Blog

Living in Tumultuous Times: Responding to the “Hidden” Public Health Crisis in the U.S. We live in tumultuous times. Although our minds might immediately takes us to issues with North Korea, or ISIS, or the dysfunction in Washington D.C., these are not the primary focus of this article. Washington’s dysfunction over the past couple decades is a contributing factor, yet the dynamics discussed here go far beyond our nation’s capital. With the ongoing focus on the Affordable Care Act, health...

Traditional batterer intervention programs have a big gaping hole: They’re good at describing what men and women do to abuse their partners (intentionally control or dominate an intimate partner), and what they should stop doing (stop using power tactics against their partners), but they don’t get at the roots of why men and women abuse their partners: their adverse childhood experiences. A handful of people around the U.S. are integrating trauma-informed and resilience-building practices...

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) are rapidly expanding as a poverty-reduction strategy around the world. Following the publication of positive findings from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) launched in 1998 to evaluate Mexico’s CCT program (Progresa/Oportunidades), more than 60 countries have adopted CCT programs. Such programs vary in their specific features, but all share the common element of providing cash payments to poor families that are contingent on meeting certain conditions,...

When high levels of lead were discovered in the public water system in Flint, Mich., in 2015, Medicaid stepped in to help thousands of children get tested for poisoning and receive care. When disabled children need to get to doctor's appointments — either across town or hundreds of miles away — Medicaid pays for their transportation. When older middle-class Americans deplete their savings to pay for costly nursing home care, Medicaid offers coverage . The United States has become a Medicaid...

There’s no doubt about it: mental illness sucks. And it’s even suckier when it starts to affect your children. It’s something I know only too well as a mother of two with a diagnosis of recurrent depressive disorder – an illness that has seen me suicidal and hospitalised on more than one occasion. My children, aged six and 11, have had their childhoods shaped by my illness. They’ve seen me so unwell that I’ve been unable to get out of bed, let alone make their packed lunches or take them to...

Below, please find excerpts from the fabulous Fathers & ACEs chat we had a few weeks ago. Resources and healing approaches mentioned during the chat are listed as well. For the complete transcript , go here and for more about the featured guests, go here. We will have more for/by fathers in Parenting with ACEs going forward. ACEs as Assessment Discussion Parenting Forgiveness Resources Mentioned Organization: Guardians of the Children Canada TedTalk: Nadine Burke Harris, How Childhood...

Health policymakers and practitioners increasingly recognize trauma as an important factor that influences health throughout the lifespan. By incorporating trauma-informed approaches to care into their practice settings, provider organizations can more effectively care for patients and support efforts to improve health outcomes, reduce avoidable hospital utilization, and curb excess costs. This two-part Center for Health Care Strategies webinar series will explore innovative strategies for...

Do you remember the last time you spoke in public? If you felt afraid, you’re not alone. In a recent survey , more Americans said they were afraid of public speaking than being robbed—or even dying! But if you’ve tried to “imagine your audience in their underwear” to quell your fears, you may need a new technique—and self-compassion could be the one. If you haven’t heard the term already, self-compassion refers to “treating yourself like a good friend,” especially when life feels hard. As...

Sheila Procella joined the Air Force in 1974 to “see the Earth,” she said. She enlisted at the tail end of the Vietnam War, shortly after graduating from high school. Although she never left her home state of Texas during eight years of service, her office job proved to be its own battlefield. “Some of us actually went to war, some of us had war right here in the states, going to work every day knowing we are going to be harassed,” said Procella, now 62 and living in Plano. At the time,...

Psychological distress can take a toll on more than just health. It can also significantly damage nest eggs, according to a new study by a Cornell financial economist and her co-author. Mental health problems can have a large negative effect on retirement savings, the study found. Three factors make the research even more meaningful, the authors say: People increasingly are living longer, dealing with more psychological distress, and shouldering the burden of saving for retirement without...

You yearn to be productive, to blast through your to-do list every single day. You experiment with all sorts of hacks to attain the ultimate efficiency. If you have kids, you take advantage of their nap time, folding, preparing, putting things back, emailing, writing, working, running. There’s so much running. No wonder you often end your day feeling out of breath (and out of it). You yearn to have a tidy house, where every item has a home, and there aren’t piles of unpaid bills on the...

I'd like to offer you two models of human development. The first is what you might call The Surrender Yourself model of development. According to this model, the lowest kind of happiness is having your basic food and health needs met. Then there is achievement-- the pleasure we get from earned and recognized success. Then there is generativity, the pleasure we get from creative expression and having a large positive impact on the world. Finally, the highest and most noble kind of happiness...