Blog

In June, a group of Crawford County residents who are active participants in local work to create a trauma-informed community had the opportunity to attend a six-day workshop in Pittsburgh led by Rev. Paul Abernathy. Rev. Abernathy is the director of FOCUS Pittsburgh and is part of a coalition that is leading the way in trauma-informed community development (TICD). We were joined by other groups from across the country, including folks from Petersburg, Virginia, Kansas City, Missouri,...

Racial and ethnic health disparities and inequities can only be eliminated if there is high-quality information by which to track immediate problems and underlying social determinants, as well as to guide the design and application of culturally specific medical and public health approaches. Often, health outcomes are disaggregated by broad racial categories such as "Black or African American," "Hispanic or Latino," "Asian and Pacific Islander," "White," or "Native American." However, the...

by MSW@USC Staff In 1955 , the Los Angeles Police Department adopted the motto “To Protect and Serve,” and over the last seven decades, many other American law enforcement departments followed suit. But in the Black Lives Matter era, those words may not resonate with some members of the communities police are tasked with protecting and serving. Community members may feel law enforcement officials exercise more authority than necessary. How can both sides work to create a more positive...

The New Orleans City Council on Thursday (Aug. 9) unanimously approved a resolution calling for a comprehensive, citywide approach to the prevention, intervention and treatment of childhood trauma. The resolution asks the New Orleans Children and Youth Planning Board to present to the council -- no later than Aug. 1, 2019 -- recommendations to increase mental healthcare services for children, as well as the identification of new streams of revenue to pay for those services, and changes to...

Long before he began studying for a career in health care, Marlon Munoz performed one of the most sensitive roles in the field: delivering diagnoses to patients. As an informal interpreter between English-speaking doctors and his Spanish-speaking family and friends, Munoz knew well the burden that comes with the job. He still becomes emotional when he remembers having to tell his wife, Aibi Perez, she had breast cancer. A few days after Perez underwent a routine breast biopsy 17 years ago,...

Drug overdoses killed about 72,000 Americans last year, a record number that reflects a rise of around 10 percent, according to new preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control. The death toll is higher than the peak yearly death totals from H.I.V., car crashes or gun deaths . Analysts pointed to two major reasons for the increase: A growing number of Americans are using opioids, and drugs are becoming more deadly. It is the second factor that most likely explains the bulk of...

This past Independence Day, 150 St. Louisans gathered downtown to protest on behalf of those who couldn't—inmates at the St. Louis Medium Security Institution, a jail more commonly known as the "Workhouse." Over the past two summers, these protests have become annual occurrences. In 2017, for instance, reported triple-digit temperatures inside the jail ignited the protests. Even though the city responded by installing temporary air conditioning units, rodent and insect infestations,...

Sitting for hours without moving can slow the flow of blood to our brains, according to a cautionary new study of office workers, a finding that could have implications for long-term brain health. But getting up and strolling for just two minutes every half-hour seems to stave off this decline in brain blood flow and may even increase it. Delivering blood to our brains is one of those automatic internal processes that most of us seldom consider, although it is essential for life and...

In 1978, Thomas Barefoot was convicted of killing a police officer in Texas. During the sentencing phase of his trial, the prosecution called two psychiatrists to testify about Barefoot’s “future dangerousness,” a capital-sentencing requirement that asked the jury to determine if the defendant posed a threat to society. The psychiatrists declared Barefoot a “criminal psychopath,” and warned that whether he was inside or outside a prison, there was a “one hundred percent and absolute chance”...

In 2014, according to U.S. Department of Education projections, the demographics of the nation’s classrooms were set to break a historic barrier: For the first time, the majority of students in America’s public schools would no longer be white. Based on population trends, National Center for Education Statistics predicted that 50.3 percent of the student body for the 2014-15 school year would be people of color — a precursor to the country as a whole becoming majority-minority in the next...

The school nurse is your child’s Chief Wellness Officer! So first things first: be sure your school has a school nurse in your child’s building every day. If not, there are 55 million reasons to have one. School nurses have access to 95% of our nation’s 55 million children every day, all day. We are the dedicated, licensed health professionals in your school community, whose eyes and ears are an extension of yours. The history of school nursing goes back more than 100 years, to the tenements...

On November 7, Virginia voters elected Danica Roem to the Virginia House of Delegates. Roem is the first openly transgender state legislator in America. Her campaign focused on local issues, especially improving traffic problems, which resonated with voters. But she has also broken a cultural barrier that brings attention to the LBGTQ community. Her public life opens new opportunities for us to talk about transgender issues. Some of us may feel we’re in unfamiliar territory, and would like...