Blog

A yoga program previously designed for victims of trauma could help prevent women and adolescents from becoming opioid addicts. The new program will reach women in public housing in rural Maryland. The move comes as a way to help combat the country’s deadly abuse of painkiller prescriptions and illegal opioids. [For more of this story written by David Taube, go to http://www.kcci.com/article/yoga-to-be-used-to-help-prevent-opioid-addiction-among-women-children/12027961 ]

Teachers , parents, and students will tell you: Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs make a difference . SEL programs are taught in some schools to help students acquire and apply the knowledge, attitude, and skills associated with five social and emotional competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. [For more of this story, written by Mariah Flynn, go to ...

The zip code where a child grows up can have a huge effect on that kid’s entire life. Children who grow up in low-poverty areas make more money than people who grow up in high-poverty areas, according to work by a team of researchers led by Raj Chetty, a Stanford economist. They’re also more likely to go to college and less likely to be single parents. To state the obvious, many poor families don’t have the resources to move to “high-opportunity neighborhoods.” Such areas, which boast better...

Michael Phelps locked himself in his bedroom for four days three years ago. He’d been arrested a second time for DUI. He was despondent and adrift. He thought about suicide. “I didn’t want to be alive,” he tells USA TODAY Sports. “I didn’t want to see anyone else. I didn’t want to see another day.” Family and friends — “a life-saving support group,” Phelps calls them — urged him to seek professional help. He got it. And now he wants others who are suffering from mental health issues to find...

Like the storm itself, the impact of Hurricane Harvey on Houstonians' mental health promises to linger. Although specific estimates vary widely, the results of numerous research studies suggest residents who suffered a profound personal loss due to the storm are at significantly elevated risk of post-traumatic stress disorder. "A large body of research conducted after disasters in the past decades suggests that the burden of PTSD among persons who were exposed to disasters is significant," a...

“The songs the Lakota women sang to the mice rang through the forest,” an elder told Linda Black Elk, ethnobotanist and science education instructor at Sitting Bull College on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. (An ethnobotanist studies how people of a region or culture use plants native to their homeland.) The elder almost cried as she recalled walking with her mother in the now gone cottonwood forests to gather mouse beans from the rodent’s caches, according to Black Elk.

A gunman at a baseball field. A car in Charlottesville. A surge in death threats against D.C. lawmakers. New alt-right rallies planned. More violence expected. The President's tweets and speeches stir the pot, and across the country, contempt, disgust, and anger burn with righteous fervor. Writer Leon Wieseltier got double his wish. In the aftermath of the election, he wanted half of America to “ stay angry .” He claimed this was the only way to uphold principles in Trump ’s America.

“... And I hope that we will not have to bury one more innocent child – the future of our communities and the future of our nation.” Sheila North Wilson, grand chief and representative of more than 75,000 indigenous people living across northern Canada , was in Ottawa last February to discuss the many issues plaguing First Nations communities. The memory of the conference speech she made there is now etched on her mind. “Throughout the speech, my phone wouldn’t stop buzzing,” she recalls. “I...

The latest update of state legislation considered by state legislatures in 2017 reveals the growing interest by state policymakers across the country in addressing trauma across sectors. The attached “At-A-Glance” table shows 46 bills in twenty states reference Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) or trauma-informed policy and practice. Take a look at the attached “At-A-Glance” table and leave a comment if your state considered ACEs/trauma legislation that is not included here. A handful of...

What would a trauma-informed policy on staff absenteeism look like? How about a trauma-informed procedure for clocking in and clocking out? Would that be different for a hospital than, say, for a public school? Questions like those—how trauma-informed theory translates to on-the-ground practice—were on the table during a recent learning collaborative session in Kansas City.

The 6th Annual Making a Difference Conference for SESPs, Foster/Adoptive and Kinship Caregivers and their Professional Partners will be held in Marlborough, MA on November 14, 2017. The theme is A Community Approach to Trauma Sensitivity. There will be at least two talks will be about ACEs! Speakers/Topics: Keynote: Managing the Hearts and Souls of Many, Dana Royster-Buefort, M.Ed., C.A.G.S. Workshops Tackling ACEs by Building Resilient Communities , Renee D Boynton-Jarrett, MD, ScD . Note:...

Join Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) for a series of free, short (45-minute) webinars with national leaders who will share some of their expertise and engage in dialogue with you on key strategies for creating just, healthy and resilient communities. Seats are limited, but recordings will be available after each session. Register at MARC.HealthFederation.org/BrownBag for the following sessions: Thursday, September 7 @ 1pm ET Melissa Merrick, PhD —Preventing Child Abuse and...