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Growing up in Washington, D.C.'s Columbia Heights neighborhood, Rebecca Lemos-Otero says her first experience with nature came in her late teens when her mother started a community garden. "I was really surprised and quickly fell in love," she recalls. The garden was peaceful, and a "respite" from the neighborhood, which had high crime rates, abandoned lots and buildings, she says. Inspired by that experience, years later, Lemos-Otero, 39, started City Blossoms , a local nonprofit that has...

So you’ve been wronged. A friend casually dismissed a goal you set for yourself, or a colleague threw you under the bus, and you feel hurt and angry — maybe you even want payback. Sometimes those negative feelings dissipate over time, but other times they fester and become toxic obsessions. You know that “letting go” is probably the healthiest move, but wanting revenge is often much more appealing. But why? [For more on this story by Caroline Cox, go to...

The Tears You Cry is for all those young girls, teenagers, and adults who have been bullied. Its goal is to raise awareness and compassion, decrease isolation, and to prevent suicide. https://youtu.be/A4noRxyb9xc . I pray The Tears You Cry goes out into the world to do its healing work. Please be in touch with me at artsmedicine@hotmail.com if you have ideas on how to connect with people and organizations who would be interested in using The Tears You Cry in their prevention and intervention...

Nature really can be healing. A new study shows that removing trash and adding trees to empty lots helped people feel happier and reduced symptoms of depression. In what is perhaps the first scientific study of the effects of public spaces on mental health, a non-profit group in Philadelphia cleaned up trash-filled vacant lots and "greened up" others, primarily in low-income areas, and found that residents reported feeling happier. “Doctors can treat depression, drugs and wounds, but we need...

In this excellent free webinar, Chandra Ghosh Ippen, PhD, Associate Director of the Child Trauma Research Program at University of California, San Francisco, and Director of Dissemination and Implementation for Child-Parent Psychotherapy, talks about how to use her picture story book Once I Was Very Very Scared to help children and families heal from acute and chronic trauma. The webinar will be available in Spanish soon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcAPbDpgoso

The program officer will design, manage, and monitor strategies and initiatives that focus on promoting policies that improve health outcomes for children and families and make healthier school environments the norm. We are particularly interested in finding candidates with experience in policy, education, and/or child and youth development. ( An editorial note from Gail - AND wouldn't it be great for the PO to be expert in the intersection of ACEs with child & youth development?) To...

Brad Lohrey, sheriff of Sherman County in Oregon, likes to tell about an older man who summoned an ambulance about once a week, usually in the middle of the night. When the 911 calls ended abruptly, Lohrey asked his deputies if they knew why. “One of the deputies told me that he started stopping by the gentleman’s house before going off shift. The deputy told me that spending five minutes stopping and talking with the person caused the person to no longer need the ambulance. The gentleman...

Dr. Elliot Tapper has treated a lot of patients, but this one stood out. "His whole body was yellow," Tapper remembers. "He could hardly move. It was difficult for him to breathe, and he wasn't eating anything." The patient was suffering from chronic liver disease. After years of alcohol use, his liver had stopped filtering his blood. Bilirubin, a yellowish waste compound, was building up in his body and changing his skin color. [For more on this story by PAUL CHISHOLM, go to...

As Bill Gates famously said in his book, “ The Road Ahead ” (1996), “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.” At the Department of Juvenile Justice in Georgia, Gov. Nathan Deal and his leadership team have seen remarkable change in half that time. In 2013, the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice (GA DJJ) was identified by Gov. Deal as a department where change was possible and reform was...

Johnson City to co-host forum on community-wide systems of care On Sept. 5, the City of Johnson City will co-host a forum entitled Moving from Understanding to Implementing Trauma-Responsive Services in conjunction with the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA). The forum will address SAMHSA recommendations for communities to treat trauma as a component of effective behavioral health service delivery. Statistics recently released from the Tennessee Department of...

Forgiveness has been monumental in my healing journey. In learning to forgive myself and others, particularly my transgressors, I have set myself free. Here are ways you can incorporate forgiveness into your life:

In a report published last week , Jen Mishory , a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, sheds some light on an oft-debated topic in education circles: Do the benefits of "free college" programs outweigh the costs? There has been a proliferation of state-level "free college" programs in recent years. In 2014, Tennessee rolled out its Tennessee Promise initiative, which covers tuition and fees for all recent high school graduates at state community colleges and technical schools. Since...