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I heard a story this week that sent sensation to my heart. It was the story of a woman of color and her child. They were at a hospital, I'm unsure the specifics of where or why. One of the nurses, a white woman, had an interaction with the child and then complimented the child on their appearance, strength and intelligence. The mother proceeded to hide her child behind her back and said, "oh no my child is none of that." On the surface, as a white woman, I thought, "Ahh, that is kind of the...

How useful and necessary are biomarkers in telling the story of how toxic stress from adverse childhood experiences and resilience can impact a child’s long-term health? In the introduction to an article in the journal BioEssays , Dr. Kathryn Ridout, a Kaiser Permanente San Jose psychiatrist, and her co-authors examine what is known about two biomarkers and quote data on child maltreatment and its economic burden over time that says it all. “When totaling the costs of health care, child...

Unfortunately, implementing a trauma-informed framework at your organization is not as simple as bringing in experts, gathering staff for training and then riding the wave of motivation and excitement into the sunset. It involves a cultural shift at your organization, ongoing focus and training, and a commitment from leadership.

When I visit my people in West Africa, I often tease them by saying, "If the Europeans ships came again tomorrow, we would be stolen again!" This is a joke to me because I am always amazed by the warm reception I receive when I visit new villages. Despite my light-brown skin, and clearly Western mannerisms, I am always welcomed and cared for. When I present with physical, spiritual or emotional issues, my people immerse me in medicine: Women might dance and cook for 3 consecutive days,...

CHICO — His new math book in hand, 14-year-old George Rood walked over to the impromptu photo backdrop in the Pleasant Valley High School library to get his picture taken for his new student ID card. George never expected to be starting anew this early into high school. The Paradise High freshman was forced out of his Magalia home when the Camp Fire came bearing down on the ridge where his family lived, fleeing with his grandmother and little brother and leaving behind the last sense of...

Dr. Gerald S. Berenson, a cardiologist who found that detecting and reducing elevated weight, blood pressure and cholesterol in young children could help prevent heart disease when they became adults, died on Nov. 22 in Houston. He was 96. Dr. Berenson, who lived in New Orleans, had been visiting a daughter in Texas when he died of a heart attack in his sleep, his son Dr. Leslie Berenson said. Dr. Berenson was a professor of cardiology at the Louisiana State University Health New Orleans...

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is funding a new Arizona State University initiative to provide in-depth health care news coverage about underserved communities across the Southwest. ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication is receiving a $500,000 grant to establish the Southwest Reporting Initiative, which will provide timely and accurate health news and information, in particular­ about Latino and Native American communities. Cronkite News, the student-produced,...

Wrestling Ghosts now has a trailer! Please feel free to share with your colleagues and friends who may be interested in our film. We have some community screenings coming up down the pipeline, and can't wait to share Kim's story with more people! Check out the trailer here!

In the aftermath of recent hurricanes and wildfires, the Sesame Street in Communities team wanted to reach out to provide information on our available resources to help families cope in the aftermath of natural disasters, and other traumatic experiences. Bilingual videos, articles, printables and more, are all available for free on our website at www.sesamestreetincommunities.org . Here are the links to a few topic pages that may be most useful to you as you work with families in the...

Why do we remain in romantic relationships that leave us unhappy and unfulfilled? The answer in two new studies co-authored by a University of Toronto researcher might surprise you. Research published in the November issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people are less likely to initiate a breakup when they believe that their romantic partners are dependent on the relationship . Participants in the studies, even people who had been close to breaking up, were...

Democrats return to the California Capitol on Monday with their strongest political advantage in decades poised to fulfill a huge item on their list of pent-up demands: Vastly expanded access to preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. Their plan comes with a big price tag, a problem that has doomed past proposals, most recently with outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown. But with huge legislative majorities and Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, who called for more spending on early education in his campaign, they see...

TORNILLO, Texas – About 40 miles southeast of El Paso, past the billboards for fast food joints and rugged desert hills, residents of this small community sometimes can see the lights of the nearby detention camp glowing in the night. Some of them have brought gifts for the roughly 2,300 children inside, only to be turned away by guards. Months after the government erected a tent city in the desert, most of what happens inside the encampment remains hidden, even from curious neighbors in the...