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I wanted every individual suffering from chronic illnesses to understand the emerging science on not only how early adversity can lead to adult chronic illness, but how we can heal.

MOGADISHU — In Somalia, an exercise program for survivors of sexual violence is helping participants overcome trauma. It's a trendy program in an unlikely place. In classes across the Somali capital of Mogadishu, youths practice breathing, meditation and stretching. Dressed in matching blue track suits, the color of the Somali flag, they hold difficult poses. Read more...

Something is trying to get itself written. You can feel it: There’s a bulge in the ether, a protuberance in the brainpan. Something is trying to get itself written, and it has elected you—by what process, God only knows—as its writer. Can you do the job, complete the commission? It’s going to take some ninja skills. The energy accumulates, shapelessly, buzzingly, around no clear point. Les Murray has called it a “painless headache,” this pre-writing electrical build that must be “tapped” or...

Donning a protective gown, rubber gloves and a face mask, Dayna Gurley looks like she’s heading into surgery. But Gurley is a medical social worker charged with figuring out why her client, a man who uses more health care services than almost anyone else in Houston, has been in three different hospitals in the last month. The patient, who asked not to be identified, has chronic massive ulcers, AIDS and auditory hallucinations. He rents a cot in another person’s home but is more often...

It’s a little after noon. Usually by this hour, David Weiss would be waking for the second time, still groggy from his antipsychotics. He’d have gotten up once at dawn, maybe made himself an egg with toast. He might have gone into the back bedroom to scan his ham radio or played a few chords on his guitar. Then he’d go back to sleep. But on this day, he had somewhere to be. It’s easier to get up on days like this, days with a purpose. And so at noon, he is sitting in an abnormal- psychology...

This week, our “Americans at Work”photo essay features photographs of the NorthWest Bible Church’s Between Jobs Ministry in Spring, Texas, made by photographer Elizabeth Conley : “While the nation has been enjoying the benefits of cheaper gas at the pump, oil-producing states have seen the negative effects. The latest numbers from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show that between October 2014 and May 2016, there’s been a decline in oil and gas employment of 26 percent. For more...

A slide, swings, maybe a seesaw or sandbox: These are the usual elements of today’s playground. We’ve become so accustomed to their uniformity that it’s hard to believe that playgrounds used to be something different. From their beginnings in the late 19th century until the 1980s, public playgrounds were spaces that would likely horrify today’s American parents. Cities set aside areas for children to build things with wood, hammers, and nails—without parental supervision. Funky sculptures to...

Dr. Valerie Maholmes: A home-visit program for parents previously investigated for child abuse, dramatically reduced the percentage of young children who were removed from their homes and placed in foster care, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Central to the program are videotaped segments of parent-child play sessions. A trained specialist then gives parents feedback on the interaction, encouraging parents to reflect on their children’s social or emotional...

As the presiding judge of Broward County, Florida’s Misdemeanor Mental Health Court , I believe it is important to promote access to community care and recovery. Therefore, mental health literacy is a key facet of court process. In this regard, I provide community mental health resource books and brochures from the Broward Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and its Family-to-Family educational program. Moreover, in a trauma-informed court that serves men and women who...

Connecticut’s governor has launched a new attempt at a groundbreaking juvenile justice reform effort this year, pushing to raise the age at which most young offenders go before an adult court to 21. Gov. Dannel Malloy proposed the same plan in 2016, only to see it stall in the state legislature. But if he succeeds this year, Connecticut would be the first to raise the age beyond 18 for all but the most serious offenses, such as murder, assault with a firearm and rape. [For more of this...

Shortly after the end of his inaugural parade, President Donald Trump issued his first executive order: instructions for the federal government to dismantle the Affordable Care Act “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” The executive order is a powerful political statement about the health care law, one that directs agencies to “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay” any taxes or penalties they possibly can. The order doesn’t give Trump any new powers, but does suggest that he...

While logging some bright spots in improving some of the factors that negatively impact the healthy development of Memphis and Shelby County’s children, the overall picture is fairly gloomy. That is the disappointing picture painted in the “Kids Count, The State of the Child in Tennessee 2015” report released Wednesday by the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, in partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The report includes county-by-county data on the well-being of...