Promoting Resilience

Host, Dr. Catherine Cerulli, a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, is joined by her
guest, Moses Robinson. Moses has been a police officer with the Rochester, NY City Police Department since 1985, was a school resource officer for 21 years, and is currently a community liaison officer. His time on the force has taught him the value of forming relationships with people including children in schools, victims of violence, and offenders, some who have been victimized themselves. Through Moses work as a school resource officer, he learned that building relationships with students, particularly students of color, is one of the biggest ways to transform the divide between law enforcement and children. He discusses how early childhood interventions and utilizing trauma informed care can help save lives by creating an environment where students can grow into health adults. Moses feels it is imperative officers understand trauma and how to approach tense situations when interacting with the public. This can be done through a greater understanding of developmental models and knowledge of how trauma affects the ways people respond as well as informing officers on how to engage with citizens through a trauma informed lens. Moses highlights community engagement research and how it can enable police officers to form strong connections with the community, build significant relationships with victims, and find best practices for handling strained or traumatic situations. Moses’ overreaching message is that building relationships with the community in addition to understanding and utilizing trauma informed care approaches will give officers necessary tools to better impact society.

Host, Dr. Catherine Cerulli, a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, is joined by her guest, Christie McGee Petrenko, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) researcher. FASD represents a range of conditions associated with prenatal alcohol exposure. Studies have documented that in the US 2-5% of the population have FASD, or one in 20, and as many as 80-90% of people go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. This impacts their lives in challenging ways including growth delays, learning and behavioral problems, and struggling with ADHD, anxiety, or depression. Children involved in the welfare system have a higher rate of being diagnosed with FASD as well as children in mental health care and justice settings. Dr. Petrenko discusses resources professionals can utilize to learn about FASD and ways to help patients. She also discusses an initiative that uses the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) approach to create learning collaborations with primary care providers in the community by engaging with and training nurses and pediatricians. Lastly, the episode concludes by discussing ways society portrays people with FASD and what can be done to increase understanding and inclusiveness to help improve their lives.

Host, Dr. Catherine Cerulli, a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, is joined by her guest, Nila Bragg, MSN, CPNP, a certified pediatric nurse practitioner and a Medical Consultant for the New York City Administration for Children's Services (ACS). ACS's mission is to protect and promote the safety and well-being of New York City's children. As part of that work, child protective specialists from ACS conduct investigations to determine what is needed to best keep the children safe. For instance, to help keep families together, child protective specialists often connect families to services that can help, including counseling, substance abuse treatment, and access to concrete resources, like food, diapers clothing and even child care vouchers. Throughout this work, it is important that ACS child protective staff understand a variety of medical issues that the family may be coping with, as well as treatments, in order to better identify whether there are any potential safety risks. As a Medical Consultant for ACS, Nila provides consultation to child protective specialists who have clients with complex medical histories. Nila helps CPS better connect children and their families with services that best support caregivers as they manage their child's medical needs. Nila's key message is that educating families and connecting them to resources is paramount to not only improve children's health, but connections also support the overall well-being of children and their families.

Host, Dr. Catherine Cerulli, a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, is joined by her guest, Elaine Spaull, Executive Director of The Center for Youth in Rochester, New York, to discuss the Center's work as they care for youth and families. Center staff supports clients in troubled situations due to issues such as abuse, neglect, and homelessness, and aids them in repairing their lives by building trust. Often, the result is long lasting relationships with staff and leadership. The Center offers emergency babysitting service for parents and caregivers through their Crisis Nursery, short-term housing for youth 12 years and older who are in unsafe living situations, and transitional housing for older youth who can live independently. Highlighted are real life stories of people who have faced trauma that led them to seek support from the Center. Also discussed throughout the episode is how trauma and neglect in childhood can affect people into adulthood.

Host, Dr. Catherine Cerulli, a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, is joined by her guest, Eileen Whitney, to discuss how children and families are supported in a court based daycare program and the barriers they face. Speaking from her own experience as the director of the Monroe County Family Court Children's Center at the Hall of Justice in Rochester, NY and as a foster mom to over 45 children throughout the years, eight of which she adopted, Eileen speaks about the work the Children's Center is conducting to help at-risk kids and their families who are involved in the court system. The Center provides childcare to parents and guardians when they have court dates so they are able to attend proceedings and serves as a connection point for families to find medical and human services they need. Eileen also discusses her life-long passion of being a foster mom, how foster care benefits children, and the joy it brings. Eileen's overarching message is that parents love and want to care for their children, but poverty and coping mechanisms often times get in the way of them being able to fully take care of their children.

Sound engineering and music by Joe Hagen. (Recorded August 2020)

Host, Dr. Catherine Cerulli, a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, is joined by her guest, Dr. Laura Schwab Reese, to discuss national talk, text, and chat lines that respond to child abuse. Speaking to the need for translational science to prevent abuse, Dr. Schwab Reese delves into the importance of these technologies as they can directly respond to children using technologies children use every day. The anonymity can empower them to reach out about their abuse. Through various analyses, Dr. Schwab Reese has identified ways to improve how counselors relate to kids when using these services. These techniques can create greater trust between both parties and help build autonomy so kids feel confident to participate in decision making. A discussion of mandatory reporting and ways to best support children's understanding of the process is also included in this conversation. Dr. Schwab Reese is an Assistant Professor of Public Health at Purdue University. Her research focuses on how young people use social media and other technology to share, process, and seek help related to child abuse and neglect as well as creating practice models that guide professionals to converse more effectively with victims through these networks. Sound engineering and music by Joe Hagen. (Recorded August 2020)

Host, Dr. Catherine Cerulli, a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, is joined by her guest, Dr. Nancy Weaver, to discuss how we can apply communication sciences, analytics and public health principles to promote healthy and positive parenting to reduce the prevalence of childhood abuse and neglect. This podcast will inform us on how to develop our own resiliency to respond to this crisis by learning how to be a bystander through a novel intervention program, Support over Silence for KIDS. Dr. Weaver created the program to educate community member's tangible skills to listen empathetically and non-judgmentally to parents and caregivers in situations where tensions rise to help deescalate what's happening in the moment.

Dr. Weaver has a Ph.D. in Health Behavior and Health Education and an M.P.H. in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as a B.S. in Mathematics and Statistics from the James Madison University. Sound engineering and music by Joe Hagen. (Recorded August 2020)

Host, Dr. Catherine Cerulli, a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, is joined by her guest, Dr. Shaun Nelms, to talk about how schools can build resiliency in youth and grow partnerships with families and community-based agencies. By meeting the youth's basic needs, we can improve health, prevent child abuse and neglect, and break intergenerational trajectories of poverty and violence. Dr. Nelms is the superintendent of East Upper and Lower Schools, a unique partnership between the New York State Education Department, Rochester City School District, and University of Rochester, where he is charged with creating a replicable school reform model that can transform the way we think about schools as centers for public health promotion. Please check out the following links from Dr. Nelms:

Adverse Childhood Experiences: https://www.rochester.edu/warner/cues/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/PYRCH-Year-Three-Summary.8.28.19.pdf

Family Group/Restorative Practices: https://www.rochester.edu/warner/cues/restorative-practices/

Bullying: https://www.rochester.edu/warner/cues/bullying/

Transforming East: https://youtu.be/hmqSKpNbN5s

Family and Community Engagement: https://vimeo.com/395096234 Sound engineering and music by Joe Hagen. (Recorded August 2020)

This podcast will focus on the role of race in child welfare, reporting, investigating, and responding. Host, Dr. Catherine Cerulli, a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, is joined by guest, Dr. Natalie A. Cort to explore the intersection and complex relationship between race and the crisis of child abuse and neglect. Dr. Cort is a Clinical Psychologist who educates future mental health clinicians and seeks to end implicit biases sometimes held by social service providers and clinicians. Sound engineering and music by Joe Hagen. (Recorded August 2020)

This podcast will inform us on how to support childrens' resiliency in the face of COVID-19 to prevent future child abuse and neglect. Host, Dr. Catherine Cerulli, a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, is joined by guest, Dr. Jody Manly, an internationally recognized researcher and clinician at the Mt. Hope Family Center, in Rochester, New York, who examines developmentally appropriate interventions to reduce the harmful effects of child abuse and neglect. Sound engineering and music by Joe Hagen. (Recorded August 2020)