Pregnancy and Family Health

How Cradle Cincinnati helps birthing parents address stress for better outcomes
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How Cradle Cincinnati helps birthing parents address stress for better outcomes

“Social determinants of health are stressors that relate to physical health.” So says Dr. Meredith Shockley-Smith, Executive Director of Cradle Cincinnati, Field Service Assistant Professor at UC Medical Center, and Founder of Queens Village. “And chronic, prolonged stress just magnifies [health] problems.”  Consistent access to nutritious food, affordable and suitable housing, and transportation are just…

Poverty and children’s mental health
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Poverty and children’s mental health

An Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) can take many forms, ranging from “abuse or neglect” to “significant surgery,” according to Victoria Ackman, LISW-S, Service Area Vice President for Lighthouse Youth & Family Services. These ACEs add up and “play a huge part into how your brain processes experiences, impacting everything you do and how you see…

Children living in poverty: It’s not just the children
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Children living in poverty: It’s not just the children

It’s common to see articles, reports, news segments all about children living in poverty. How do we help children experiencing homelessness? Food insecurity? Lack of adequate health care?  It’s a very important issue to address. These children need help immediately—and they need help for their future so they can break the cycle of poverty. However,…

How experiencing homelessness affects Cincinnati children
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How experiencing homelessness affects Cincinnati children

More than 8,000 children in Cincinnati experience homelessness each year. The average person—person, not just child—experiencing homelessness is nine years old. UpSpring, a local nonprofit aiming to break the cycle of poverty, fights these challenges. Lack of stability and consistency affects education Children experiencing homelessness suffer from lack of stability. “They may switch schools two…

Poverty passed down from generation to generation
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Poverty passed down from generation to generation

Every parent wants their child to have a better life than they did. They want them to be more successful, wealthier, healthier, and happier. But that doesn’t always happen. If you have experienced poverty as a child, you are “much more likely to be poor in early and middle adulthood than are those who were…

School-Based Health Centers in Cincinnati: An invaluable asset
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School-Based Health Centers in Cincinnati: An invaluable asset

It can be very difficult to find a pediatrician who accepts Medicaid. So says Francie Wolgin, who serves as Executive Director for Growing Well, a nonprofit that works with regional School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs) in Southwest Ohio. “They don’t actively seek to cover these children because they lose money on every case they see,” she…