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A federal change to Medicaid funding for services at tribal clinics could help close significant health gaps for Native Americans in Wisconsin, advocates say. The federal government said in February that it would offer full federal funding for transportation, long-term care and other services provided indirectly by the clinics, as it does for services within clinics. The change also applies to specialty care by providers outside of the clinics, as long as the clinics still coordinate the...

The attack at a gay club in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday is the worst mass-shooting in U.S. history. The father of Omar Mateen, the alleged shooter, said his son may have been motivated by anger toward the LGBT community; other reports suggest he may have pledged allegiance to ISIS in advance of the attacks. No matter what, he picked a gay club. He carried out his attack during Pride month, on a weekend when cities across the country, from Washington, D.C. to Detroit to Los Angeles, are...

It was a beautiful May day for a community run and gathering in Rosebud, South Dakota. Kids chased after hundreds of colorful balloons. More than 300 children and community members lolled on the grass, ate barbecue and danced a round dance during this community’s first outdoor festival of the year. The event looked like a typical small town celebration but took on an ominous tone when it was time for the speeches. The presenters had come to discuss a deadly subject: meth addiction. This...

At the beginning of this school year, Ahmed Mohamed, a freshman at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, brought a makeshift clock to school to impress his teachers—and ended up in handcuffs . His teachers, it seemed, thought it could be a bomb, and Mohamed was interrogated without his parents present for hours. While the incident sparked outrage over Islamophobia and racial profiling (partially due to Irving’s earlier public embarrassments ), it also revealed that Mohamed was far from an...

The concept of Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, is bantered among behavioral and physical health providers. I publicly have spoken on it. Likewise, Bill Jones, president and chief executive officer of the United Way of Wyoming Valley, has noted it publicly, and it is discussed at various behavioral health provider meetings. I’m not sure, however, that the general public is familiar with it. We all should be. The original study on ACEs surveyed 17,500 adults regarding incidents in...

I've been struggling with how to talk with my daughter about what happened in Orlando. Another shooting. More death. Hate. She's heard the news. It's been discussed a bit at school too. But how do I talk to her as my own daughter, in between getting ready for school and dance? What can I say to her about homophobia or even what helps people recover? About what headlines and deaths grab our attention and which ones do not? I admit I'm at a loss. I don't have great words or wisdom or even a...

This video is educational, engaging and short. It doesn't talk specifically about ACEs, attachment or the neuro-plasticity of the brain - but it does - it just uses different language. It shows how brains are built. It describes how "serve and return" interactions between children and caregivers support strong brain development. And then why and how toxic stress harms the same brain architecture. It's a few years old but it's a super engaging resource I had missed out on. "This means that...

Never, NEVER did I see ahead when I started my Stop the Storm blog seven years ago where the trajectory of my “stop trauma” efforts would take me. I was willing to take off on a journey back then. But there’s a spiral of concern going on here. Into my future. Into the future of all of us! I can’t say I like where “this” is taking me. THIS WHAT? Violence in America? (Let alone across the planet.) What IS violence? Is neglect violence? If not, where, exactly, is the line between these two?

President Obama signed a new act to amend the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act by enacting certain requirements for foster care placements in Indian Country. Known as the Native American Children’s Safety Act , the new law places some stringent requirements that may actually harm tribal efforts to implement the Indian Child Welfare Act. It’s tough to argue against efforts to protect our children, and the imposition of tough requirements for that protection. So many...

In my 27 years working in the behavioral health field, one thing has become abundantly clear: “good health” is dependent on so much more than one’s physical condition. Biological, behavioral, social, cultural, economic and environmental factors all impact the well-being of individuals and communities. This concept, known as “population health,” focuses on a systematic effort to improve health outcomes in subpopulations that share multiple clinical and social attributes—such as women,...

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released an analysis of how the Affordable Care Act has benefited rural America. The findings, which examine independent studies and other data, show that health coverage in rural counties increased by 8.0 percentage points between late 2013 and early 2015, and the share of rural Americans unable to afford needed care dropped by almost six percentage points. “The Affordable Care Act has helped millions of people in rural areas access...

Yolanda Harden grew up a ward of the state in Lawton, Okla. Chaos marked her childhood, the details of which she chooses to keep private, even at age 34. She drank alcohol and smoked marijuana before she was a teenager. She got pregnant when she was 14 and had a son at 15. For most of her life, Yolanda, who now lives in Rockford, Ia., felt like a clenched fist gripped her heart, she told me in a recent telephone conversation. She believed the root of her struggles was that she was simply...