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A new study showed that doctors could help reduce their patients’ stress levels, along with boosting other health benefits, simply by recommending that people spend time in nature. “What we learned is that nature can help with stress,” said Dr. Nooshin Razani, a study author and director of the Center for Nature and Health at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. The study was published this month in the journal PLOS ONE. “Forest therapy is...

The talk around the table is not what one might expect when community advocates begin a meeting with county health officials. “I went into this [work] through my own lived experience of trauma and family addiction,” said Toni DeMarco, the deputy director of children’s services for San Mateo County Health System. Rocsana Enriquez, who teaches yoga to teens in juvenile hall in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and in high schools for the Palo Alto-based Art of Yoga Project , chimed in. “I’m...

In Cody, Wyoming we are sponsoring a simulcast. Please join the live event or the simulcast in your area. Credits available in many locations for social workers and possibly educators. https://empoweredcody. eventbrite.com The Empowered to Connect Conference is a two-day event presented by Show Hope and the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development. Come experience practical teaching in a safe and supportive community as we work to equip families, churches, and professionals to better...

In the late afternoon on Feb. 26, the House of Representatives unanimously passed H. Res. 443 , a resolution recognizing the importance and effectiveness of trauma-informed care and calling for a national trauma awareness month and trauma-informed awareness day. The impetus for the resolution resides with the First Lady of Wisconsin, Tonette Walker, who has taken a strong leadership role in advancing trauma-informed policy and practice statewide through Fostering Futures , and has elevated...

Tapping into the electrical chatter between different regions of the brain may provide a new way to predict and prevent depression, according to new research by Duke University neuroscientists and electrical engineers. The researchers found different networks of electrical brain activity in mice that were more susceptible to developing depression-like symptoms following stressful events than in more resilient mice. If replicated in humans, these results could be the first step toward a test...

On February 12 , 200 California Youth Connection (CYC) members, allies and community members gathered to celebrate 30 years of the organization’s youth-led advocacy in California, and to continue the fight with a new bill to prevent unnecessary placement changes for foster youth in the state. That day, the steps of California State Capitol in Sacramento resonated with the voices of current and former foster youth, who chanted “C’mon, c’mon, join the fight! Stability is our right!” and “CYC...

CHARLESTON — As the opioid epidemic continues to ravage West Virginia, a group of child welfare advocates gathered Wednesday to kickoff a campaign to ensure children impacted by the crisis aren't forgotten. "We talk a lot about the drug epidemic in terms of overdoses and first responders, but we rarely talk about the kids," said Kelli Caseman, Director of Child Health with West Virginians for Affordable Health Care. "They're kind of the second line of casualties." Caseman is leading "Year of...

This article was produced in partnership with WMFE, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network . A Florida bill to assist first responders suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder has found new life in the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. At least three first responders to the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, which killed 49 people, have publicly disclosed that they have a PTSD diagnosis, and advocates have been trying to expand...

In the spring of 2016, African-American children as young as 11 marched in protest against the gun violence in their Miami neighborhood of Liberty City. The low-income area had lost 13 teens and children so far that year to guns. The kids demanded the right to play outside safely; they held signs and chanted slogans like “We want to live” and “We want to see another day.” Phillip Agnew, leader of the Florida-based Dream Defenders, a youth-led group fighting for racial justice, said the...

In the fall of 2017, news of the six-by-six bare pine boxes—which have, in their various forms, been called "seclusion enclosures," "isolation booths," "isolation boxes," and "time-out rooms"—used to confine elementary school students in eastern Iowa, sometimes for over an hour at a time, went viral. As the headlines mounted, angry parents learned they did not legally have to be informed of such measures if taken against their children by educators. Critics contended that the use of these...

Uber wants to get you from your home to your doctor's office — and you won't even need to open the Uber app. The company announced Thursday that it's teaming up with health care organizations to provide transportation for patients going to and from medical appointments. The rides can be scheduled for patients through doctor's offices, by receptionists or other staffers. And they can be booked for immediate pickup or up to 30 days in advance. That means patients without a smartphone — who...

I did not understand how poor my family was until my maternal grandmother told me a story about sackcloth dresses and beans. I was in my 20s, and we were sitting in her kitchen, the tickle of cool air from the window air-conditioning unit barely on us, when she told me that while she was a child, her mother made dresses for her and her siblings from sackcloth, and that she was always disappointed because the sacks with pretty patterns were taken by the time she was given the opportunity to...