Blog

Few topics stir more controversy in this country than guns. Mass shootings and urban gun violence inflame public passions. Gun control measures divide our political leaders, and elections often hinge on candidates' views of guns. I struggle with issues related to firearms every day, but in a different way. To me, it's not about politics or elections. It's part of my daily job. As a mental health provider, I have to ask all my patients about guns. I spend many of my days and nights caring for...

Stacy Overstreet, PhD., will be discussing Data-driven Strategies to Guide the Implementation of Trauma-Informed Approaches at the Resilience Summit, November 2-3 in Chicago. Abstract: Successful implementation of trauma-informed schools must build consensus for trauma-informed approaches and establish organizational capacity for and commitment to such approaches. The presentation will describe the implementation and impact of professional development training on teacher attitudes toward...

[Ed. note: Cissy White posted this in the Parenting with ACEs group, and it's cross-posted here as a an example of a story about the experiences that many of us with ACEs have! Thanks for posting this, Cissy!] I gave a keynote address to over 100 people. I’m not bragging. It was an epic failure. And an epic personal triumph. I traveled alone, spoke in public, met new people and shared meal times with total strangers! I tackled social anxiety, figured out flights, luggage and directions. I...

A little over two years ago, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed into law “The Safe and Supportive Schools Framework.” This statute creates the conditions for schools to become safe and supportive by establishing a statewide framework that incorporates trauma sensitiv ity . The law , signed August 13, 2014, also established the Safe and Supportive Schools Commission to provide the legislature and the state with recommendations on how best to ensure that all schools have the time and...

Just knowing that a problem exists – or even being aware of potential solutions – is rarely enough to mobilize a community for action. In Walla Walla, Washington, the has had surprising success in generating community-wide change. They have done this by highlighting the power of collective action and by continually measuring progress towards project goals. The Walla Walla experience demonstrates the value of citizen engagement and evaluation – two of the implementation domains featured in...

On a sunny afternoon in April, I sat on a bench at New York’s City Hall, waiting to interview Mayor Bill de Blasio. He breezed by in shirtsleeves, surrounded by grim-looking advisers. The mayor, too, was frowning. That morning’s papers carried the news that de Blasio’s fundraising activities were being investigated by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, the Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance, and a state commission on public ethics. The mayor’s new initiative to combat homelessness was being...

Police had picked up Ledwon, 55, in late April from a local shelter in Alamosa, Colorado, where he was hallucinating and speaking garbled Spanish. Likely triggered by a change in medication, Ledwon’s psychotic episode was compounded by crippling anxiety. Police dropped him off in the emergency room—common destination for mental-health patients, but one that may cause as much harm as good. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mental disorders like Ledwon’s caused 5.3...

Television shows such as Orange is the New Black and Oz frequently depict prison officers as rule-breakers much like the inmates themselves, engaging in inappropriate relationships with prisoners or smuggling drugs inside. But they also depict the challenges of these jobs: maintaining order among an incarcerated and troubled population, dealing with the ups and downs of prisoners’ emotional well-being, and managing facilities in disrepair and people in need with very limited resources. Those...

The first time I was abandoned I was only six years old and I remember the day as if it just happened yesterday. I was sitting on a courtroom floor, cooing over my newborn little sister and making her laugh as I dangled a pearl necklace over her face. My mother and her new husband were sitting on the hard wooden bench directly behind me and I remember hearing Mom groan as a dark haired man in a tan trench coat entered the courtroom. The dark-haired man sat down at the far end of the wooden...

It’s early morning, and the ladies hover around the bus stop gossiping about the day ahead. At 10 years old, I stick close to my aunt Geevie as we wait for the next city bus headed toward Windsor Farms, a part of Richmond, Va., where men don’t mow their own lawns. Geevie and I each hold twine-handled bags filled with goodies to hold us through the day: Baby Ruth candy bars fresh out the freezer, potato chips and two bottles of Coca-Cola. On this day, Geevie wears a billowy floral blouse and...

Consider Waukegan and Stevenson, two Illinois school districts separated by 20 miles — and an enormous financial gulf. Stevenson, mostly white, is flush with resources. The high school has five different spaces for theater performances, two gyms, an Olympic-size pool and an espresso bar. Meanwhile Waukegan, with its mostly minority student body, is struggling. At one school, the band is forced to practice in a hallway, and as many as 28 students share a single computer. [For more of this...

What’s the last conversation you had with a police officer? Chances are it wasn’t about the weather. Or your favorite local cover band. Or their kid’s youth soccer game. Chance are … it was more stressful than not. All that’s about to change, if Sergeant Chis Cognac has anything to say about it. Operating under some simple guidelines (“no speeches, no agenda”), the co-founder of Coffee With a Cop has set out to shift the timbre of police-citizen interactions. “You can talk about crime or you...