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Hard childhoods seem to not only rob children of material joys, but also of brain power. Children who grow up poor tend to score worse on tests of memory, processing speed, language, and attention. And they are 40 percent more likely to have a learning disability than their better-off peers. Busier and less-educated parents utter millions fewer words to their babies, creating a gap in verbal ability by the time the children are 3. Factors like hunger, unsafe housing, and parental instability...

When Yoselin Ocasio was hired two years ago as the climate manager at Lewis Elkin Elementary School in Kensington, she says, “I felt that with 15 years in social work, I was ready.” But once on the job, Ocasio said, she realized that she wasn’t. “It’s been very, very challenging. The walkie-talkie doesn’t stop.” The neighborhood is plagued with substance abuse, neglect, and violence, she says, “and the kids come to school with that.” [For more of this story, written by Paul Jablow, go to ...

Over the past several months, data has shown rising mortality rates among a surprising population - middle-age, largely rural white people. But many who study public health say focusing solely on that data ignores the historic disparities in other areas, such as the extraordinarily high maternal mortality rate among African-American women. That particular area is of interest to journalist Rita Henley Jensen . Jensen is the founder of The Jane Crow Project , which is exploring the causes for...

One year of healthcare spending can buy 15 iPhones. Or, it can buy over 3,000 gallons of milk. Or, if you want to look at it in relative terms, U.S. healthcare spending, which in 2015 hit nearly $10,000 for every person in the country, was 29% higher than the next most expensive country, Luxembourg. No matter how you size it up, what the U.S. spends each year on healthcare is a lot of money. That’s why there’s near-universal agreement that, no matter what happens in Washington over the next...

Audio for the following speaker's breakout sessions now available HERE. The Conference at Multnomah University attracted over 300 attendees and was an excellent example of exploring trauma in a multi-disciplinary way within a Christian context. In addition to the speakers listed below, there are downloadable audio links available for the Religion, Gender, and Sexuality panel discussion and the Trauma in a First Nations context presentation. It is my hope that other Seminaries and Bible...

And then there was one. New York State legislators voted Sunday night to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 18, capping a contentious budget fight and giving supporters of the measure victory after years of frustration. The vote leaves North Carolina as the only state which still prosecutes 16- and 17-year-olds as adults, although that may change later this month. Juvenile Justice and mental health experts, backed by extensive research showing that trying minors as adults causes...

“We treat people’s solutions as problems.” Vincent Felitti MD, eminent author of the original ACE’s (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study, often makes this point when discussing how we focus on eliminating people’s desperate means of coping, without recognizing their adaptive functions. When addressing substance abuse (the most common method of tolerating overwhelming fear and pain) do we commit the same error of attempting to control the “solution” while largely ignoring the underlying core...

National Pediatric Practice Community on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Dr. Nadine Burke Harris and the Center for Youth Wellness team invite you to attend the launch of the National Pediatric Practice Community on ACEs (NPPC) . NPPC is a network of medical providers focused on integrating ACEs screening and a toxic stress framework into pediatric medical practice. We will be kicking off the NPPC with an informational webinar on Monday, May 8th, 2017 at 12 noon (PST) . Webinar...

The wealthiest men in San Diego County can expect to live almost a decade longer than their poorest counterparts. That’s one of the findings from the Health Inequality Project , a report written by researchers from Stanford, Harvard and MIT. In 2014, the most recent year available, a 40-year-old San Diego County man in the top quarter of income earners could expect to live to almost 90. A man of the same age in the bottom quarter of income would only expect to live to 80. That gap is...

Criminal prosecutions against police for acts of force in the line of duty are rarely successful. Two years ago this month, 25-year-old Freddie Gray died from a neck and spinal injury he sustained while under arrest in Baltimore, Maryland. Six officers were charged—with violations ranging from misconduct to what’s known as “second-degree depraved-heart murder”—but ultimately, none were convicted. The officers were permitted to handle administrative work pending an internal investigation by...

“Indicators of poor mental health among adults — for example, serious mental illness among men, major depressive episodes among men and women, and recent serious psychological distress among women — have been found to be higher in large rural counties than in small, rural, suburban and urban counties,” Lara R. Robinson, PhD, from the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the CDC, and colleagues wrote. “Most studies examining children’s mental health in rural and...

Chicago is touting a first-of-its-kind requirement for high school students — and it’s raising plenty of eyebrows. Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a proposal last week to withhold high school diplomas from students without concrete post-graduation plans. The plan has been called “ cruel and appalling ,” “ absurd ,” and a “ half-baked ” attempt to “micro-manage.” This attempt would demand students to prove, with acceptance letters, that they are set up for one of six post-high school plans:...