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(Reuters Health) - One in five teens are victims of bullying, and these adolescents are about twice as likely to bring guns and knives to school than peers who aren’t bullied, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers examined how high school students answered three survey questions: how often they skipped school because they felt unsafe; how often they got in physical fights at school; and how many times they were threatened with a weapon at school. “High school students who reported being bullied...

On Thanksgiving morning I received an unexpected email from someone whose name sounded vaguely familiar but that I couldn’t place. The email read as follows: You likely do not know me. About seven years ago I was sitting in a cell and opened up a manila envelope with a story enclosed in it. It was a piece written by my high school teacher Dennis Danziger. He told me he wrote a piece on me. I didn’t know why. I just knew that the guy cared about me and wanted to help. [For more on this story...

Two years ago, Denver Public Schools approached its most affluent schools with an idea: What if, after enrolling all of the students who lived in their school boundaries, they prioritized filling their remaining open seats with low-income students from other neighborhoods? The goal was to increase socioeconomic integration in a gentrifying city where housing patterns have exacerbated a familiar problem: At some schools, very few students qualify for subsidized lunches. At other schools,...

“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” That was the advice Dr. Jerome Adams, U.S. surgeon general, gave to public health and law enforcement officials Monday during his first visit to Southern Maryland as the nation’s top health official. The elephant in the room of Building B on the campus of College of Southern Maryland in Prince Frederick was the escalating opioid epidemic penetrating communities across the region, the state and the nation. [For more on this story by DANDAN...

When Dorothy Hinton-Adams was arrested for allegedly shoplifting a can of peanuts in May, she didn’t have the money to pay for her bail, which a judge set at $500. No bail bond company would help her, so Hinton-Adams, 71, was forced to stay in Fulton County Jail in Atlanta until her court date. “After the 15th day, I got kind of panicky,” Hinton-Adams said. “So I asked around how I could find out if I had a court date? There was a lady in there who wrote down my name and booking number.”...

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1986 that sexual harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, vindicating Mechelle Vinson, a bank teller fired after a higher-up subjected her to years of unwanted sexual aggression, many employers have behaved as if the most important aspect of workplace culture is reducing or eliminating exposure to liability. That paradigm helped some victims of sexual harassment to recover damages, and it prompted changes that presumably spared others...

Yoga is a great activity for children and adults and is easy to do just about anywhere! Children need to have multiple healthy ways to express their feelings and have opportunities for mind and body awareness. Yoga is beneficial because it is... Non-competitive Gender neutral Enhances motor skills and balance Improves listening skills in a fun approach Children can focus on what is happening in the moment A healthy way to express feelings Supports social and emotional learning and...

While there is growing national recognition of the value of intergenerational family services – or services that identify and address parents’ and caregivers’ physical, social and mental health needs to improve child health – they are not common in pediatrics because of barriers to reimbursement and training for caregiver-focused services. PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and our partners are interested in breaking down those barriers by building evidence for sustainable...

Hello, everyone. I am the new Community Co-Manager of the Practicing Resilience for Self-Care & Healing community . I’ll be joining Morgan Vien in working with all of you to build a virtual space that encourages and supports us in creating better health for ourselves. Thanks to Morgan and a rapidly growing, active membership, the community is already off to an energetic start only one month after its October launch. My ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) “aha moment” happened in 2009. I...

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI — Juan Cloy remembers being suspended when he was at Provine High School in the 1980s. He and several friends got in a fight with some kids from the neighborhood at school. Everyone involved got suspended. Of course, the idea of suspension is for kids to stay home, but none of the boys did. He and his friends went outside and walked around the corner to find the boys they got into a fight with in a car. “One of the kids pulled a gun out on us,” he said. “… [T]here was no...

GOLDEN, CO -- A new study of Colorado adults shows a correlation between a difficult childhood and adult health problems, lack of productivity and criminal involvement. The study, by the Council for a Strong America shows that adults who report four or more " Adverse Childhood Experiences," or ACEs have a three-times higher risk of an arrest by age 18 and were three times more likely to have a felony charge by age 25. Kids with a higher number of bad childhood experiences also report more...

The practice of mindfulness, such as meditation, can be a challenge for trauma survivors. Trauma disconnects you from your body in the moment to survive a perceived or real threat. Most survivors do not get the support they need to heal and process the abuse they suffered, which leads to chronic inner tension and toxic negative believes that feed unhealthy behaviors and feelings about themselves. We think we are bad, we feel bad, and believe the abuse was our fault. The thought of...