While scores of public agencies are working to develop resources and programs to address childhood trauma and toxic stress in their communities, San Joaquin County in California has been turning itself into a model for how to address the issue.
Stress is a powerful force. It can help us survive, but in some cases, lead to a lifetime of medical issues. A kid can only endure so many stressful traumatic experiences before it impacts his health.
So much of Luton’s childhood and adolescence seemed normal to her at the time. Her father mishandling her mother. Her brother coming after her with a metal poker. Her boyfriend with the meth addiction. All normal. It’s a wonder how she didn’t become a statistic herself.
Project: 'An invisible crisis': Toxic stress is helping to shorten life spans in many Kern County communities
In some of Kern County’s poorest, majority-white communities, people are dying four to 17 years before those in other parts of Bakersfield, Calif. Life expectancies are on par with less-developed countries like Iraq and Kazakhstan.
Seven-year-old Reba Dimeglio remembers her mother defying evacuation orders to protect her house, armed with nothing more than a green garden hose in her fight to save their home, outlined in an orange glow.