Blog

The Ventura County Whole Person Care (WPC) Pilot program coordinates health, behavioral health, and social services in order to improve the health outcomes of eligible Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are high utilizers of multiple systems. Through collaboration and coordination among county agencies, health plans, providers and other entities, WPC designs and develops the infrastructure and processes to integrate and improve care for vulnerable populations. The Clinical Nurse Manager - Whole...

Violence is common in pregnancy, with mothers-to-be in the United States at greater risk for assault-related injuries and death than women who aren't expecting, a new study finds. "The striking results of our study suggest that widespread screening for violence and trauma during pregnancy may provide an opportunity to identify women at risk for death during pregnancy," said lead author Dr. Neha Deshpande of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Such screening for assault and...

We are so excited to host Dr. Robert Anda and Father Gregory Boyle on September 8, 2017, in Hagerstown, MD. Dr. Anda will also lead a panel of regional leaders to explore successes and challenges when responding to community needs. More information at www.besterhope.org

Around 1 in 10 children have a diagnosable mental health disorder according to the Young Minds charity - staggeringly, that’s the equivalent of around 3 children in every classroom nationally. There’s a national campaign currently in full swing to lift the veil on mental health, and great emphasis is being placed on the importance of spotting the early signs that suggest a child might be struggling emotionally. With children and young people spending so much time in school, there is a...

The Jesuit St. Francis Mission announced that it is relinquishing 525 acres of unused land within the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The federal land grant to the mission, made when the tribal reservation was established in the late 1880s, was intended to support the mission’s educational activities serving the Sicangu Lakota people living on the reservation. The St. Francis Mission will continue to hold land on the reservation where it has active operations. Indian Country...

The state attorney general’s office is looking into hundreds of dubious arrests at California’s shelters for abused and neglected children that were detailed last week in a San Francisco Chronicle investigative report . The attorney general’s response comes amid calls from judges, state lawmakers and youth lawyers to consider shutting down shelters where children as young as 8 have been funneled into the criminal justice system for minor incidents. Meanwhile, the director of Mary Graham...

AMY BACH WAS researching her book about the US court system when she met a woman named Sharon in Quitman County, Mississippi. One July day in 2001, Sharon said, her boyfriend took her under a bridge and beat her senseless with a tire iron. Sharon passed out numerous times before her niece intervened and stopped the man from killing her. In photos from the emergency room after the attack, Sharon’s brown, almond-shaped eyes are swollen shut. She reported the crime to the police, who wrote up...

I sat on the floor in the bedroom and thought long and hard about it. How could I affix that belt to the door and wrap it around my neck to take my life? I was overwhelmed with sadness and guilt and I wanted it to end. I also thought it would be easier for everyone if I wasn’t here. My single mother had three kids, but our landlord said she could only have two children living in the apartment. She accepted the terms; the alternative was homelessness. Our story was that my twin brothers...

The number of students to drop out of university with mental health problems has more than trebled in recent years, official figures show. Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) revealed that a record 1,180 students who experienced mental health problems left university early in 2014-15, the most recent year in which data was available. It represents a 210% increase from 380 in 2009-10. The figures have prompted charities, counsellors and health experts to urge higher...

Helping kids cope may not be easy, but county officials are hoping the answer is child's play. "Children have their own language," said Sarah Holland, peer support specialist at Crossroads Area Veterans Center. Saturday, the Crossroads Area Veterans Center will debut the first session of a new therapy program just for kids, Holland said. Although play therapy, which is free for children and their parents, is currently only open to the children of women who have served in the military or who...

You could call it the obscene phone call heard 'round the world. The May 1967 Supreme Court ruling that threw out Gerald Gault’s six-year commitment for lewd remarks over the telephone has led to half a century of juvenile justice reform. And how to keep that momentum going for another half-century will be the focus when lawyers and other advocates for children facing lockup convene in Atlanta June 2 and 3. Organizers hope to send them home with “some new tricks in their bag,” said Whitney...

In today’s world, academics, practitioners and even lay people throw around terms or buzzwords such as “best practices” or “evidence-based practices” or “transformation efforts” when discussing juvenile justice practices and needs. These phrases are embedded in every conversation, training session and publication specific to juvenile justice. Yet too often these terms remain vague and disconnected from our daily work with juveniles. One of these buzzwords is the term “trauma.” I openly admit...