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Link – What is online enticement and how is it happening?
The lesson, as always, is to keep up to date with the technology your kids are using, how they are using it, and who they communicate with. Don’t just hand them an internet connected device and walk away ignorant about what they can do with it. Go read more about this. “What is Online Enticement?…
Sharing – Red Flags of child sex abusers from an ex-child abuse detective
We’ve spent so much time looking at lists like this one, looking for the bad people, and that is absolutely part of abuse prevention. Still, we’ve missed the boat on what might be the most significant tool in our prevention toolkit, taking the target off kids by connecting with them as parents and with other trusted adults—helping them be less vulnerable.
Kids who don’t have secrets make terrible targets for abusers. Kids with support and secure relationships aren’t easily manipulated and aren’t too eager to please adults.
We need our kids to be more of that, starting with having close relationships with the safe adults in their lives.
Reviews Elsewhere – Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World
Kevin Eikenberry, who blogs on leadership, has a quick write up of this book, obviously written from the perspective of being a leader and helping identify loneliness in your own life, and the lives of those who follow you in the workplace. That being said, I thought the subject really applied to us when it…
Sharing – Kindness Is Action
Kindness matters, and kids who see kindness not just directed at them, but acts of kindness that they witness second-hand, have fewer signs of anxiety and other issues.
But, as in most things, some groups are much more likely to see kindness and support directed at them, while others, especially minority and LGBTQ kids generally don’t see kindness around them as often.
Seems to me that is a simple fix for this. Work at being kind to everyone. It clearly matters to kids, and even though this study doesn’t show it, I would bet it matters to adults as well!
Link – Does Your Family Know Your Mental Health Care Preferences?
This is good advice if you think it may be possible that you’ll be in a position where you, or a loved one, may be unable to advocate for yourself. More than half of the U.S. states recognize psychiatric advance directives, legal documents that detail instructions for mental health care when a person is not…
Childhood Trauma and Adult Mental Health Issues – It’s not That Simple
That’s the take-away from this more recent study. We cannot point to childhood trauma as the explanation for all mental health issues in adulthood. Sometimes, it is a contributing factor. Sometimes, it isn’t. Mental Health is much more complicated. There is no simple explanation for why it happens, and there’s no simple explanation for why it’s been getting worse. Beware those who want to paint all mental health issues with the same brush. Human beings are a bit more complicated than that.
