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The Trump administration is proposing a major shake-up in one of the country's most important "safety net" programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. Under the proposal, most SNAP recipients would lose much of their ability to choose the food they buy with their SNAP benefits. The proposal is included in the Trump administration budget request for fiscal year 2019. It would require approval from Congress. Under the proposal, which was announced...

Barry Pollard told the San Diego Trauma-Informed Guide Team (SD-TIGT) how a small group of exasperated residents had rattled the corporate gates and won. During the “trauma-informed journey” portion of January’s SD-TIGT meeting—a regular feature in which a member or guest shares challenges, triumphs and lessons learned in the course of implementing trauma-informed practices—Pollard, founder of San Diego’s three-year-old Urban Collaborative Project (UCP), told how residents in Southeast San...

It's week two of our book club series, Reading The Reckoning with Rebecca Carroll .This week's book is a collection of essays by Morgan Jerkins called, " This Will Be My Undoing ." This New York Times best seller takes on a central question: What does it mean to “be” — to live as, to exist as — a black woman today? [To listen to this podcast from The Takeaway , go to https://www.wnyc.org/story/reading-reckoning-morgan-jerkins ]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With approval from the Trump administration fresh in hand, Kentucky is rushing to roll out its first-in-the-nation plan to require many Medicaid recipients to work, volunteer or train for a job — even as critics mount a legal challenge to stop it on the grounds that it violates the basic tenets of the program. At least eight other Republican-led states are hoping to follow — a ninth, Indiana, has already won permission to do so — and some want to go even further by imposing...

When Stacy Bourdukofsky’s abusive ex-husband touched down on the small island where they live to stand trial for strangling his girlfriend and whacking a man in the head with a bat, she was waiting to board the outbound flight on the same jet. She’d gone to extreme measures to escape him in the past, and she wasn’t about to let him unnerve her this time around. “My first marriage was a nightmare. It was constant drinking, and it was always beatings. I would end up with severe black eyes to...

A statewide coalition of groups and people who want West Virginians to understand the connection between childhood trauma and health outcomes later, such as addiction, released a report last week that showed traumatic childhood experiences are common among West Virginians. The report found that 55.8 percent of West Virginia adults reported at least one “adverse childhood experience,” with the most common being substance abuse in the household, and the authors noted that people who report...

Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, speaks about childhood trauma during a Wednesday press conference at the Statehouse. With Donahue are, from left to right, Rep. Mike Mrowicki, D-Putney; Rep. Kate Webb, D-Shelburne; Sen. David Soucy, R-Rutland; and Sen. Becca Balint, D-Windham. ________________________________ Editor’s note: Chick here to read an ACEs Too High article on how the legislative working group on childhood trauma and ACEs in Vermont got started. After hearing sometimes-emotional...

Here is a new one for the (sub) list http://neurosciencenews.com/sibling-bullying-psychiatry-8476/

If a child grows up with addiction, that is probably not the only risk factor in the home. ACEs or adverse childhood experiences tend to cluster; once a home environment is disordered, the risk of witnessing or experiencing emotional, physical, or sexual abuse actually rises dramatically (Anda, et al., 2006). Addiction, with an emphasis as today’s public health emergency, is very much a part of the political and public discourse. Unfortunately however, the needs of the children hurt by...

Most Americans’ greatest asset is their home. According to the Economic Policy Institute, housing equity makes up two-thirds of wealth for typical American households , and most wealth for black families is held in their primary residence . But because of segregation and structural racism, owning a home has not provided the same value and pathway for wealth creation for black Americans as it has for white Americans. Barriers to buying a home contribute to a wide homeownership gap between...

Our drinking often hurts the people we care about. If we acknowledge it soon enough, these relationships are probably salvageable. It’s very rare that someone in recovery looks back at their time spent drinking and can say there were no red flags indicating that they had a problem or were headed down a slippery slope. The truth is that when these red flags present themselves, you may prefer to look the other way or make excuses. Acknowledging such red flags may mean finally admitting you...

A FEDERAL APPEALS COURT recently freed a man who had been incarcerated nearly seven years awaiting trial. Although the court labeled Joseph Tigano III’s pretrial incarceration “egregiously oppressive,” it suggested there was no one factor to blame. “Years of subtle neglects,” the court wrote, “resulted in a flagrant violation of Tigano's Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial.” Tigano’s case fits a familiar narrative of clogged courts and bureaucratic indifference. There is, however,...