Blog

I have just moved house. I never handle moving house very well. I’m the most settled I’ve ever been with family and friends around me, yet when I move house, I become very anxious and feel depressed and overwhelmed by it. I decided to take three weeks off work this time, to allow myself the time and space to manage this move. Now that I have a four-year-old daughter, I wanted to approach my emotions with curiosity rather than fear and take the time to reflect each day to try and find out why...

In one of New York City’s large family homeless shelters, we saw a gaunt, young mother holding her 4-day-old baby who lay limp in her arms. With sunken eyes, the mother watched a YouTube video about mixing formula, while her own mother tried to coach her on the telephone. The young mother told us she had eaten only a single McDonald’s hamburger in the past three days. This was just one of the more than 12,000 families in a city shelter system that is built on a scale not imagined elsewhere.

Prison populations in the United States have been falling for nearly a decade, but the country still incarcerates a greater percentage of its population than any other developed nation. Decades of harsh public opinion and prison-happy politicians ratcheted up sentencesbeginning in the 1970s, leading to unsustainable growth in prison and jail populations. But falling crime rates, tight budgets, and changes to state and federal sentencing laws reversed the trend in 2009, and prison populations...

There are not enough mental health care providers in Marathon County to help all the students who could be treated in schools. But this fall a new, grassroots collaboration will start to put more counselors in schools to help improve kids' mental health. Lee Shipway, a social worker and co-executive director at Peaceful Solutions Counseling in Wausau, realized the need last year after she sent a therapist into the Edgar School District. Edgar officials decided students needed someone on site...

Excerpt from article by Julia Lurie interviewing Dr. Nadine Burke Harris. MJ: What public health responses to this epidemic would you like to see happen? NBH: We’d like to see every pediatrician in America screening for adverse childhood experiences, and making sure that children who are exposed to ACES are getting the care that they need so that we can do prevention. It’s the old saying: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Full article and reminder that we are speaking with...

This article highlights some innovative practice originating from my undergraduate Alma Mater: Iowa State University. AMES, Iowa – Most states mandate that domestic violence offenders complete some type of batterer intervention program, but the success rates are often quite low. That is why the results of a new method developed by an Iowa State University professor are so promising. Amie Zarling, a clinical psychologist and an assistant professor of human development and family studies at...

In one of New York City’s large family homeless shelters, we saw a gaunt, young mother holding her 4-day-old baby who lay limp in her arms. With sunken eyes, the mother watched a YouTube video about mixing formula, while her own mother tried to coach her on the telephone. The young mother told us she had eaten only a single McDonald’s hamburger in the past three days. For more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/give-homeless-kids-chance-better-services-shelters-article-1.3298301 We can't...

Anxiety can present as fear, restlessness, an inability to focus at work or school, finding it hard to fall or stay asleep at night, or getting easily irritated . In social situations, it can make it hard to talk to others; you might feel like you’re constantly being judged, or have symptoms such as stuttering, sweating, blushing or an upset stomach It can appear out of the blue as a panic attack, when sudden spikes of anxiety make you feel like you’re about to have a heart attack, go mad or...

This is an excerpt from Breakaway Learners appearing in Evolllution ,and it deals with ACEs. I think the chapter in particular and the book more generally will be of interest to you all. Comments and thoughts are welcome as always. https://evolllution.com/attracting-students/todays_learner/who-are-our-students-now-and-into-the-future/

The current health-care debate is as serious as a heart attack. And if it ultimately results in fewer people having insurance , there's an excellent chance more Americans will suffer life-threatening cardiac arrest. That's the clear implication of a pilot study just published in the Journal of the American Heart Association . Focusing on Multnomah County, Oregon (which includes the city of Portland), it compared recorded cases of cardiac arrests over two time periods: immediately prior to...

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual’s health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor...

Clark County teens who have suffered traumatic experiences and dysfunctional home lives are significantly more likely to use marijuana and cigarettes than their peers, according to Clark County Public Health. At a Board of Health meeting Wednesday, Clark County councilors received an expanded presentation on the results of the 2016 Healthy Youth Survey, a statewide, confidential survey that polls sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grade students on their substance use, mental health and personal...