Blog

It is not news that people abused as children are more exposed to clinical depression, anxiety, and a higher risk of death from suicide. But now, researchers have begun to reveal what happens in the brain following this kind of trauma. According to data provided by the Children's Bureau of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, there was a 3.8 percent increase in reported child abuse cases in the country between 2011 and 2015. This amounts to 683,000 cases of child abuse...

Desiree Felix didn’t make her way to UCLA with the help of helicopter parents who hired tutors, hounded teachers or edited her application essays. Her father is a handyman with a sixth-grade education. Her mother finished high school and helps manage apartments. At Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, Felix had to figure out most of the nuts and bolts of preparing for and applying to colleges on her own. She didn’t know anything about Advanced Placement classes until her sophomore year, and...

While probably not in your diary, the second of October 2017 is the fifth anniversary of the Scottish Government’s National Parenting Strategy. Other initiatives and events took precedence during this extraordinary period in Scotland’s history. But, when launched, the Strategywas not a trivial, ‘off the cuff’ public policy. After an extensive consultation process, the Scottish Government proposed dozens of actions under the rubric ‘Our commitment to Scotland’s parents’. A year later, NHS...

In the wake of the tragedy of Las Vegas, I need to pray. I need to pray and I want to hold hands with others and pray with them. But I don't. All too often, I neglect forms of spiritual healing for fear of offending someone of another belief system. The more I study trauma and its adverse affects on our individual and collective well being, the more I understand how we have abandoned indigenous practices, sacred healing practices — practices that once re-edified human connection through the...

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois addresses trauma briefing May 11, 2017 ______________________________________________________________________________ Congressional sponsors of the “Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act” ( S. 774 / H.R. 1757 )—U.S. Senators Heitkamp and Durbin and U.S. Rep. Davis—never expected an up and down vote on the standalone bill as introduced, but knew that some provisions might be picked up and added to other bills or otherwise advanced as promising...

Seventeen, shy and a self-described homebody, Kamryn Skeaton isn’t “college material,” she says. But a few weeks into a new city-sponsored internship at the South Natomas library, she’s starting to think about herself differently. She is a junior at Leroy Green Academy, a quirky teen who loves weightlifting, cooking and all types of mustard. Now, she is also an intern. “I didn’t know I had such a good work ethic until I had this job,” Skeaton said. “I think my grandmother, my Noni, knew all...

The Integrative Pain Center of Arizona permanently closed Friday after 15 years in business — a move leaders say was fueled by a misguided health-system response to the opioid crisis. The center’s recent financial setbacks could not be overcome in a system where U.S. health insurers are rewarding physicians for treating the symptoms of chronic pain rather than the root causes, center co-founder Dr. Bennet E. Davis said last week as he walked through his darkened north-side Tucson clinic.

I’ve been dealing with the father wound for most of my life. When I was five years old my mid-life father became increasingly depressed because he couldn’t make a living supporting me and my mother. He took an overdose of sleeping pills and was committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital. Many of us grow up without the presence of a loving, engaged, father in our lives. Some of us lose our fathers through illness, others through divorce, death, distance, or dysfunction. Like most losses,...

A Penn State researcher and her collaborator found that physical abuse was associated with decreases in children's cognitive performance, while non-abusive forms of physical punishment were independently associated with reduced school engagement and increased peer isolation. Sarah Font, assistant professor of sociology and co-funded faculty member of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, and Jamie Cage, assistant professor in Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Social Work,...

Even patients with whom I have the best rapport would probably rather not see me so often. Sometimes I readmit a patient I cared for just weeks before in the hospital. “Nice to see you again,” I offer with a smile. The usual response, loosely paraphrased: I’d rather be anywhere else. This reflects not some deep deficiency in my bedside manner (I think), but rather an essential truth about medicine: People want health, not health care. And those who require the most health care and get the...

On April 28, 1996, a 28-year-old Australian man named Martin Bryant ate lunch at Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur, Tasmania, a historic penal colony that is a popular tourist resort. After his meal, he returned his tray, removed a semiautomatic rifle from his bag, and opened fire. By the time Bryant was caught a day later, 35 people were dead and 23 wounded in what became the worst mass shooting in Australian history—one whose impact is felt even today. There had been previous mass shootings...

After any disaster, parents and other adults struggle with what they should say and share with children and what not to say or share with them. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) encourages parents, teachers, child care providers, and others who work closely with children to filter information about the crisis and present it in a way that their child can accommodate, adjust to, and cope with. No matter what age or developmental stage the child is, parents can start by asking a child...