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Recently, mass killings have been front and center in the news. The terrorist attacks in Paris struck a chord worldwide, and similar attacks in Beirut, Baghdad, Mali, Lake Chad, and elsewhere have made the horror seem never-ending. Yesterday marked the three-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting and two weeks ago another shooting in San Bernardino topped a long list of harrowing incidents in the United States. While the political discourse focuses on how to prevent future tragedies...

Women have made great strides in medicine. In what was once a traditionally male profession, women now make up about half of today's medical students. Still, major disparities remain: According to a new study , there are more mustaches—yes, mustaches—than women in leadership positions at top American medical schools. The research is published in the British Medical Journal's " Christmas Issue ," an annual collection of peer reviewed but generally quirky scientific reports.

Even for those who are flexible about location and amenities, finding an apartment can be a serious ordeal. But it only becomes harder for those whose disabilities require very specific features, such as doorways that can fit a walker or a wheelchair or door handles that are easier to grip than knobs. A new report from Harvard finds that more than 7 million renter households have a member with a disability. (According to the Census Bureau , about 57 million Americans, or 19 percent of the...

The American justice system executed fewer people in 2015 than it has in nearly 25 years, and it handed out fewer death sentences this year than it has in almost 40, according to new data from the Death Penalty Information Center. Despite these historic lows, however, racial bias persists among those who were executed. We thought this was an apt time to review the numbers. About equal numbers of blacks and whites are murdered every year in the United States. Yet, in America, the killers of...

Think about the first 18 years of your life. Were you witness to or a victim of substance abuse? Parental separation or divorce? Someone in the household suffering from mental illness? Was your mother battered? Was someone incarcerated? Were you emotionally or physically neglected? Emotionally, physically or sexually abused? There is a name for all of those situations, and Lisa Kruse and Amy Wyant are ready to share their knowledge on it: Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs. Kruse and...

Check out all of the stories posted on Buzzfeed this week about mental health here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mentalhealthweek [Photo by Andrew Richard/Buzzfeed]

In this series, professionals predict the ideas and trends that will shape 2016. Read the posts here , then write your own (use #BigIdeas2016 in your piece). So here’s the big idea I think will shape 2016: sleep. That’s right, sleep! How much and how well we sleep in the coming year — and the years to follow — will determine, in no small measure, our ability to address and solve the problems we’re facing as individuals and as a society. While our...

Mental health courts have been embraced in many communities, and it's easy to understand why. Rather than sending someone who's mentally ill to an overcrowded jail that is poorly equipped to manage his condition, mental health courts offer treatment and help with housing and other social services. The community saves on the cost of locking someone up and offenders get support to stay healthy and may have their charges expunged. Everybody wins, right? The reality is more complex. Mental...

More school districts around the U.S. are heeding the advice of scientists who have long said that expecting teens to show up to class before 8 a.m. isn’t good for their health or their report cards. The Seattle school board voted last month to adopt an 8:45 a.m. start time beginning next year for all of its high schools and most of its middle schools, joining 70 districts across the nation who adopted a later start time in recent years. The movement still has a long way to go: There...

Last month, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services announced that it would not renew the license of the Berks County Residential Center, one of three family immigration detention centers run by the federal government. The Texas Department of Family Protective Services is considering a request to license the other two. [For more of this story, written by Benard Dreyer,  go to...

Every morning, I watch my son fail to comply with the rules. He’s a nine-year-old boy with Down syndrome and he rarely conforms to expectations. He’s not great at standing in line, so he either charges ahead to be first onto the bus (then lingers once inside, blocking everyone), or else waits until everyone else has boarded, and then has to be urged up the stairs. Once inside, he likes to talk to the bus driver, say hello to friends, and maybe dance in the aisle to the music in...

Do you have an adopted or foster child? If not, have you considered fostering a child or adopting a child? What is stopping you? What inspired you to do it? Whatever the case, adopting and fostering a child is one of the most difficult, intimidating, and humbling experiences for many families. It’s also quite admirable. Adopting or fostering a child (or teenager) will take a great deal of support from your “village” and knowledge about attachment, trauma, and patience.