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By Prevention Institute, June 2021 Summary In Changing the Landscape: People, Parks, and Power , Prevention Institute and Alessandro Rigolon of the University of Utah propose an approach to addressing park and green space inequities that prioritizes building power among people closest to the problem so that they can drive policy and systems change solutions. The paper includes lessons learned from other public health movements that can benefit the park equity movement as well as examples of...

By Michaleen Doucleff, National Public Radio, June 29, 2021 Back in the fall, Michelle Shiota noticed she wasn't feeling like herself. Her mind felt trapped. "I don't know if you've ever worn a corset, but I had this very tight, straining feeling in my mind," she says. "My mind had shrunk." Shiota is a psychologist at Arizona State University and an expert on emotions. When the COVID-19 crisis struck, she began working from home and doing one activity, over and over again, all day long. "I...

LGBTQ+ youth are among the most vulnerable when it comes to mental health at any given point but may be especially so after this past year of turbulence and loss. National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reports that youth identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual are twice as likely to experience symptoms of mental illness compared to their heterosexual peers while transgender and non-binary youth are at a four times greater risk. Further, these children often cannot even begin to address...

By Liz Szabo, Kaiser Health News, June 24, 2021 Although James Toussaint has never had covid, the pandemic is taking a profound toll on his health. First, the 57-year-old lost his job delivering parts for a New Orleans auto dealership in spring 2020, when the local economy shut down. Then, he fell behind on his rent. Last month, Toussaint was forced out of his apartment when his landlord — who refused to accept federally funded rental assistance — found a loophole in the federal ban on...

From International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, June 2021 Application Deadline: August 3, 2021, 11:59pm U.S. Central Time Background ISTSS is an international interdisciplinary professional organization that promotes advancement and exchange of knowledge about traumatic stress. This knowledge includes understanding the scope and consequences of traumatic exposure; preventing traumatic events and ameliorating their consequences; and advocating for the field of traumatic stress...

By Vann R. Newkirk II, Photos: Balazs Gardi, The Atlantic, October 15, 2020 C onsider the cantaloupe. It’s a decent melon. If you, like me, are the sort who constantly mixes them up, cantaloupes are the orange ones, and honeydews are green. If you, like me, are old enough to remember vacations, you might have had them along with their cousin, watermelon, at a hotel’s breakfast buffet. Those spreads are not as bad as you remember, especially when it’s hot out; add a couple of cold bagels and...

It seems mental health is (finally!) becoming a household phrase. No longer does it imply that something is wrong or unhealthy. No longer are therapeutic support or mental health tools so hush-hush or drenched in shame. But there’s still work to do. The truth is, we’re just waking up to the fact that we can always be improving our mental health. And it’s an ongoing, worthwhile journey. With the ACE assessment, we can pinpoint the things in our childhood that could be contributing to mental...

Transforming Trauma episode 045: Trauma-Informed Law and Storytelling with Marjorie Florestal On this episode of Transforming Trauma , our host Sarah Buino is joined by Marjorie Florestal. Marjorie is a trauma-informed law professor, storyteller, and fiction writer. Marjorie trained in the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) and shares how she is incorporating her understanding of complex trauma and NARM into her work as a law professor. Throughout the episode, Sarah and Marjorie discuss...

By Arielle H. Sheftall and Adam Bryant Miller, JAMA Pediatrics, June 28, 2021 In December 2019, the Congressional Black Caucus released “Ring the Alarm: The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America,” which called for attention to rising rates of suicide and suicidal behavior among Black youth in the United States. Indeed, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest suicide for Black youth, 5 to 17 years, has changed over the past decade. In 2008, suicide was the...

By Judith A. Cohen and Caitlin Ryan, Psychiatric Times, June 25, 2021 Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth experience the same types of traumas as their non-SGM peers, including child maltreatment, domestic and community violence, accidents, traumatic death, and separation. SGM youth are also at elevated risk for stressors common among minorities. Furthermore, these youth experience distinct ongoing stress related to discriminatory societal, medical, educational, housing, employment and/or...

By Vanessa Davis, The San Diego Union-Tribune, June 25, 2021 There’s such a powerful interconnected relationship between two of my life challenges that I question which emerged first in my life: the foster care system or mental health challenges. These two things haven’t played out separately for me. Instead, they are interwoven and further compounded by the everyday reality and stressors of life. To spread healing within our communities, I believe it’s important for people to go beyond what...

By Susan M. Sawyer, Monika Raniti, and Ruth Aston, The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, June 25, 2021 In the past year, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on schools has reinforced the profound links between children's health, wellbeing, and learning. In addition to deleterious effects on student engagement, learning outcomes, and educational transitions, there is growing evidence of the impact of school closures on children's and adolescents' emotional distress and mental health.1...