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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Starting in the 1970s, U.S. policymakers embraced draconian criminal-justice policies as part of the war on drugs. Tough-on-crime politicians rose to power by pledging longer mandatory-minimum sentences and more intense policing practices. The American legal system became the primary tool for addressing the nation’s social ills. And as incarceration grew rapidly in the following decades, so, too, did the coffers of an emerging prison-industrial...

Nora McInerny is tired of small talk. "I don't want small talk ..." she says on her podcast. "I want the big talk." McInerny's show is called Terrible, Thanks for Asking , and she begins each interview with the same question: How are you? The responses she gets go way beyond the typical "I'm fine." McInerny deals with death, loss and coming through trauma. But her approach to these tough subjects is saturated with love and humor. She shares (or, as she puts it — overshares) some of her...

According to the World Health Organization, over 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression -- and treatments can be hit or miss. But two recent studies by Yale researchers have led to a new tool that may better personalize treatments for patients. Finding the right treatment for chronic depression can be as complicated as the disorder, which often includes multiple symptoms treated with varying degrees of success. Yale researchers wanted to know two things -- whether...

State education leaders said Wednesday they are still working to revise a proposed mental health policy for public schools and said it will likely be edited several more times before the State Board of Education votes on it. The first draft of the policy sparked outcry from charter schools and school boards last month. They objected to some of the guidelines, calling them well-meaning but too burdensome and expensive to implement. The original draft policy said all public schools should...

W hen a woman or girl is admitted to a mental health unit, her expectation should be of a caring, supportive environment where she can get the treatment she needs to get better. Unfortunately, we now know from Agenda’s latest research on restraint that many are instead in an environment where physical force has become shockingly routine. Agenda is an alliance of more than 70 organisations campaigning on behalf of women and girls at risk. We decided to ask for data about the use of restraint...

The average human being is living longer than ever before. Nearly every country on the planet has seen an increase in life expectancy since the beginning of the 21st century. But though we are living longer, not all of us are living healthier. Health Adjusted Life Expectancy (HALE), or healthy life expectancy, is a metric used by the World Health Organization to measure the number of years a person can expect to live in good health, taking social and economic factors into account alongside...

Rep. Kimberly Dudik, D-Missoula, discussed a package of criminal justice reform bills that Gov. Steve Bullock signed into law yesterday. (Photo: Thom Bridge) ______________________________ Recently, ChildWise Institute had worked hard with bi-partisan legislative leaders on a Bill to promote a pilot project based on the science of ACEs, toxic stress, and resilience . Unfortunately, it was tabled (read: failed). ChildWise has been working with legislators for 6 years now (3 legislative...

DeVone Boggan could teach a class on the art of making a statement. In 2010, he invited a group of the most dangerous gun offenders in Richmond, a Bay Area city of about 100,000 residents, to a conference room at City Hall. At each seat was a name card starting with “Mr.” and an information folder labeled “Operation Peacemaker.” Wearing a suit and his signature fedora, Boggan began the meeting by apologizing on behalf of the city for not reaching out to the men sooner. Peace in Richmond, he...

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, who departs the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation this April after nearly 14 years as president and CEO, will join the University of Pennsylvania as the institution’s nineteenth Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, effective January 1, 2018. Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price announced the appointment today. A world-renowned expert in health policy and geriatric medicine, Lavizzo-Mourey has served the Foundation since 2003 and, for 15...

When children are removed from home, parents feel a level of grief and stress that can hardly be explained. Then they often face more stress, with things like losing a job because of mandated services, losing housing and juggling multiple services. When our bodies feel too much pressure and threat, stress can put us in an “act now, think later” mentality that makes it even harder to do what’s needed. Stress can also make it harder to learn and plan. These reactions can affect parents’ cases.

This past Valentine’s Day, Brook addressed the insidious role hate plays in health, arguing in a JAMA article that medical professionals should play a larger role in combatting intolerance. Brook, who is also a Distinguished Chair in Health Care Services at the RAND Corporation, believes medical professionals have a responsibility to reduce intolerance, along with the necessary widespread respect to make a real difference. “ It is time to expand the WHO’s definition of health to include...