’.

Stress belly fat (causing the apple rather than the pear look) on both men and women is a DIFFERENT KIND OF FAT.  It turns out that those fat cells are hormone factories themselves, and have four times the number of cortisol (stress hormone) receptors.  These particular belly fat cells wrap themselves around internal organs and are directly responsible for signaling stress-related responses to our organs!  These are NOT the same kind of fat cells we carry on hips, thighs, arms, etc.!

Go figure!

This also relates to anxiety disorders such as depression and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder)!  I am beginning to understand that when I encounter ‘belly fat’ people in public those people’s bodies are responding to those people’s life stress!  Talk about the usefulness of INFORMED COMPASSION for ourselves and for others!

(Read what fat-bellied monkeys tell us about our own social stress.)

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Tomorrow I leave North Dakota for Alaska.  Will be checking in here from THERE!

(Did you happen to read “My Stroke of Insight” yet I mentioned in my earlier post?)

ALSO – Look for the current TIME magazine special ($11.95) issue on the BRAIN on the newstand or in your local grocery store or book store!!

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