Social Impact Panel Takeaways: Innovations in Healthcare

With gratitude to our panelists, moderator, and guests, we enjoyed the opportunity to co-learn at The Co-Co’s social impact panel discussion last night. Here are a few takeaways from our expert panelists:

Sita Kedia MD, MPH, FAHS, Chief Medical Officer | PALM Health

Incorporating stress reduction into your daily life:

Lay on the ground (office floor, in front of the couch at home, anywhere). It should be either on the floor or the ground. Feel the weight of that support. The grounding of our body. The hydrating of your spinal cord. The equilibrium of your body. Gravity is working on your body at equal pressure from your head to your toes. Let yourself just relax, letting thoughts come and go as they want. Just 5 minutes. That’s all your need.

Growing in self-awareness and spiritual health:

Focuses on helping individuals find meaning and purpose in their life. Examine your day to day habits and actions. What is it that bring you happiness, joy, sense of meaning and purpose?

• This may be through working in the service of others

• Feeling connected to those around you and your environment

• It may be through hobbies, work, taking care of a loved one.

• Try to do 5 acts of kinds a day.

• Smile. Even if you are alone in your office, your car, at home.

Here are some good urls for learning about functional medicine, integrative medicine, and the services of Chambers Center by PALM Health:

https://www.ifm.org/functional-medicine/

https://nccih.nih.gov/health/integrative-health

http://www.bravewell.org/integrative_medicine/

https://www.chamberscenter.com

Keri Logosso-Misurell, Executive Director, Greater Newark Healthcare Coalition & Healthy Greater Newark ACO

ACEs/Toxic Stress Tips: 

The good news is that, just as our scientific understanding of how adversity affects the developing brain is growing, so is our scientific insight into how we can offer the children we love resilient parenting, and how we can all take small steps to heal body and brain.   Just as physical wonds and bruises heal, just as we can regain muscle tone, we can recover function in under-connected areas of the brain. The brain and body are never static; they are always in a process of becoming and changing. Science-journalist Donna Jackson Nakazawa is making tremendous contributions to the field and I recommend you learn more at DonnaJacksonNakazawa.com and consider starting with her book “Childhood Disrupted:  How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal.”

Tips for Self:

1. Take the ACE questionnaire to learn your ACE score.

2. Practice healthy sleep habits.

3. Incorporate physical activity into your routine.

4. Incorporate mindfulness/meditation into your routine.

5. Practice yoga.

6. Manage your gut health with probiotics.

7. Nurture your relationships

8. Write to heal.

9. Consult a licensed therapist.                             

Tips for Building Resilience in Children:

• If you lose your temper, make a repair right away.   Admitting that your behavior fell short of the kind of good parenting you’re aiming for won’t diminish you in your child’s eyes, instead it’s honest, and gains credibility and trust.   The faster you make a repair, the less likely that an unhappy or frightening memory will stick. Try -- “I raised my voice and it must’ve scared you, I wish I hadn’t done that. I’m sorry.” Or “Hey, this is what has been happening, this is why I reacted that way, and I’m sorry.  What I said and did was wrong, and I want to do better.”

• Impose limits.   While it’s important that we let our kids know we hear them, validate their emotions AND hold them accountable for their actions.   If you lost your temper b/c of something the child has done that breaks rules you’ve established, it’s best to apologize for your reactivity while also making sure she knows what behavior prompted your response.   Try “This must be upsetting. It’s hard not to get your way. Our rule, as you know, is that you can’t stay out past your curfew, and here are the consequences for that…” This sends two messages at once – you’re admitting you regret your immediate response and you’re standing your ground.

• Emphasize the good.   Research shows that in any relationship it takes five good interactions to make up for one singe bad one, because our painful experiences are much more memorable than our pleasant ones.   We need to help our children and ourselves balance the stressful moments, interactions and even adverse experiences with a sense of wonder and goodness. We need to help our kids look for and take in what’s good.  When you emphasize the good, it makes the not-so-good easier to manage and allows your child to build new, positive neural networks that enhance their resilience. If, for example, you see a woodpecker in the garden, a rainbow, or a fish in a pond, talk to your child about the beauty of the moment.  Try, “Isn’t it nice we can be here to together to see this?”

• Don’t solve all their problems for them.   Parents need to distinguish between safe and unsafe struggles.   If for example, your child left her class notes in her school locker and can’t prepare for a test the next day, you can support her and offer advice without taking care of her problems for her.  You might try “It sounds like you have a problem, but I know you can handle it. What are your options?” This is better than marching into school and demanding the teacher give her an extra day to study.  If we seek to protect our children from even mild adversity, we deprive them of opportunities to deal with hardship, disappointment, and loss, and develop a little grit. At the same time, if our children are being bullied, struggling with learning disabilities or emotional health problems, experimenting with sex, drugs, or alcohol, or being abused in any way, it’s our job as parents to intervene.  

• Practice mindfulness-based stress reduction with your child.   Mindfulness meditation has been shown to change genes that regulate stress response and their output of inflammatory hormones.   Added bonus of spending time together working on your thought patterns will strengthen your bond. 

Sometimes, especially when we’re feeling overwhelmed, we need to remind ourselves there’s no such thing as the perfect parent.  But we can nurture children and teens in ways that prevent chronic, unpredictable stress from taking a long-term toll. The new science on stress in childhood can provide us with avenues to healing and hope for our children’s futures.   We can use this science to help build resilience and to give them the best possible chance to live happy, healthy lives.

Online Resources:  www.ACEsConnection.com; www.Stresshealth.org