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Kern County Health Department refused to allow the parenting tips bumper stickers on their fleet of vehicles, but for some reason they did allow AP to place the stickers in their break room. In three days half of the fifty had been taken...mostly by public health nurses. That speaks volumes! If we had the money these displays would be on the counter/table of every office, business, agency, etc.!

President Trump’s recent announcement reminded us all that the opioid crisis is a public health emergency, but in fact it is also a national emergency and we must do so much more. Daily we read articles and see searing reports about the opioid crisis. We’ve learned about the role of some doctors and drug companies in exacerbating it. We heard recently about how Congress was complicit in making it harder for the Drug Enforcement Administration to stop drug companies that were shipping...

Child advocates are launching a statewide initiative Wednesday to educate communities about the impact of trauma on developing brains and its correlation with poor health outcomes. The Family Tree, a nonprofit that works to prevent childhood abuse and neglect, is helping to train professionals across sectors — from child care and the judicial system to churches and law enforcement — on the the effects on the body and brain of physical abuse, neglect, domestic violence and parents who are...

Two little words have taken social media by storm: Me Too. A campaign started by activist Tarana Burke and made viral by actor Alyssa Milano, the Me Too movement gave voice, through stories and shares, to countless survivors of sexual violence. At least part of the reason for the collective impact of Me Too was that there did not seem to be a lot of parsing about whether one bad experience was worse than another, or whether one industry or individual had more of a right to speak. Rather, a...

About eight-in-ten Latino children face at least one difficult childhood experience and have fewer resources for nutrition, exercise and early childhood learning, especially pre-K, according to a report by Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio. These early roadblocks affect future health and personal development, but researchers say there are solutions that work. The study, released Tuesday is “a comprehensive research review on what is the current state of early Latino childhood...

WASHINGTON — Nearly one in 30 teens and one in 10 young adults experienced homelessness in the past year, a groundbreaking new study has found. Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Chapin Hall interviewed more than 26,000 people from all over the country over the past year. They found that 4.3 percent of youths 13 to 17 years old reported at least one instance of homelessness; nearly 10 percent of young adults 18 to 25 years old had experienced homelessness. The study, “Missed...

As a Ph.D. candidate in the social sciences more than 20 years ago, Duana Welch, 49, had done enough research to know the consequences she’d face by reporting sexual harassment in the workplace. “When women came forward with allegations of sexual abuse and sexual harassment, the woman was the person blamed and the woman was not believed,” she said. “I was very angry that I would pay the price for coming forward. I knew what would happen.” Like most who’ve had similar experiences, Welch, a...

Kids are resilient. Kids bounce back. Tell that to Dave Brethauer , a performance coach in Chicago, who told Genetic Literacy Project that he spent the better part of his adult life “fighting to find” himself following the trauma he experienced as a child. “From the time I was five till 14 I had an abusive stepdad in my life,” he said. To cope, he found himself turning to alcohol, sex, overeating, and exercise addictions – anything to steer his mind away from the memories and pain that...

You can’t teach gratitude practices in a vacuum—especially to teens. As a former high school teacher, I can imagine eyes rolling and arms crossing during a lecture on the value of an attitude of gratitude. Simply asking students to share three things they are grateful for might also trigger understandable resistance. Teens tend to respond more positively to lessons and activities that help them understand themselves and connect with peers—and this is what researcher Giacomo Bono and his team...

It all began with two friends taking walks together in the streets of Los Angles in the late 1990s, but now it’s a nationwide movement that has more than 100,000 Black women walking for wellness and social justice. “GirlTrek was just me and Morgan holding ourselves accountable and supporting each other in sisterhood and love,” says co-founder Vanessa Garrison about how she and co-founder Tanya Morgan Dixon met in college and bonded over shared beliefs in radical acts of self-care. The...

As the opioid epidemic continues to plague the region, some community leaders are asking the faith community to help solve the problem. To help build the alliance between clinicians, educators and the church, community and faith leaders gathered at Northeast State Community College on Tuesday to announce the Holy Friendship Summit, a two-day event that will create a long-term vision for beating the opioid crisis. “The name is important, Holy Friendship Summit,” said Lottie Ryans, director of...

Thank you, @Scott A Webb, at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, for putting this together and letting us share it. ACEs, Adversity's Impact Childhood spankings can lead to adult mental health problems Unemployment triggers increase in child neglect, according to new research Neighborhood's quality influences children's behaviors through teens, study suggests Brain and Biology Scientists identify mechanism that helps us inhibit unwanted thoughts Bullying First...