I'm excited to announce that I just launched the Heart Rate Variability Podcast! In the first episode Jeff and I start exploring my new book Heart Rate Variability: Using Biometrics to Improve Outcomes in Trauma-Informed Organizations. You can find the podcast and get your free copy of the book at optimalhrv.com. Love to hear your thoughts and feedback.
By Brentin Mock, Bloomberg CityLab, July 31, 2020 Jeanette Kowalik, a Black woman, is the health commissioner for Milwaukee, a city that regularly ranks as one of the worst cities for livability for Black women . She now presides over the health future of a city that at one point was the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S., particularly for African Americans. The discovery that the majority of people with the virus in Milwaukee were middle-aged Black men was one of the first...
By Emma Williams, The Imprint, July 28, 2020 In a recent webinar about racism and policing hosted by the Northwestern Prison Education Program , abolitionist scholar and educator Erica Meiners noted that “avoiding the state’s language is a key tool for practitioners of reform and abolition.” Perhaps an area where this point is most salient is the debate over how to talk about the child welfare system. Parents, attorneys, advocates, abolitionists, and reformers of all stripes agree: The child...
Change is everywhere. How can mental health professionals guide traumatized families through these times of uncertainty? Family Systems Trauma | FST provides concrete tools and case examples that you can use immediately to help families prepare for school reentry, slow down family anxiety, and identify the root underlying cause of their trauma through what are called undercurrents. Join Dr. Scott Sells, founder of the Family Trauma Institute, to see how to quickly incorporate these tools...
8/5/20, positiveexperience.org/blog With public health measures surrounding Covid-19, many are feeling isolated from friends and family. The social isolation of the pandemic, as well as the recent resurgence in calls to dismantle all forms of racism, has emphasized the importance of civic and social engagement. Engagement, developing a sense of connectedness and “mattering,” is one of the 4 Building Blocks of HOPE . Illustrating the importance of engaging youth and empowering them to make...
By Nadine Burke Harris, STAT, August 4, 2020 The world is learning more about the uncommon but puzzling ways Covid-19 can show up in kids, keeping worried parents on the lookout for symptoms of the disease. We should also be concerned about how toxic stress brought on by the pandemic, or made worse by it, will affect children’s developing brains and bodies and their future health. In millions of households, kids are experiencing an incredible amount of stress and anxiety. They’ve lost the...
Masks are a necessity right now in high-risk situations. While most people can wear a mask with no problem, many children, teens, and even adults who suffer from trauma, anxiety, panic disorder, or sensory processing issues find mask-wearing to be an extremely distressful experience. Of course, everyone understands that the COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the lives of virtually every person in the nation, but as the pressure (and necessity) to wear masks continues to increase, more...
By Eli Rappaport, Nallammai Muthiah, Sarah A. Keim, and Andrew Adesman, Pediatrics, August 2020 Abstract BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Little is known about the 2% of US children being raised by their grandparents. We sought to characterize and compare grandparent- and parent-headed households with respect to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), child temperament, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and caregiver aggravation and coping. METHODS: Using a combined data set of...
By C. Kirabo Jackson, Cora Wigger, Heyu Xiong, Education Next, August 2020 State budgets are in trouble due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with tax revenues in freefall and steep increases in spending on unemployment insurance, social-welfare programs, and emergency services. That spells budget trouble for schools, since states contribute about half of all public-school funding nationwide. How might cuts to state education spending affect student achievement? We can learn something about what’s...
By Katelyn Reinhart, Cronkite News Arizona PBS, August 3, 2020 From a traditional hogan in a remote area on the Utah-Arizona line, Cynthia Wilson spent much of her spring sourcing drought-resistant seeds, packing them in small manila envelopes and labeling them to ship to families across the Four Corners. Seeds for corn – white, blue and yellow. For squash. For melons. For many of the foods that long sustained her Navajo ancestors, before their land was carved into a reservation and the...
By Michael Fitzgerald, The Imprint, July 30, 2020 In a sign of the nation’s rapid rethinking of the justice system prompted by protests against racism and police brutality, dozens of elected prosecutors, corrections officials and probation chiefs have called for all youth prisons to be shut down. They described the lockups as “ineffective, inefficient and inhumane.” The open statement , posted online and announced at a virtual news conference Thursday, goes beyond pushing for “the closure of...
By Zach Mortice, Bloomberg CityLab, July 31, 2020 When it’s completed, the corner grocery store at 63rd and Racine will look a lot different than the other carryouts and bodegas dotting this section of Englewood, on Chicago’s South Side. Designed by Wheeler Kearns Architects and developed by local nonprofit Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) , the Go Green Fresh Market will essentially be a miniature supermarket across 3,000 square feet, with heaps of storage and two walk-in fridges.
From Clifford Beers, August 2020 Young adults are at a greater risk of drug use today as they are more exposed to drugs and alcohol than prior generations. These youth may feel peer pressure to experiment with substances, which can lead to addiction and possible overdose situations. Clifford Beers recognizes the importance of bringing awareness to the mental health issues that can lend themselves to addiction. Clifford Beers also values the proven benefits of early intervention and education...
Webinar: Aug 6, 2020 11:00 AM Pacific Tim e click HERE to register. New analysis from City Health Dashboard shows how poverty and racial inequities play an outsized role in the health of people in small and midsize cities—raising questions of how these cities should pursue strategies for reducing racial and economic disparities. For the first time , a new health-focused framework for more than 700 small and midsize U.S. cities provides a way for city leaders and their partners to understand...
Going out to buy groceries, going out for a walk, driving your kid back home from school. For most people these activities are normal, everyday things with little to no excitement, as they should be. Unfortunately, getting food, exercising, and supporting my son’s education have been a little more out of the ordinary for me. You see, I am a Mexican Indigenous man, brown skin, shaved head. My ethnicity and physical appearance are by no means unusual, especially in the part of the country...