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When Rosa Ana Lozada trains probation officers in San Diego County, she asks, How many of you have heard the term trauma-informed care? Then she says, The good news is that youre already doing it. This is how we hope youll be more mindful about how to do it. The four-hour training, which covers early childhood trauma and its reach across the lifespan, behavioral symptoms of trauma and effective strategies to avoid re-traumatizing youth, has reached more than 700 of the countys 1100 sworn...

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has been been tasked by President Obama with tackling heroin and opioid abuse in rural America. It turns out he has some personal experience with that problem in his family. Secretary Vilsack talks with Here & Nows Robin Young about the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agenda for 2016. Note: This is the first part of a two-part conversation. Part two will air tomorrow in the 1 p.m./3 p.m. Eastern hour of the show. Interview Highlights: Sec. Tom...

State governments are at the front lines of the countrys epidemic of drug overdose deaths. Thats why it is important that the National Governors Association says it will come up with protocols for dispensing prescription painkillers that are among the biggest sources of addiction and abuse in the country. The protocols, or guidelines, would restrict how and under what circumstances doctors could prescribe a category of pain drugs known as opioids. They might, for example, impose limits on...

Across the U.S., more than 20 million people abuse drugs or alcohol or both. Only about 1 in 10 is getting treatment . People seeking treatment often have to wait weeks or months for help. The delays can jeopardize the chances they'll be able to recover from their addiction. In Baltimore, Health Commissioner Leana Wen has been pushing for treatment on demand, so that the moment people decide they're ready for help, it's available. It's something other health officials have sought to achieve,...

WARNING: This is part of a series of stories to be published over the next few weeks that contain potentially trauma-triggering material. Mary G., whose story as a sex trafficking survivor in Duluth was told by ICTMN in 2012 (Native Girls Are Being Exploited and Destroyed at an Alarming Rate), had terrible problems convincing the administrators of her Section 8 housing to allow her daughter Hope to live with her. Hope, also a trafficking survivor, has convictions for prostitution as well as...

The Trauma Response Team that pairs Milwaukee police officers and county mental health professionals has helped between 35 and 40 families since its creation seven months ago, officials said Wednesday. The team operates in Milwaukee Police District 7, on the city's northwest side. First-responding officers who can see if children witnessed shootings, car crashes or other traumatic events refer families to the team, which then follows up with those who choose to participate and offers...

In recent years, college campuses have been rocked by black students protesting racial bigotry, and womens groups denouncing sexual harassment. But in the age of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trumps class-based politics, were beginning to see something new: the rise of low-income and working-class students protesting longstanding inequalities on campus that in the previous decades were mostly ignored. The new movement took center stage this past weekend as the Harvard College First-Generation...

In 1846, Dred Scott began his infamous legal battle in what is now called the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis. Scott had traveled with his master from Missouri to Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, neither of which recognized slavery. Having lived for an extended period in free territory, Scott argued that state law supported his claim to freedom. But the Missouri Supreme Court disagreed. The courts message to Scott was clear: Perhaps you can live freely elsewhere, but not here. More...

For the last five years, a great criminal justice experiment has been underway in California. Decades of "tough on crime" policies had left the state prisonsbuilt to house a maximum of less than 80,000 peopletotally overwhelmed. By 2006, the prison population had climbed to an all time high of roughly 173,000. In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that the overcrowding in the state's prisons amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. The court ordered the California Department of Corrections and...

The Oscar-nominated film Spotlight follows an investigative team from the Boston Globe as they expose the almost 90 Catholic priests in the area who abused childrenand the wall of lies and trickery that the Church used to cover it up. The movie powerfully highlights that institutions we expect to protect us can actually cause us harm. This happens when institutions, like the Church or the military or universities, do not acknowledge the widespread abuse going on within their confines, do not...

PART I: MOTHERS ON THE INSIDE Tonya Kamara, 54, seems to have the weight of the world on her shoulders. She lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Southeast Washington, DC, with her one-year-old grandson, Anthony, and her 26-year-old nephew, who is between jobs. Her two daughters also live with herwhen they are not incarcerated. Anthonys mother, April, age 32, and her 25-year-old sister, Latonya, both struggle with a history of mental health problems and drug addiction, which has led to cycles...

[Photo by Bryan Jones ] I have two offices, one for answers and another for questions. As a clinical psychiatrist, I begin my day in a room filled with soothing art and soft leather chairs, where my pharmaceutical prescriptions and psychological interventions are intended to meet the pressing needs of my patients. Here, Im supposed to have answers, or at least thats the hope. Then, at some point near noon, I descend 12 floors, cross a cobblestone drive, pass into an old granite building and...