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In 2018, I to introduced to heart rate variability in a series with Curt Mower and Dr. Jerry Yager on the Trauma-Informed Lens Podcast. At the beginning of the series, I had barely heard of HRV, by the end, I believed HRV was the best way to measure post-traumatic growth, the impact of trauma, the health of staff, and organizational wellness. These podcasts motivated me to write a book, start companies on two continents, and create a smartphone app designed for those doing trauma-informed...

Recently we have been discussing the twenty-four most common symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD). We’ve discovered in pieces one and two in this series how people living with the aftereffects of severe repeated trauma often experience sleep disturbances, flashbacks, and other problems. Recapping What We Have Covered As we have already learned, there are dozens of symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress disorder listed online and there may be more. However, for the...

Organizations often see measurement and program evaluation as a luxury or something extra to do - they'll do it if they have extra cash or if it's required by a grant or a change package they purchase. It’s viewed as something that will tell them at the end whether the intervention moved the needle. What they fail to recognize is that the process of measurement is an intervention in and of itself and it can drive the change process... Read More

By Padma Nagappan, California Health Care Foundation, January 19, 2021 Lupita was six months pregnant with triplets when her water broke. The quiet 36-year-old farmworker suddenly had to leave her four children and enter Bakersfield Memorial Hospital for three months so doctors could watch over her during an unpredictable third trimester. She had recently separated from her husband, so her 17-year-old was tasked with taking care of his younger siblings until she returned from the hospital.

By Michael Burke, EdSource, January 25, 2021 With a multilayered approach to detect and prevent the spread of Covid-19, campus leaders at the University of California, San Diego say they have created something rare in higher education this year: a safe on-campus experience for thousands of students. Even with Covid-19 spreading rapidly in Southern California, about 10,000 students are living on UC San Diego’s La Jolla campus this year. After avoiding any significant Covid-19 outbreaks during...

By Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, January 20, 2021 T hey could be real-estate agents or police officers, bakers or firefighters, veterans of American wars or CEOs of American companies. They might live in Boise or Dallas, College Park or College Station, Sacramento or Delray Beach. Some are wealthy. Some are not. Relatively few of them were at the United States Capitol on January 6, determined to stop Congress from certifying a legitimate election. Millions more cheered the rioters on—and...

By Saijel Kishan, Bloomberg Green, January 26, 2021 The indifference of middle-aged, White car salesmen gave Kristal Hansley her start in green energy. She had just finished a stint on Capitol Hill in the summer of 2017, when she started working at a Chevy dealership outside of Baltimore. She was the only Black woman on the showroom floor. Her coworkers, mostly White men, were more interested in selling Corvettes and Silverados than the electric vehicles on show. So Hansley carved out a...

By Paul Krugman, The New York Times, January 25, 2021 Some things about American politics are completely predictable, even in a time of insurrection and QAnon craziness. Anyone who has been paying attention over the past decade knew that as soon as a Democrat took the White House, Republicans would instantly do another 180-degree turn on budget deficits. Remember, the G.O.P. went from hyperventilating about debt as an existential threat during the Obama years to complete indifference about...

By Nate Galvan, Sonoma State University News, January 26, 2021 Sonoma State University has been awarded $4.96 million from NASA to design and implement a program that will engage students on the autism spectrum in informal STEM learning. NASA’s Neurodiversity Network (N3) aims to broaden participation in NASA programs to include autistic and other learners with neurological differences. As part of NASA’s Science Activation Program , which is composed of teams across the nation to help...

By Scott Horsley, National Public Radio, January 26, 2021 Karen Butcher's son Matthew struggled for years with an addiction to opioids. She's convinced the pandemic made it worse. The restaurant in Scott County, Ky., where Matthew worked as a bartender closed before the pandemic, and soon other establishments, from restaurants to stores, followed suit as states imposed lockdowns. "One day you're a bartender and you're serving people and having a great time at it, and then the next day the...

From University of North Carolina Health Care, January 23, 2021 A feat of basic neuroscience co-led by UNC School of Medicine scientists, the discovery of a set of arousal-related neurons could help scientists develop better treatments for anxiety disorders, psychiatric illnesses. Strong emotions such as fear and anxiety tend to be accompanied and reinforced by measurable bodily changes including increased blood pressure, heart rate and respiration, and dilation of the eyes’ pupils. These...

Nearly one in 10 people born in the United States is premature (birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy), and its complications are the number one cause of death in babies. Those who survive premature birth often have long-term health issues. Surprisingly, the United States has one of the worst premature birth rates among high-resource nations (Source: March of Dimes ). Research has also shown that the countries with the highest prematurity rates also have high rates of depression and alcoholism...