Blog

For a long time humans have wondered if chemicals causing drug and alcohol addiction could be active in the genes and potentially passed on to the next generation. Although this was not scientifically proven until recent years, the fear of suffering from addictive diseases led children of addicts and former addicts to avoid alcohol and drugs completely. One of the scientific studies that give weight to this family history hypothesis on addiction was conducted at the Indiana University School...

Integrated health care is the coordination of physical and behavioral health care. In 2012, Harris County Protective Services (HCPS) received funding from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health to plan and implement an integrated health care program for children ages birth through 17 in state care. Stakeholders in protective services reported that the existing system of care was a “broken” system. The HCPS program provided care to 194 unique clients between June 2014 and September 2015.

Emil Girardi moved to San Francisco on New Year’s Eve in 1960. He loved everything about the city: the energy, the people, the hills. And of course, the bars, where he mixed drinks for most of his adult life. About 10 years ago, the 83-year-old New York native had a stroke and collapsed on the sidewalk near his Nob Hill home. Everything changed. “I didn’t want to go out of the house,” Girardi said, adding he only felt comfortable “going from the bedroom to the dining room.” He started to...

For a revolutionary, Deepali Vishwakarma is more quiet and reflective than you might expect. She's in her 30s, small, with a round face that holds intense brown eyes and a shy grin. Vishwakarma is a lay counselor in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India — a well-trained community member who goes out daily to fight what novelist William Styron once called a "howling tempest in the brain." She's part of an effort by the Indian nonprofit group Sangath to provide mental health treatment to poor...

The United States has historically struggled with how to treat all its citizens equitably and fairly while wealth and power are concentrated in a very small segment of our society. Now, in the face of growing public awareness and outcry about the centuries-long injustices experienced by African Americans, Native Americans, new immigrants, and other marginalized groups, we believe that our nation urgently needs collaborative multisector approaches toward equity and justice. For maximum...

When Noel Anaya was just 1 year old, he and his five brothers and sisters were placed in the California foster care system. He has spent nearly all of his life in that system and has just turned 21. In California, that’s the age when people in foster care “age out” of the system and lose the benefits the system provides. That process becomes official at a final court hearing. Anaya, along with Youth Radio, got rare permission to record the proceeding, where he read a letter he wrote about...

In 2015, 5,545 children in San Francisco, CA, were reported to have experienced abuse. Of those, the reports of 753 children were substantiated. The expense to San Francisco for not preventing that abuse will cost $400,533 per child over his or her lifetime. That adds up to $301.6 million for just that one year, according to “ The Economics of Child Abuse: A Study of San Francisco.” And, because child abuse is profoundly underreported, the costs are likely to be as much as $5.6 billion/year,...

ChildWise Institute is really excited to announce Jim Sporleder as our featured expert at our May conference! You all know Jim as the former principal of Lincoln High School, which the documentary film, Paper Tiger's, is all about. ChildWise works closely with Jim, and he will be presenting and teaching his new guidebook, The Trauma-Informed School: A Step-by-Step Implementation Guide for Administrators and School Personnel . Unlike a typical ChildWise educational event, conference or...

I am, of course, pleased that Theresa May recognises that increasing numbers of adults and children are suffering from mental health difficulties ( May pledges to try to reduce stigma , 9 January). The huge emotional burden this puts on families only increases the risks. These difficulties have escalated in the six years since massive cuts to public services and most preventive mental health services, alongside the increased culture of competition that leads to more anxiety and less...

You may wake up one wintry, dreary weekday morning and say, "It's only Tuesday but it feels like Friday. I can't stand it. There is no way I can go in. That presentation will have to be rescheduled. I'm taking a mental health day and am calling in sick." Ideally those mornings are very rare, if they happen at all. Rather than relax you, those moments of decision can cause huge stress and make going in to work easier than thinking about staying home. The biggest challenge most of us have with...

When teenagers and young adults suffer a psychotic episode, they're more likely to develop serious mental illnesses later, and the longer it goes untreated the more serious the issues can become. With that in mind, a new program and partnership between the state of Montana and area mental health experts and organizations announced Tuesday aims to provide treatment early on in an effort to keep their conditions from getting worse. During a Tuesday press conference at Billings Clinic, Gov.

Interdisciplinary Research Leaders (IRL) is a national leadership development program that brings together teams of researchers and community leaders to: • Connect a community’s pressing needs to health research and policy efforts; • Collaborate and share expertise to build healthier, more equitable communities. • Develop leadership and advanced research skills for building a Culture of Health, enabling all people to live longer, healthier lives now and for generations to come. For this...