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When I was 11 years old, I went to the doctor for a check-up and my whole world stopped. In that one moment, the family I had spent six months becoming a part of decided against adoption. I was removed from my biological mother at just six months, and this was the closest I had ever been to joining a family. One week before a judge made me somebody’s daughter, my almost-parents decided that they did not want “a kid with a baby.” “You’re pregnant!” “What were you thinking?” “There are...

Education, money, and power provide access to good health. However, access to those systems is limited for people of color by the historic and systemic injustices that benefit white people. This is one manifestation of White Privilege. The data show that factors like your race, income, and ZIP Code have a bigger impact on your health than your behavior, your medical care, or your genetic code . These social determinants of health are also social determinants of economic and social class...

The idea behind public education is simple: A community pays into a system that aims to create a bright future for the next generation. Years pass, and those kids grow up. They pay into the same system, yielding the same dividends. Repeat. But things aren’t always that simple. As this week’s episode explains, the policies that shape public education can be subject to influences – ideological and financial. We begin with a profile of President Donald Trump’s Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos.

Americans’ obesity rates have reached a new high-water mark. Again. In 2015 and 2016, just short of 4 in 10 American adults had a body mass index that put them in obese territory. In addition, just under 2 in 10 American children — those between 2 and 19 years of age — are now considered obese as well. The new measure of the nation’s weight problem, released early Friday by statisticians from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , chronicles dramatic increases in obesity levels...

October is Resilience Awareness Month What does the word “resilience” mean, and why do we dedicate a month to promoting this word? Simply stated, it means being flexible and adapting to change, like a tree bends in the wind or a rubber band stretches. For humans, it means learning to build our toolbox of skills for managing our emotions. It is staying regulated. It is teaching our children and students how to identify, name and manage their feelings. It is how to develop hope and mastery of...

LEBANON, Conn. — Rob Sullivan still remembers the gun and the sound of his mother’s high-pitched pleas. Two thieves had burst into his parents’ Hartford home. Demanding his father’s dope stash, one of the men placed a gun to Rob’s right temple. “Just give it to them,” his mother begged his father. He was 6 years old. The incident, charred in his memory, was an early trauma among many he recalls from his childhood. He watched his father beat his mother for not having dinner ready on time or...

Here is my advice to anyone who is considering coming forward about a predator, famous or not, regarding a recent encounter or one from long ago.

Deadline: Nov. 1, 2017 The Attachment & Trauma Network, Inc. (ATN) is hosting this National Conference for Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools at the Washington Hilton Washington, DC, February 19-20, 2018, to give all educators — teachers, administrators and school personnel — as well as other child-serving professionals, community leaders and parents an opportunity to explore the importance of trauma-informed care for in schools and other child-serving environments. Through the ACE...

In one of the most rigorous reviews of juvenile criminal justice records, the Adverse Childhood Experiences in the New Mexico Juvenile Justice Population study revealed that the frequency of early abuse, neglect and family chaos of incarcerated youth reaches staggering rates, skyrocketing above national averages. Join a discussion with Robbyn Peters Bennett as she talks with co-principal researcher, George Davis, MD who served as the primary psychiatric clinician and evaluator in New...

It was 1:30 a.m., and Anna was trying to keep her mind off her ex-boyfriend, with whom she had ended a painful relationship hours earlier. It was too late to call the therapist she was seeing to cope with low self-esteem and homesickness, and too late to stop by a friend’s house. So, she turned to social media. “I’m having a really hard time right now,” Anna — who asked to be identified by a pseudonym — posted on Facebook. “Is there anyone I can call and talk to until I feel better?” Almost...

We’re in the midst of an extraordinary time. Deadly wildfires, ongoing desperation in Puerto Rico, the acquittal of the yet another police officer—this time the one who killed Anthony Lamar Smith—and continued twitter harassment from our troller-in-chief. Oh yeah, and threats of nuclear holocaust. So in this week’s column, I want to invite you to pause and take care of yourself. Catch your breath. Take a moment to restore your spirits. Some of those who work for justice and ecological sanity...

When the clouds darken and rain starts pouring down, many Houston-area elementary school students get nervous and start to sob — a sign of the long-lasting effects of watching the water levels rise during and after Hurricane Harvey. For Donna Wotkyns, a licensed social worker in Houston, that reaction shows exactly why ramping up resources for long-term mental health services for Texas students is necessary. “I’m a big believer in … support groups, getting together multiple children or youth...