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Addiction, Sharon David says, can seize you any time. Hers began in her mid-30s, after she had already navigated what many might think were the shoals of her life. She spent her adolescence on a First Nations reserve on an emerald stretch of Canada’s Long Island, off the coast of British Columbia. She lived with her grandmother, whom she says was emotionally and physically abusive. When she was 16, after a cousin’s boyfriend tried to rape her, she ran away from home. That escape eventually...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it will look into whether it should end its relationship with the private companies that run migrant-detentions centers, a move that would signal a major shift in policy and likely appease immigrant-rights advocates. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson made the announcement Monday, and said the review should be finished by the end of November. The U.S. government has depended heavily on private contractors to run its migrant-detention centers, and...

The physical and psychiatric effects of war can linger long after veterans return to American soil. Last weekend, a 76-year-old veteran committed suicide in the parking lot of a veteran’s affairs medical center, where he had been a patient. According to The New York Times , Peter A. Kaisen was “unable to see an emergency-room physician for reasons related to his mental health.” The hospital, however, reportedly said there was no evidence that Kaisen sought treatment at the hospital prior to...

Too many youth feel sad, hopeless, nervous, and depressed as a result of their life experiences. In fact, one in 10 tenth-grade students in Northern Kentucky has self-reported attempting suicide . Sometimes these feelings grow in intensity. Mental illness often becomes evident by the age of 14 . And youth are looking for ways to cope with these feelings -- the average age of first use of alcohol is 13. The culmination of childhood experiences, both positive and negative, shape the way...

About 8 percent of high school students are lesbian, gay or bisexual, according to the first nationwide survey asking teens about their sexuality. The survey results released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month found that these teenagers face a shockingly high level of violence compared with their straight peers. The report is a call to action for adults who care about youth, said Debra Hauser, president of Advocates for Youth , a nonprofit focusing on the...

The great Louisiana Floods of 2016 have led to the closure of at least 22 of the state’s 70 public school districts , with additional districts calling off classes as a precaution given the immense devastation. This means that as many as one-third of the state’s public school students were out of school last week, and potentially for many weeks to come. That equates to more than 241,000 children who are not in classrooms where they belong; and these figures do not even account for the many...

By the end of the summer, Florida will have cut all ties with youth prison contractor Youth Services International, a company that’s been plagued by allegations of abuse and substandard conditions for decades. Over the years, state after state abandoned their contracts with YSI until the for-profit company was operating only in Florida. But earlier this year, state officials said the company would end all contracts with YSI as the result of a lawsuit. As new companies take over the...

Issue: Finding ways to improve outcomes and reduce spending for patients with complex and costly care needs requires an understanding of their unique needs and characteristics. Goal: Examine demographics and health care spending and use of services among adults with high needs, defined as people who have three or more chronic diseases and a functional limitation in their ability to care for themselves or perform routine daily tasks. Methods: Analysis of data from the 2009–2011 Medical...

Do you have clients with health concerns, injuries, or acute/chronic illnesses? According to NSCAW, 28% of children in foster care have a chronic health condition, and 12% have two or more. About 35% of children in child welfare have either a health condition or special need. Your clients with medical conditions will likely have frequent contact with the health care system. Since many have experienced prior trauma, when faced with medical issues they are at greater risk for illness- or...

You’ve undoubtedly heard about the recent report issued by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice condemning various police practices in Baltimore. What has gone largely unmentioned, however, is the report’s detailed review of how encounters between police and people with mental illnesses result in “unnecessarily violent confrontations.” This situation should resonate with every community and every law enforcement agency in the U.S., and the solution isn’t as...

This free publication offers tips for coping with grief after an incident of community violence. Introduces some of the signs of grief and anger, provides useful information about how to cope with grief, and offers tips for helping children deal with grief. [Get it here http://store.samhsa.gov/product/Coping-With-Grief-After-Community-Violence/SMA14-4888]

Humans often make bad decisions. If you like Snickers more than Milky Way, it seems obvious which candy bar you’d pick, given a choice of the two. Traditional economic models follow this logical intuition, suggesting that people assign a value to each choice—say, Snickers: 10, Milky Way: 5—and select the top scorer. But our decision-making system is subject to glitches. In one recent experiment, Paul Glimcher , a neuroscientist at New York University, and collaborators asked people to choose...