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Americans are seeing more homeless camps, especially on the West Coast. A number of cities there have declared emergencies over the problem, and as they struggle to find solutions, an angry debate has broken out about how much tolerance should be shown to illegal camps that crop up in public spaces. Earlier this month, that debate got a lot more urgent in Seattle, when a young homeless man who was camping along Interstate 5 was killed by a car that careened off the roadway. A couple of hours...

In light of the nationwide opioid epidemic that has led to a major rise in overdoses, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a competition to create a mobile naloxone app. Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that has the power to save lives by reversing an overdose. Although access to the lifesaving drug varies by state, it is becoming more and more common among first responders and other professionals on the front lines of the opioid epidemic. The FDA is encouraging computer...

The hallways of high school often feel like battlegrounds—with potential social stressors lurking around every corner. When teens get ditched by their best friends or teased for their looks, the sharp pain of exclusion feels like it will last forever. But what if we could help teens take a different perspective? In a recent study , psychologists at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Rochester set out to see if a small shift in mindset could reduce teenagers’ social...

The new Baby Cafe at the Boston Medical Center isn't a spot to drink coffee or work on a laptop. Instead, it's a place where new moms and dads can get some often much-needed help. "The Baby Cafe is an opportunity for an expecting parent or a parent of a newborn to drop in and receive information and support around breastfeeding," said Dr. Renee Boynton-Jarrett, MD, a pediatrician at BMC. Parents can also attend a Baby Cafe to learn about infant attachment and bonding, social-emotional...

During one of my manic episodes, I was convinced there was a conspiracy against me. Everyone was manipulating my surroundings to create a narrative I couldn’t figure out. I wanted to know who was in charge. I also wanted to know who was safe. I texted my pastor at the time to see if he could meet with me. I drove to the bar next to our church on a hot June afternoon and met him at one of the tables outside. I tried to tell him my concerns, but he dismissed me and said, “Let’s just pray.” He...

Iowa, by some measures, seems like a great place to have a baby. It ranks eighth for overall care in United Health Foundation’s new study of women and children’s health care, which looks at things like birth weight and a mother and child’s neighborhood to assign scores. Except there’s something else you probably want to know before having a baby in Iowa: The state ranks 22nd for infant care, which is dramatically lower than its rank of seventh for women’s health care. (To calculate a state’s...

At Cherokee Point Elementary School, first-grade teacher Hagit Patolai roams her classroom to asses student progress on a “fact versus opinion” writing assignment. She crouches down to read over the shoulder of a boy, asking him to point to the words (beautiful and cool) that indicate his illustrated story about a rainbow is based on his opinions. Why are people’s opinions important, she asks. It’s a question that gets at more than the lesson at hand. Patolai keeps detailed records on the...

As violent crime in Chicago continues to soar, University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital announced it’s creating a new program to treat families and children affected by violence. The program will provide screening and mental health care for hundreds of residents affected by violence in many of Chicago’s South and West Side neighborhoods. It's being called the University of Chicago Medicine Recovery and Empowerment After Community Trauma (UCM REACT). “Chicago’s struggles with...

At a campaign rally in 1976, Ronald Reagan introduced the welfare queen into the public conversation about poverty: “She used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans’ benefits for four nonexistent deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare. Her tax-free cash income alone has been running $150,000 a year.” The perception of who benefits from a policy is of material consequence to how it is designed. For the past 40 years, U.S. welfare...

Dr. Gabor Maté [ LINK HERE ] has garnered headlines in Canada for his early research regarding the possible use of ayahuasca [ LINK HERE ], a plant-derived psychedelic drug from South America, for healing addictions. The results appear meaningful and worthy of consideration by adults with childhood acquired trauma. Dr. Maté has described his reasons for promoting ayahuasca in his blog [LINK HERE ]. He says: “I have witnessed people overcome addictions to substances, sexual compulsion, and...

New research finds a computer-based cognitive-behavioral therapy program can be an effective strategy for treating alcohol use disorders. Yale researcher Kathleen M. Carroll, Ph.D., and other members of the Yale Psychotherapy Development Center created the program called CBT4CBT. The program was created to provide consistent and high-quality delivery of cognitive behavioral therapy skills training to avoid substance use. A new study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and...

First, a story: Late one night, a man searches for something in a parking lot. On his hands and knees, he crawls around a bright circle of light created by a streetlamp overhead. A woman passes, stops, takes in the scene. "What are you looking for? Can I help?" "My car keys. Any chance you've seen them?" "You dropped them right around here?" "Oh, no. I dropped them way over there," he says, gesturing vaguely to some faraway spot on the other side of the lot. "Then why are you looking here?"...