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By Michelle Schneidermann, Photo: Jessica Brandi Lifland, California Health Care Foundation, September 15, 2023 While working as a physician at San Francisco General Hospital several years ago, I met a young woman I’ll call Kacey. At just 28 years old, Kacey had been admitted with congestive heart failure, which was probably caused by methamphetamine use. It was far too serious an illness for someone so young. Kacey was experiencing homelessness at the time. She had a reputation among the...

By Evie Blad, Image: iStock/Getty Images Plus, Education Week, September 8, 2023 As schools deal with surges in chronic absenteeism , many educators say an increase in anxiety and mental health concerns have contributed to the problem—and those factors can be difficult to address. Psychologists use the term “school avoidance,” also known as school refusal, to describe a fear or anxiety that makes it emotionally difficult for students to attend school or to remain there for a complete day of...

One would never think the presence of pets brings emotional well-being. Well, I have researched a multitude of studies that link pets with an overall successful integrated approach to health and wellness, to include trauma and adverse childhood experiences. Here is why these amazing and lovable creatures allow individuals to experience improved quality of life. Adverse Childhood Experiences demolishes the mental state of healthy and thriving children growing into adulthood. Use of these...

Free CEs for LPCs, nurses, social workers and educators, as part of VNS Health Safe Pathway suicide prevention effort.

"And while men’s loneliness certainly requires intervention, the real question is who, exactly, is expected to carry the load of care? ILLUSTRATION BY UNDREY/GETTY IMAGES To read more of Sara Youngblood Gregory's article, please click here. In 2017, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy penned an essay for the Harvard Business Review , where he named loneliness a growing health epidemic. This loneliness was so dire, Dr. Murthy argued, it could shorten a lifespan by as much as smoking 15...

Family engagement is my "thing." So much so that I even wrote a book about it that was published a little over a year ago. I believe that a child's family is their first teacher. I further believe that we could learn a lot about how to best help our students learn if we would just rely a little bit more on the insight of their families. Backtrack about three years and a different district: My co-teacher and I decided to combine our classes and do a monthly STEM/STEAM parent engagement...

By Sahar Habib Ghazi, Image: from article, Greater Good Magazine, September 13, 2023 Deadly wildfires in Maui and Canada. Chaotic floods at the Burning Man festival and around the world. More, and more, intense hurricanes. Hottest day on record ever, every year. Climate crisis is all around us. In a world where billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are charging millions of dollars for private trips to space while releasing extraordinary amounts of planet-heating greenhouse gases, our...

By Sam Jones, Illustration: George Wylesol/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, September 14, 2023 Play during both childhood and adulthood is important for the healthy functioning of humans and other species, but why we play — the brain circuitry behind this behavior — is poorly understood. A new study in Neuron has identified groups of cells in the rat brain that may provide clues to the brain structures and their connections that are essential for play. Understanding the neurological...

Climate models have suggested that the safe boundary for climate change was surpassed in the late 1980s Photograph: Alamy By Damian Carrington, The Guardian, September 13, 2023 Earth’s life support systems have been so damaged that the planet is “well outside the safe operating space for humanity”, scientists have warned. Their assessment found that six out of nine “planetary boundaries” had been broken because of human-caused pollution and destruction of the natural world. The planetary...

By Hannah Frye, Image: Victor Bordera/Stocksy, mbghealth, September 11, 2023 The concept of a mental health day may be foreign to some, but essential to others. Whether you call it a wellness day, a bounce-back day, or just a day off when you’re feeling down, the idea behind it remains the same: One day to do nothing but focus on your mental health and feeling better by the end of it than you did at the beginning. Think of it like a vacation for your brain. To make sure you get the most out...

Images: Artem Perevozchikov/iStock/Getty Images Plus, Gearstd/Getty Images By Karen Weese, FastCompany, September 14, 2023 It didn’t seem like much—only $100. But Tiffany Simone didn’t have $100. And she couldn’t get her kids back any other way. Simone had voluntarily placed her two children, 8-year-old Russell and 11-year-old Destinie, into the care of the state because she had no one who could watch them while she was hospitalized for a medical emergency. She assumed she would pick them up...

The brain doesn’t fully develop until about the age of 25. This fact is sometimes quite surprising and eye opening to most adults. It can also be somewhat overwhelming for new parents and professionals who are interacting with babies and young children every day, to contemplate. It is essential to realize however, that the greatest time of development occurs in the years prior to kindergarten. And even more critical to understand is that by age three 85 percent of the core structures of the...