Blog

The Summer Peacebuilding Institute is going online! For 25 years we have been gathering peace and justice practitioners in Harrisonburg, Virginia, every May and June. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen this year. But we are not going to let COVID-19 stop the Summer Peacebuilding Institute ! As the world navigates a global pandemic and economic upheaval, SPI Online 2020 will provide a space to learn from one another, to connect and encourage one another, and time to collectively...

The first week of the 6-week "Warriors of Hope" event brought the largest listening audience ever to "Breaking the Silence with Dr. Gregory Williams" radio program. This 6-week event will feature six very special guests that will offer their insight on the power of HOPE in their lives and provide encouragement, wisdom and insight on the need for resilience in lives today. This week's guest is Lt. Col. Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch: *April 12th, Lt. Col. Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch (US Army,...

By Xenia Shih Bion, California Health Care Foundation, April 6, 2020 Californians have been living under shelter-in-place orders since March 19, but for the more than 150,000 people experiencing homelessness (PDF) in the state, complying is all but impossible. Medical experts are deeply concerned about people who are homeless contracting COVID-19 because they lack access to stable housing, sanitation, and health care. How do you practice social distancing when you live on the streets or in a...

By Susan Dumars, EdSource, April 5, 2020 A recent television news headline asked, “Can day cares stay open amid coronavirus outbreak?” The answer — yes — has confused many. It shouldn’t. Day care centers are open because California, along with several other states, has declared child care an essential service. Child care workers are essential for our communities to function because they directly support workers essential to our communities. We know nurses, grocery store workers, food service...

By Victor I. Vieth, Robert J. Peters, Tyler Counsil, et al., Zero Abuse Project, April 2020 Many child protection professionals believe child abuse is likely to increase during the COVID-19 pandemic2 because most abusers are parents3 or siblings4 who now have more complete access to the child victim. In turn, the victim may no longer have schoolteachers, faith leaders or other mandated reporters they can access for help or who may detect a sign of abuse.5 Children may also have reduced...

By YC Cozier, et al., Healio, April 6, 2020 Black women who experience sexual and physical abuse during childhood are at an increased risk for developing systemic lupus erythematosus as an adult, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research. “Psychosocial stress such as PTSD has been shown to influence autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, likely through the dysregulation of the adaptive stress response and inflammatory processes,” Yvette C. Cozier,...

By Connie M. Ulrich, The Boston Globe, April 6, 2020 It is heartbreaking to hear about the emotional turmoil of health care clinicians who are fighting on behalf of COVID-19 patients. They are using their voices to tell us their raw and embattled stories of front-line challenges: being alone with dying patients, trying to use Facebook or other social media to allow family members to say their last goodbyes, crying out of frustration and desperation due to a lack of personal protective...

By Matthew G. Biel, Michael H. Tang, and Barry Zuckerman, JAMA Pediatrics, April 6, 2020 Pediatric mental health (MH) concerns, including depression, anxiety, loneliness and social isolation, and suicide, have increased markedly in the last decade and are critical factors associated with population health. While effective interventions for these conditions have been developed and pediatric health care professionals increasingly address MH concerns as a central component of clinical practice,...

By RASMUS RØRBÆK, Aarhus University, April 4, 2020 The outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus2 had its source in the Wuhan Province in China in December 2019. Since then, the coronavirus has spread to the rest of the globe, and the world is now treating patients with the disease that follows virus infection: COVID-19. The course of the disease differs for patients the world over: many experience flu-like symptoms, while many others need hospital treatment for acute...

By Elizabeth Cooney, STAT, April 6, 2020 Stark statistics are coming to light only now and only in piecemeal fashion showing that African Americans are disproportionately affected by Covid-19. The racial divide in who gets infected, who gets tested, and who dies from Covid-19 is emerging from the few cities and states whose data are public. African Americans in Illinois, for example, accounted for 29% of confirmed cases and 41% of deaths as of Monday morning, yet they make up only 15% of the...

By Beatriz Garcia, Al Dia, April 6, 2020 As the United States tops the world as the most contagious country with coronavirus - 312,249 cases recorded and 8,503 deaths from COVID-19, according to last Friday's data - and New York becomes the global epicenter of the pandemic, the follow-up to quarantine remains very uneven across states. Criticism of quarantine and its social and economic impact is being heard in a context of fear and an overflowing health system, but the truth is, if we think...

Julie Kurtz hasn’t stopped creating ways to build and promote resilience in herself and others who have experienced trauma since she left her family home for college at age 18. Although she experienced four types of adversity during her childhood, the CEO of the Center for Optimal Brain Integration has traveled a complex journey to mitigate those adversities by recognizing her own internal resilience, building skills to buffer her toxic and traumatic stress, uncovering her voice through...