Blog

Since covering Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, I’ve noticed the underlying current of violence against women increasing under the weight of recovery. Almost biweekly now, my social media shows a news article from the island about women who are found dead, with the common refrain, “otra más” (yet another). It appears, as Grist’s Greta Moran writes, that “as the world heats up, it’s also becoming more violent,” particularly for women. We know by now those who are already...

Resistance to the North Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock brought greater media and public attention to Native peoples and our struggles with environmental injustice. It also provided a means for the public to express fears over the environmental threats posed to the Earth by unchecked corporate and governmental exploitation of fossil fuels. Native Americans, however, have been hollering for generations about the global impact of fossil fuels and the poisoning of water, land, and fish...

How does the quality of where we live affect our children’s development? The impact of housing and neighborhood quality on physical health has long been studied in the public health field, but studies that aim to assess those same impacts on mental health are less common. This study examined the relationship between the physical quality of housing and neighborhoods and their interactive effect on the mental health and motivation of children from elementary school through young adulthood.

Twelve-year-old Talayia Richardson wore a lovely flowered sun dress that complimented her milk chocolate-colored skin; her long black hair was perfectly coifed; the sun seemed to burst across her smiling face as DC Attorney General Karl Racine (D) introduced her at a 2018 youth roundtable organized with Ward 6 DC Council member Charles Allen (D). Showcasing local winners of the “Do the Write Thing” essay contest, the event featured voices of students from traditional and charter schools,...

Last fall, an 8-year-old boy I’ll call Mateo came to the pediatric clinic in South Los Angeles where I was working. He was thin, with sun-parched skin and very quiet. He seemed fearful of everyone and everything. His mother brought him in because his feet were hurting. When I removed Mateo’s tattered tennis shoes and socks, his feet were inflamed and the skin was flaking off the soles. His toes were covered in black eschars, pieces of dead tissue. I couldn’t believe he was able to walk. I...

In November 2018, five people were stabbed to death on the streets of London in the space of six days . Three of the victims were teenagers. That spate of killings followed a summer filled with harrowing reports of knife violence. After several years of decline, knife offences in England are on the rise again. According to the most recent crime figures from the Office of National Statistics , offences involving a knife or a sharp instrument are at the highest level ever recorded, at almost...

Jamal was in a good place. He was enrolled in a program that employed him while he was earning his high school equivalency degree. He enjoyed the work — doing landscaping all over the city. He had made good friends, he liked having money in his pocket, and he was doing something positive. Until he was shot in the face. Jamal, then 24 years old, was shopping for a shirt after work in downtown San Francisco when a car pulled up to the curb next to him. The window rolled down, and the passenger...

by Amy Wright Glenn https://www.phillyvoice.com/impact-verbal-abuse-children/?

This post originally appeared on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Culture of Health Blog . There’s no bus service in his small town in rural North Carolina, so Dean* drives 10 miles to The Free Clinics ("Clinics") in Hendersonville every couple of weeks whenever he has money for gas. Staff there helped him find affordable medications and treatments for cancer and for his shoulder, which he injured by falling 20 feet on a construction site. He’s unable to read due to learning...

Their titles vary — community health worker, care navigator, community paramedic, peer specialist — but the core benefit they provide to patients is the same: a knowledgeable care provider, often with lived experience, and an advocate for better health.

Students in U.S. schools were less likely to be suspended in 2016 than they were in 2012. But the progress is incremental, and large gaps — by race and by special education status — remain. This data comes from an analysis of federal data for NPR in partnership with the nonprofit organization Child Trends. And it comes as the Trump administration is preparing the final report from a school safety commission that is expected to back away from or rescind Obama-era guidance intended to reduce...

The following interview is part of a cutting-edge series of video interviews called Parenting Today: Raising Strong, Resilient Kids being aired exclusively on Mad in America. This series has as its aim educating parents about the current mental disorder paradigm as it relates to children. It also offers many useful tips about how to raise resilient children and how to become a more skilful parent. In this series of more than thirty interviews, we share information about the diverse resources...