Blog

Earlier this year I shared one piece of my trauma history with my family doctor... it’s finally out in the open, but I really wish I didn’t have to be the one to start that conversation every time.

It takes more than a stitch to heal a bullet wound. With the creation and launch this summer of the St. Louis Area Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program (STL-HVIP), a citywide network of hospital-based intervention and ongoing support, the St. Louis medical community is taking a significant step to help patients heal from acts of violence. With 205 murders in 2017 — about 20 more than those tallied in recent years, and 94 percent attributable to firearms — St. Louis is experiencing an...

Commentary: Yesterday, I received an open letter from some of our state legislators related to the support the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops continues to give to the NM HJR1 2018 (Land Grant Fund Distributions). Since the letter is directed to the Conference, we three undersigned Catholic bishops of New Mexico are responding today. “ ‘Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in deed and in truth’ (1 Jn 3:18). These words of the Apostle John voice an imperative that...

SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly half of America's children live through adverse childhood experiences that can leave them vulnerable to ongoing and future challenges, sometimes severe, according to a new report that documents not just potential harm, but uneven impact based on race and state. “ The Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Nationally, by State, and by Race or Ethnicity ,” was released by researchers from Child Trends, a Bethesda-based organization that studies American children's...

Going through the hard part of healing, the messy middle, is demonstrated in what we see in nature as the winter turning to spring. At first, it looks muddy, gray, or lifeless. The frost, the layers of snow, the piles of dead leafs, the smell of decay and dirt is not always pleasant. You may even find yourself wading through the puddles of muddy water, muddy paths on your favorite hike, and slippery river banks as the water is running into the rivers and the river water is all cloudy and...

Sue Jones, founder of yogaHOPE, shares insights into the ways in which we can address the consequences of trauma and ACES in folks, even those who may never come forward seeking help for a specific kind of trauma.

In the 1960s and ‘70s, “There goes the neighborhood” was both a popular punch line and a reflection of real-life unease. Many white homeowners felt fearful when the first minority family moved in down the block, convinced that it meant the area—and the value of their property—would quickly deteriorate. Today, plenty of minorities are in the middle class (or beyond); such a demographic shift no longer signifies socioeconomic decline. So, aside from pure prejudice, there’s no clear reason why...

In 1928, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience, proclaimed that the brains of adult humans never make new neurons. “Once development was ended,” he wrote, “the founts of growth and regeneration ... dried up irrevocably. In the adult centers the nerve paths are something fixed, ended and immutable. Everything must die, nothing may be regenerated.” Ninety years later, it’s still unclear if his statement is true. For decades, scientists believed that neurogenesis—the...

The flu descended on Connie Gabaldon like a fog, she recalled, clouding her mind and compromising her judgment. It progressed to chest and back pain, the aches perhaps made worse by a fall the 66-year-old had while riding the bus in Santa Fe, N.M. Gabaldon is homeless. When she went to the emergency room in late January, doctors told her she also had pneumonia, a sinus infection and the flu. For the general population, the flu represents a serious health concern. But for the homeless — who...

The news cycle is flooded every day with more and more challenging issues facing our nation. In particular, two topics that I care deeply about have been taking center stage as of late: gender-based violence and climate change. Over the last year, the #MeToo movement captured the country’s attention—making space, at last, for the stories of hundreds of sexual abuse survivors, transforming hundreds of celebrities into activists. And with unprecedented hurricanes, wildfires, an eroding...

Over a melting ice cream sundae on our first date away from our new son, my partner and I talked about what we’d be doing if we were still drinking. A cozylooking bar across the street might have suited our purposes. Yet years of partying had shown us that abstinence was necessary for him and best for me. So, ice cream it was. Popular parenting culture doesn’t have much room for sober sorts like us. Jokey messages on coffee mugs and T-shirts reinforce the notion that the best cure for the...

Kevin Zeich had three and a half years to go on his prison sentence, but his doctors told him he had less than half that long to live. Nearly blind, battling cancer and virtually unable to eat, he requested “compassionate release,” a special provision for inmates who are very sick or old. His warden approved the request, but officials at the federal Bureau of Prisons turned him down, saying his “life expectancy is currently indeterminate.” Congress created compassionate release as a way to...