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Los Angeles Times
23-05-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Long before Dr. Becky, this L.A. woman changed parenting for good
USC professor Andrew Ogilvie was standing outside Canyon Coffee in Echo Park last May, his youngest daughter dangling from his chest in a baby carrier, when a gray-haired woman with a New Zealand accent approached him, placing a gentle hand on the baby's back. 'When she's having a tough time two years from now, remember this warmth,' she said, smiling. Ogilvie, who had seen the woman's photo on missives from the local elementary school, smiled back, honored to be in the presence of an L.A. legend. 'Oh, Ruth,' he said. 'You don't know who I am, but I know who you are.' Like thousands of L.A. parents before him, Ogilivie had just had his first lesson with parent educator and child rights activist Ruth Beaglehole, who devoted her life to countering 'childism' — the misuse of power over children — and taught generations of Angelenos to parent their children with empathy and kindness rather than spanking, threats and manipulation. For more than 50 years, Beaglehole, who died April 21 at the age of 81, was a tireless advocate of what she called parenting with nonviolence, disseminating her philosophy in celebrity living rooms, domestic violence centers, schools, jails, social service agencies and occasional one-on-ones with strangers outside coffee shops. Though she never was an author of a bestselling parenting book like Dr. Benjamin Spock or became a social media influencer like Dr. Becky Kennedy, Beaglehole's many colleagues and mentees say her teachings rippled across L.A. and the world, helping families break longstanding cycles of violence and oppression toward children. 'What Ruth brought was really a paradigm shift in terms of how we thought about parenting,' said Patricia Lakatos, lead trainer for child-parent psychotherapy at Children's Hospital Los Angeles who studied with Beaglehole. 'It was not about learning techniques to help get your children to behave, but really about thinking of children as human beings who in their own right need to be heard.' Beaglehole moved from her childhood home in New Zealand to the United States in the late 1960s, eventually settling in Echo Park, where she became part of a community of social justice activists. Over the decades she founded several L.A. institutions including the cooperative daycare Echo Park Silverlake People's Child Care Center that was immortalized in the Emmy-winning short documentary 'Power to the Playgroup' and the Teen and Parent Child Care Program at the Los Angeles Technology Center. In 1999 she opened the Center for Nonviolent Education and Parenting, where she and her staff, many recruited from the teen group, taught weekly parenting classes in Spanish and English and gave parenting workshops throughout Southern California. 'What Ruth figured out is that whether you're in a teen program or you're a more affluent parent who has more access or resources, the reality is that the things parents face cross culture and wealth,' said Glenda Linares, who worked as a parent educator at the center for 13 years after meeting Beaglehole as a young mother, age 15, in 1998. 'Parenting is hard.' A broad cross section of Angelenos attended Beaglehole's classes, but she was able to create a sense of community and common ground, said Rabbi Susan Goldberg, Beaglehole's daughter and founder of the eastside Jewish community Nefesh. 'There was this feeling that we are all dealing with the same things and acting the same ways,' Goldberg said. 'It was very humbling, and also there was a sense that we were all in this together. We're all trying.' Beaglehole also taught overseas, doing workshops in the Congo, Japan, India and a comprehensive multiyear project with the Māori community in Aotearoa, (the Māori name for New Zealand). She also continued to hold classes at Elysian Heights Elementary Arts Magnet, Nefesh and the Center for Pacific Asian Family, preaching the gospel of child-centric, empathetic parenting up until the moment of her death. In addition to Goldberg, she is survived by her children David Goldberg and Maxie Goldberg, children-in-law Karla Alvarado Goldberg, Brian Joseph and Munira Virji, and eight grandchildren. She remained connected over many years to the father of her children, Art Goldberg, and his wife, Susan Philips. Beaglehole often started her classes with an open-ended question: 'So, tell me what's going on.' One by one, the parents arranged in a circle would share their struggles, frustrations and occasionally their wins to remain empathetic to their kids in the midst of difficult circumstances. The situations didn't need to be dramatic to be significant. Someone might talk about the challenge of getting a kid to brush their teeth in the morning, another might mention the endless battles at bedtime, a third the humiliation of a meltdown in the grocery store. Gently but firmly, Beaglehole would encourage them to consider what their child was trying to communicate, what the behavior was stirring up inside the parent and how to approach the situation with more kindness, empathy and respect. 'She always said that all behaviors are an attempt to get our needs met,' said Mel McGraw, who was in Beaglehole's recent parenting group at Elysian Heights Elementary Arts Magnet. 'And in the midst of being triggered, can you remember that this isn't my child misbehaving, they are struggling with something. And my job as a parent is to help them, and support them, and identify it. And if I can't identify it, to love them through it.' Beaglehole didn't provide straightforward, Instagram-friendly solutions. 'I don't have an easy one, two, three,' she said in a 2022 YouTube video. 'It's a commitment. It's an intention that we need to set every day.' McGraw remembers turning to this philosophy after a particularly difficult morning with her kid a few years ago. Her wife was out of town, work deadlines were piling up and there was her daughter, lying on her back in the hallway, screaming that she didn't want to go to school. McGraw lost her temper and found herself yelling at her daughter and frightening her. They drove to school in silence, tears streaming down both their faces. After the dropoff, McGraw imagined how Beaglehole would frame the situation. She thought about how her child was probably missing her wife. She remembered that her daughter was having trouble with a friend at school who was being mean to her. And she thought about the pressures she herself was under too, parenting alone for several weeks with little time for work or rest. The blowup was a result of both of them failing to get their needs met, and yet, only one of them was an adult. As the day wore on, she couldn't wait to pick up her daughter from school to tell her she was sorry for yelling and to repair the relationship. 'It's those microcosm moments,' McGraw said. 'And the kernel of Ruth's work was that as much as we're doing it for our kids, we're also doing it to reparent ourselves.' Beaglehole's many students say her work is poised to continue. Her book 'Principles and Practices of Parenting With Nonviolence: A Compassionate Guide to Caring for Younger Human Beings' will soon be available on her website, free of charge. Videos on YouTube articulate her philosophy and detail her strategies. The more than 300 parent educators whom she trained now work as therapists, educators, community organizers, social workers and in other fields. And then there are parents who sat in her classes over the years modeling her teachings for their own children. They number in the thousands. A few years ago Linares created a curriculum based on Beaglehole's parenting philosophy for migrant parents living in a temporary shelter in Tijuana. When officials at UNICEF saw that work, they asked her to design a similar curriculum for a mobile school bus that could bring Beaglehole's teachings on parenting to other shelters in the region. 'I was taking the learning I did when I was 19 and thinking, how do I bring this approach to parents who are in extremely difficult circumstances?' said Linares. 'They might not know if they are going to cross the border tomorrow, but they do have some agency around the relationship they get to have with their child.' It's what Beaglehole taught her whole life: Parenting is always difficult, and it is always — always — worth the effort to do it well.
Business Wire
22-04-2025
- Health
- Business Wire
Children's Hospital Los Angeles Launches First-of-its-Kind Sleep App and Sleep Registry for Children Using Apple Watch
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) is launching the first sleep registry in the country for children using Apple Watch as well as a new data collection app called WISE-HARE, or Wearable Intelligent Sensor Enhancement Home Apnea Risk Evaluation. The app was developed to gather streams of high-fidelity data for future research, such as training machine learning algorithms from Apple Watch data to detect sleep disorders and provide crucial information to clinicians that inform patient care decisions. 'There are not enough pediatric sleep study beds in the country, which inevitably results in delayed care for children. In looking into solutions to solve this, it was clear that no application currently on the market would give us the immense amount of raw data needed to properly conduct sleep studies on children at home without specialized equipment,' says Eugene Kim, MD, Principal Investigator and Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine. 'At Children's Hospital Los Angeles, we are always looking to pioneer the latest research and innovations with the goal of advancing the standards of pediatric care. We developed a custom app with graduates from Apple's Developer Academy in Fortaleza, Brazil, who supported the integration of Apple technologies including HealthKit. This will allow us to create a first-of-its-kind sleep registry, which will be used to train machine learning algorithms from Apple Watch data to detect sleep disorders and inform clinicians on the need for ICU (Intensive Care Unit) admissions following surgery.' Polysomnography (PSG) studies, in which patients are admitted to the hospital overnight and numerous sensors are placed on the patient while they sleep, are the gold-standard test for assessing sleep and are essential in the diagnosis of sleep disorders such as sleep apnea. They are often needed to assess anesthetic risk before procedures, to help clinicians evaluate the risk of complications post-surgery. However, these tests are costly, have significant waitlists, and require children to sleep in an unfamiliar environment at the hospital, which can lead to different results than a child sleeping comfortably at home. To launch this new registry, CHLA is enrolling children ages 5-18 years old currently scheduled for a PSG study. Enrolled participants will use the WISE-HARE app and wear an Apple Watch, in addition to the standard PSG sensors. Results from the PSG and Apple Watch devices over the next year will be used to train machine learning algorithms to detect high-risk sleep disorders, with the ultimate objective of providing patients and families with the ability to screen for these high-risk sleep disorders at home without the need for special equipment. 'It was important that the benefits of our research would be made accessible for all patients. For this to happen, we needed a device that was comfortable to wear, commercially available, and didn't require special training to operate,' adds Dr. Kim. 'Apple Watch is a device that many children and their parents are already familiar with. The latest version met our requirements for a platform that allows us to collect and manage enormous amounts of data efficiently and securely.' Throughout the course of a typical eight-hour sleep test, WISE-HARE will amass over 30 million lines of data per patient. As home to the Virtual Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (vPICU), a data hub for providers in pediatric intensive care units worldwide, CHLA and its team of data scientists are among the few in the country with the expertise and infrastructure required to manage this data. 'The WISE-HARE app has the potential to help alleviate the delays and frustrations caused by the national shortage of pediatric sleep study beds in the coming years,' says Emily Gillett, MD, pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist at CHLA. 'The Sleep Center and Sleep Laboratory at Children's Hospital Los Angeles were among the first in the country to focus exclusively on sleep disorders in children, so it's very fitting that our team at CHLA is pioneering this new sleep monitoring technology with the potential to streamline care for pediatric sleep patients.' The registry was funded by The Robert J. Coury Family Foundation. WISE-HARE will be accessible as open-source software and made available to researchers. About Children's Hospital Los Angeles Founded in 1901, Children's Hospital Los Angeles is at the forefront of pediatric medicine and is the largest provider of hospital care for children in California. Children's Hospital is home to renowned experts who work together across disciplines to deliver inclusive and compassionate care, and drive advances that set pediatric standards across the nation and around the globe. Children's Hospital Los Angeles delivers a level of care that is among the best in the world for a truly diverse population of children. The Hospital is consistently ranked in the top 10 in the nation on U.S. News & World Report's Honor Roll of Best Children's Hospitals. CHLA is the top-ranked children's hospital in California and the Pacific U.S. region for 2024-25. Children's Hospital Los Angeles embraces the hospital's mission to create hope and build healthier futures. Children's Hospital Los Angeles is among the top 10 children's hospitals for National Institutes of Health funding. The Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital Los Angeles supports the full continuum of research, allowing physicians and scientists to translate discoveries into treatments and bring answers to families faster. The pediatric academic medical center also is home to one of the largest training programs for pediatricians in the United States. And the hospital's commitment to building strong communities is evident in CHLA's efforts to fight food insecurity, enhance health education and literacy, and introduce more people to careers in health care. To learn more, follow CHLA on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and X, formerly known as Twitter, and visit
Los Angeles Times
15-04-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Can a baby struggle with their mental health? How this hospital is helping L.A.'s youngest
A major initiative at Children's Hospital Los Angeles aims to address a critical but much overlooked need: mental health care for families experiencing the complex flood of joy, fear and upheaval during the first few years of a child's life. Myriad issues can emerge or become exacerbated in a family after a baby is born, including maternal postpartum depression, sleep problems, attachment issues between caregivers and children, early signs of behavioral challenges, domestic conflict between parents, and housing insecurity that often worsens as a family grows. If a child also experiences a medical issue, including an extended hospital stay, a serious birth defect or a developmental delay, these problems can be compounded. A $25-million gift from the Tikun Olam Foundation of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles will allow the hospital to expand mental health screening and services to as many as 30,000 children ages 3 and under who seek care at Children's Hospital each year, making it one of the first hospitals in the country to provide universal infant-family mental health services. Currently, the hospital provides these services to about 1,800 children each year. The idea behind the program is to provide attention and care that can strengthen the bond between parents and children during the baby's crucial early years — and help prevent problems from spiraling in the longer term. These bonds are essential to a baby's healthy brain development in a period of rapid neuron formation and great sensitivity, said Melissa Carson, a pediatric psychologist at the hospital and co-director of the Early Connections Program. Medical issues and family stressors — also called adverse childhood experiences — can disturb this process, but often aren't identified until preschool or later, when behavioral or other problems have spiraled. 'Just a little support at a critical moment can really prevent the need for much more intensive service later,' said pediatric psychologist Marian Williams, the program's co-director. Children's Hospital Los Angeles has been offering mental health screening and services to the sickest young children who pass through its neonatal intensive care unit for about 10 year. That program was also funded by Mindy and Gene Stein, whose Tikun Olam Foundation focuses on early childhood. The demand became evident when the hospital found that many families that were offered mental health support in the neonatal intensive care unit stuck with the services after leaving the hospital. Soon, other departments, such as the cardiac unit, were requesting similar services for their patients as well. 'I hope this becomes something that everybody understands and looks at as a crucial part of a child's development,' Mindy Stein said. A 'window' of opportunity in early childhood The hospital will also use the funds to train providers in infant and family mental health care and research the effectiveness of the program in the hopes that the model will spread to other hospitals. 'We have this kind of window when you have a new baby. And there's also a window when you have a medical need,' Williams said. 'There's probably a lot of parents who will say, 'I don't really need you. I'm here because of a cut finger, and we're fine.' But I imagine there's going to be a lot more who say, 'Oh, wow. Since you asked ... .'' Many families probably could benefit from a handout or video about a common early childhood problem such as sleep issues, picky eating or excessive crying. Some might want to join a parent group with others facing similar challenges, or benefit from a few home visits from a nurse who can help them adjust to life with a new baby. But other families may need more intensive assistance, such as longer-term therapy. The hospital will also screen them for needed social supports such as housing, food, transportation and internet access, — the lack of which can contribute to a family's stress and a child's long-term mental health challenges. What is infant-family mental health? The term 'infant mental health' can be confusing. After all, it's difficult to believe that a baby could already be experiencing emotional difficulties. But mental health care in the early years is laser-focused on supporting the developing relationship between the caregiver and child, which can set the trajectory of a child's life. For an infant, a therapist might work with the parent to help them notice their baby's cues, find activities to help the baby explore their environment, and work on their own emotional regulation. As a baby gets older, the therapist also uses play to help develop the bond and begin to treat the child more directly. For families in the midst of a medical crisis, these early days and months can be particularly fraught, said Patricia Lakatos, a psychologist at the hospital who works with families of children who have been treated in the intensive care unit. In the neonatal intensive care unit, parents are not only dealing with the day-to-day medical reality, but they're also 'grieving the imagined baby — the baby you thought you were going to have,' Lakatos said. Her work is to visit the family regularly during their stay to help the parent work through their grief and understand how their baby communicates. Stressful experiences can also affect the baby's well-being. A baby with traumatic medical needs, for example, may panic every time an adult tries to touch them. Lakatos said she can read the signs of a struggling newborn in their eyes. Healthy babies, she said, 'have a bright, shiny look that tells you, 'I'm ready. I'm here. I'm curious and want to engage with the world.'' But babies who experience distress often have a 'dull, glazed look in their eye. You might try to engage them, and they're really not engaging with you.' Others have eyes that are 'wide open, almost like hyperalert,' she said. They're easily startled and may arch their back and splay their hands, as if to say, 'The world is stressful for me.' But having a nurturing, supportive relationship with a caregiver helps buffer that stress. Supporting this bond includes helping the parent notice the signs that the baby is ready to engage — even momentarily — or whether the baby's cues are telling them they need to 'soften my voice or just hold them and not try to look at them because that's too much stimulation.' The ultimate goal is to help the caregiver find the joy and delight in the baby they have. A lifeline of support for mother and baby Stephanie Blanco of Mission Hills first learned she would be having a baby with major medical complications during an ultrasound early in her pregnancy. 'I didn't think I was going to be able to handle it, going through that,' she said. But right away, she was referred to Children's Hospital's Fetal-Maternal Center, which specializes in pregnancies with complex medical conditions, where she met Lakatos. Her son, Vicente Giron Sarria, had been diagnosed with facial deformities, and Lakatos began joining Blanco and her partner at every meeting with the craniofacial team. 'They would explain [the problems] to me, but you would go through so many emotions in that moment. So she would tell me, 'It's OK, I'm here,'' and ask her how she was feeling. It was a moment of great tension and stress with her son's father as they navigated what their new life would look like. She wasn't sure they would make it as a couple. But Lakatos helped them process their feelings together, she said, and learn to communicate about the their son's health. Vinny was born with numerous complications even beyond the predicted facial abnormalities, including the need to eat through a feeding tube, and spent about two months in the intensive care unit, where Lakatos visited the family every other day. Lakatos taught her breathing exercises, helped her connect with her son and encouraged her to take some time for herself on walks around the hospital campus. Blanco was able to bond with her baby. 'You're thinking, I can deal with this,' she said. 'He's my baby, and we're going to get through it. The love comes out.' The challenges didn't end when Blanco and Vinny finally went home, and neither did Lakatos's support. Vinny needed several surgeries, and Blanco had to learn how to feed him six times a day — including the middle of the night — through a gastronomy tube. But Blanco and her partner, Jesse Giron, continued their visits with Lakatos for several more years. Vinny was eventually diagnosed with nonverbal autism and a seizure disorder, and Blanco joined a support group for parents that Lakatos was leading. Blanco said she is still processing life with a medically complex child who requires constant care at home. 'Every day is something new. Every day I learn something. Some days are harder than others.' But she credits Lakatos and Children's Hospital Los Angeles with saving her life — and her relationship. 'If it wasn't for them and their kindness, their compassion and their guidance, I would be lost.' This article is part of The Times' early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to The Stein Early Childhood Development Fund at the California Community Foundation is among the funders.
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Children's Hospital L.A. Celebrates 10 Years of Making March Matter
Renowned for its medical and mental health services, therapies, research and specialized care programs for children and teens, Children's Hospital Los Angeles is also unique in that it's the only top 10 children's hospital in the country that provides care regardless of a family's ability to pay for Children's Fund is designed to help those who aren't covered by insurance or whose insurance may not cover everything a child may need, and it's gotten a significant boost thanks to its annual month-long fundraising campaign known as Make March Matter ( — which has raised over $14 million by partnering with local businesses and national brands since it began in 2016.'Any family that comes to the hospital, regardless of their financial situation, will be treated the same as someone who comes with private insurance because we have the support of the community and the businesses that give us funds to keep providing care,' says Dawn Wilcox, the hospital's Vice President of Development & Corporate Partnerships, who spearheaded the March initiative. Wilcox says that 73% of CHLA's patients are low income or on Medi-Cal, so a high percentage of patients need this aid, and concentrating their efforts for one month with a branded initiative has had a huge impact. CHLA does fundraising all year long but March is particularly exciting because business owners big and small, and their customers, can get the hospital saw some protests recently due to its announcement that it was pausing gender-affirming care in the wake of the Trump administration's anti-trans executive orders in late January, it reversed the decision last month after reviewing what federal judges were ruling on the issue. A commitment from California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta to protect its patients was also a like Delta Air Lines and Panda Express have been supporting all of the hospital's work for years, the latter asking customers if they'd like to round up their food totals with the difference going to CHLA (a painless way to garner donations).But smaller businesses are making a difference, too. Randy's Donuts, Porto's Bakery and Alfred Coffee for example, have their own promotions for the month. There's a full schedule of events — including a Jimmy Choo shopping party, an L.A. Kings game and a Dairy Queen 'Dip it for Kids' gathering to raise money and amplify the cause. There's also a big celebrity contingent, and Meghan Markle, Natalie Portman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Pine and Demi Lovato are just a few of the notables who lend their names, increase awareness on social media and visit pediatric patients at the hospital during the drive. 'Everybody comes together, whether it's donating blood or getting a coffee or running the L.A. Marathon,' says Wilcox. 'All of these things come back into CHLA to support our mission offering the services and programs for children and families that need us.'
The Independent
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Banksy's take on Vettriano painting sells for £4.3m days after artist's death
Banksy 's reimagining of a famous work by the late Scottish painter Jack Vettriano has sold at auction for £4.3m. 'Crude Oil (Vettriano)' was listed by Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus, who acquired the painting in 2011. The sale to a private collector at Sotheby's in London on Tuesday evening (4 March) came just days after Vettriano was found dead aged 73 at his apartment in Nice, France. It is understood that there are no suspicious circumstances around his death. Banksy's work was first seen in the reclusive artist's landmark 2005 exhibition Crude Oils: A Gallery of Re-mixed Masterpieces, Vandalism and Vermin, and reimagines Vettriano's 1992 work 'The Singing Butler', already one of the most celebrated pictures in Britain. Banksy chose to subvert Vettriano's romantic narrative by incorporating themes of pollution, capitalism and the climate crisis, painting in a sinking oil liner and two men in hazmat suits wheeling a barrel of toxic waste along the beach – while the original couple dance as their butler holds a black umbrella over their heads. Hoppus said that he and Skye fell in love with the painting from the first moment they saw it: '[It's] unmistakably Banksy, but different. We bought it because we loved it,' he said. 'It's borne witness to our family over these past dozen years. 'It hung over the table in London where we ate breakfast and our son did his homework. It hung in our living room in Los Angeles. It's seen laughter and tears and parties and arguments. Our son has grown up in front of it,' he continued. 'This painting has meant so much to us and been such an amazing part of our lives, and now I'm excited for it to be out there in the world, seen by as many as possible. Go get 'em. Godspeed.' His love of art was inspired by an art history professor at his local college in California: 'He loved art but wasn't precious about it,' he recalled. 'Art was for everyone. And everyone should love it. And because he loved it, and showed us how to think about it, I loved it. It opened my mind. It was Good Will Hunting but with paintings and architecture instead of poetry.' A portion of the funds raised from the sale will go towards supporting the charities Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Cedars Sinai Haematology Oncology Research. The couple will also donate some of the proceeds to the California Fire Foundation, following the devastating wildfires that destroyed parts of the city earlier this year. Vettriano's publicist said in a statement this week: 'Jack Vettriano's passing marks the end of an era for contemporary Scottish art. His evocative and timeless works will continue to captivate and inspire future generations.'
