Blog

Canada lifted a ban on prescription heroin last week, opening the door for the widespread use of a controversial treatment for long-time heroin addicts. Politicians in the United States — which has seen similarly rising rates of heroin use and overdoses as Canada — are watching closely to see the impacts of this new allowance, and whether it might be a formula to follow. So-called heroin-assisted treatment is meant for people who have been using street heroin for several years and for whom...

Equine assisted psychotherapy (EAP) is an experiential treatment modality used to help a person’s psychological health through directed interactions with a horse. While the idea may seem a little silly on first blush, it actually has a growing research base to suggest its potentially beneficial effects for those who engage in it. You can learn more about equine assisted psychotherapy here . In this interview with Anna Mott — owner of Alo Horses, an Equine Gestalt Coach, and a Karuna Reiki...

New research shows that older adults play critical roles in the lives of young people, especially the most vulnerable. When older people contribute to the well-being of young people — often through volunteering — it cultivates a sense a purpose and provides benefits to both the child and the adult, according to a researcher at Stanford University. “Contrary to widespread beliefs that older populations consume resources that would otherwise go to youth, there is growing reason to think that...

Thousands of Native American protesters are currently fighting against the proposed construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota. They are doing more than just trying to protect their land. They are fighting for their culture—and, as the Ojibwe activist Winona LaDuke argues, their future. Advances on Indian lands have always been, and continue to be, attacks on indigenous values. Non-tribal governments and corporations with interests in tribal land have not slowed such attacks...

Sixty-six years ago this summer, on my 16th birthday, I went to work for the daily newspaper in the small East Texas town of Marshall where I grew up. It was a good place to be a cub reporter—small enough to navigate but big enough to keep me busy and learning something every day. I soon had a stroke of luck. Some of the paper’s old hands were on vacation or out sick and I was assigned to help cover what came to be known across the country as “the housewives' rebellion.” Fifteen women in my...

Yesterday, 200 people, including our ACEs Connection policy analyst Elizabeth Prewitt, attended a day-long conference at the White House called “ Trauma Informed Approaches in Schools: Supporting Girls of Color and Rethinking Discipline”. What was the coolest thing? When Dr. Nadine Burke Harris asked how many people had heard of the ACE Study, MOST participants raised their hands! Leisa Irwin, community editor for our ACEs in Education group , took notes during the event (see the end of this...

With just four months remaining in the Obama presidency, the White House assembled leaders from 14 states and the District of Columbia and key administration officials for a day-long conference, “ Trauma Informed Approaches in Schools: Supporting Girls of Color and Rethinking Discipline.” Last summer’s White House meeting, titled “Rethink School Discipline,” covered issues related to the CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study and trauma, but transforming schools through trauma-informed approaches...

Letter to the editor: USA TODAY’s editorial “ Every 72 minutes, a veteran commits suicide ” is a terrible fact. The piece spotlighted the difficulty of getting a handle on this particular issue. One young veteran lay down on a railroad track and ended his life. Another veteran in the same editorial shot himself to death. These veterans share their service in the armed forces, they have that common ground, but what else? The figure of 22 suicides a day includes all veterans from all wars.

exas -- More than a quarter of individuals arrested for misdemeanors last year in Fort Worth had mental health issues, but a new program in Tarrant County is trying to change that. The program, called the Enhanced Mental Health Docket, identifies repeat misdemeanor offenders who are diagnosed with mental illness and directs them to treatment instead of jailtime. "Let's get help from the beginning and eliminate the revolving door," said Judge Rainey Webb, who oversees the program in...

[Photo by Paradox 56 ] The Baltimore city school system will receive a $2.3 million federal grant to help students recover from trauma following the unrest that erupted in West Baltimore in April 2015, officials announced Thursday. The U.S. Department of Education announced that Baltimore was one of three districts — along with St. Louis and Chicago — to receive a federal Promoting Student Resilience grant this year. [For more of this story, written by Erica L Green, go to ...

Starting school at kindergarten. One teacher for an age-graded classroom. Teacher-led learning: “Repeat after me.” For nearly 100 years, these have been the traditions, routines, and expectations of American primary schools. Over that time, much has changed in children’s lives — there is now greater demographic diversity, to say nothing of the relentlessly changing technology, globalization, and growing recognition that education requires much more than rote learning — yet little has changed...

Shanice Givens’s son, Cyrus, was 6 years old when administrators at his charter school, Success Academy in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, put him on a list of students they wanted to push out. “They’d suspend him for not having on shoes, for not having his shirt tucked, for going to the bathroom,” says Givens. “So he lost courage and a will to want to do better.” According to Givens, Cyrus was suspended 30 times that school year. Success Academy spokesperson Ann Powell says the kindergartner was...