November 20, 2017
Science Café’ 360 Overview
GW-CHIPR and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Children’s National (CTSI-CN) have partnered to bring you an overview of the latest café in the Science Café 360 series. The objective of the Science Café 360 is to promote bi-directional conversations between researchers and local communities by creating an atmosphere where participants can build trust, co-mingle, and engage in open dialogue.
The topics for the science café’ series focus on four priority areas determined by the DC Healthy Communities Collaborative (DCHCC) 2016 Community Health Needs Assessment:
From Placenta to Preschool: The Developing Brain and What Communities Can Do to Support It
On Wednesday, November 1, 2017, the Science Café 360 series brought together Dr. Anna Penn, a neonatologist and developmental neuroscientist, Dr. Lee Beers, a pediatrician and the Director of DC Mental Health Access in Pediatrics, Gail Avent, the Executive Director and Founder of Total Family Care Coalition and community advocate, along with nearly 100 attendees from the community. In spirit of the Science Café’s mission, the room was warm and welcoming, with candlelit tables, hearty hors d'oeuvres, and cozy seating.
“Mental health begins in the womb”. A clear and concise introductory statement by Dr. Penn, who invented the field of neuroplacentology. Neuroplacentology, coined by Dr. Penn back in 2013, is an emerging field in placental research. There are still only a handful of neonatologists and neuroscientists currently studying the effect of placenta on the developing brain in-utero. This innovative research is crucial to neurodevelopment, because while we don’t understand the mechanism of how placental hormones affect the fetus we do know that they impact neurodevelopment. Pre-term birth, birth prior to 37 weeks gestational age, is associated with a nearly four-fold increased risk of psychiatric problems later in life[1]. Pre-term birth is also associated with learning and physical disabilities, such as autism and cerebral palsy[2]. Because we don’t understand the how placental hormones support neonate neurodevelopment, we don’t have any treatments to prevent these kinds of neurodevelopment problems from developing in pre-term infants.
However, we do know some of the causes of pre-term births, and how to prevent them. Prenatal care, good nutrition, low stress levels, and vaccines can help prevent pre-term deliveries[3]. Unfortunately, not all pregnant women have the resources to access prenatal care and ensure low stress or proper nutrition. We also know that there are a disproportionate number of pre-term births among minority women and women of lower socioeconomic status. Dr. Lee Beers’ goal is to decrease the impact of stress and adversity in these communities, by empowering community members and connecting them with available resources. Her work with the Early Childhood Innovation Network (ECIN) aims to bridge this gap and create new interventions for vulnerable youth to improve their academic, physical, and mental health trajectories. ECIN’s model incorporates the latest pediatric research and coalition-building to produce the best interventions in early childhood development.
Gail Avent shares a similar purpose with her advocacy work and development of the Total Family Care Coalition . Her work focuses on empowering families and youth so they can share their challenges, become their own advocates, and navigate the sometimes complex network of community services and resources. She encourages parents to speak out about their personal and unique challenges and to ask for help. She understands their perspective, because she’s been in their shoes before and faced some hardships of her own. During the café, Gail opened up to the audience and shared her story as a survivor of domestic violence. She’s not alone, nearly 1 in 3 women experience intimate partner violence in their lifetime[4]. She talked about the shame she felt in her marriage and the feelings of guilt that she had “failed” her four children. She mentioned that because of these feelings, she often found it difficult to ask for help and seek out community resources. After divorcing her husband, instead of “getting mad” at her circumstances she “became an advocate for [her] family.” Now she works to promote family healing, familial support, building trusting relationships, and teaching better communication skills so that families can “break that stress cycle” and reach out for the services and support they need.
Strong family and community relationships can serve as a buffer to stress, mental health issues, and adversity for both the mother and the child. Community empowerment and community engagement are crucial for developing new research priorities, incorporating the latest research into health policies, and improving the overall health of communities. Be sure to check out our CHIPR podcast with all of the panelists here to learn more! Don’t forget to subscribe to our listserv to hear more about the latest health research news and innovation! The next Science Café 360 – Coordination, Strength, and Flexibility, They’re Not Just for PE: Using Data to Build Strong Partnerships Between Schools and Health Systems – will be held on Tuesday, December 5th, 2017 from 6:00pm-8:00pm, at Busboys and Poets in Brookland. Register soon as space is limited: https://sciencecafe360_dec2017.eventbrite.com.
Presentation slides from the Science Café available here: Science Cafe 360 Opening Slides_110117-tu292x .
References:
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21289534
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23079774
[3] https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/preterm/conditioninfo/Pages/who_risk.aspx
[4] https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_report2010-a.pdf
Caitlin Carter, MPH is a research associate and program manager for the Urgent Matters program at CHIPR.
