Blog

On the way to her first therapy appointment on a November morning in Lafayette, Louisiana, Windy Maitreme listened to her latest podcast obsession, My Favorite Murder. Maitreme works as an administrative assistant and struggles with anxiety and depression. Podcasts distract her from her fears. “If I don’t really focus on something, I worry about everything,” Maitreme says. She arrived 35 minutes early, and finished listening to the episode to calm her nerves. It was a memorable one, a rare...

We’re sitting in Rosie Palfy’s living room, outside of Cleveland, in a house she’s just been able to purchase after VA finally settled her disability claim, after almost nine years of delays and detours. I’m having her read through the almost 400 comments women veterans left in response to my original survey about housing issues after military service, a survey that was completed in 2015 and has since been analyzed. The comments are a striking collection of profound, succinct appraisals as...

I try to be a “glass half-full” kind of person, but there are times when parts of your world can wear you down. We all experience this to some extent, but it is how you deal with these situations that determines the outcome and impact on your own life and those around you. Far too many children in Oklahoma experience negative circumstances, which can change the course of their entire lives. The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy asked Dr. Jennifer Hays-Grudo serve as the keynote speaker...

A young man who runs with the Black Disciples was shot in the foot in a dispute with rival Gangster Disciples on Chicago’s South Side, the New York Times reported late last year. Days later, two Gangster Disciples caught a bullet in a drive-by a block away. The day after that, the mother of a Black Disciple was shot in the foot, caught in the middle of more crossfire between the two gangs. These were just a few of Chicago’s 4,368 shootings in 2016 , but they’re telling: So much gun violence...

Junior Dario “J.R.” Henriquez* started thinking about heading north on the long, hard migrant trail to the United States when the coffee plants started withering. Drought and a pernicious fungus called roya ― coffee rust ― were wreaking havoc on the plantation here, where J.R. worked as a day laborer. An especially debilitating drought had suffocated this part of Guatemala since 2014 and the rust, which proliferates in lower altitudes, higher temperatures and among stressed plants, was...

Teachers-in-training need more instruction on how to develop their own and their students’ social and emotional skills, including the ability to reflect on interactions, empathize with others and calm themselves, according to a report released Thursday by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning , an advocacy and research group based in Chicago. While teacher preparation programs include child development classes, the coursework typically provides no guidance on how...

And this is as real as it gets! The University of Florida School of Public Health in Gainesville had the opportunity to have real-life experience last semester when Peace4Tarpon was invited to be the subject of the Fall 2016 Semester Master’s Public Health Communications class. Under the leadership of Professor Mark Hart, the class was able have the experience of how to "message" an emerging model and to create useful products contributing to real work in the world. Dr. Hart reflected that...

Growing up here in the 1940s and 1950s, Sevone Rhynes experienced segregation every day. He couldn’t visit the public library near his house, but instead had to travel to the “colored” library in the historically black area of Brooklyn, a neighborhood that used to be in the center of Charlotte. He attended a school for black children, where he received second-hand books, and where the school day was half the length of that of white schools, because the black school had too many children and...

A shove on a playground. A pair of shears meant for an art project. Pepper spray carried for a dangerous walk to school and left in a backpack during first period. While seemingly minor, these infractions, and others like them, have helped fuel a school-to-prison pipeline, with 60,000 youths in U.S. juvenile detention centers on any given day. Three programs across the country are among those aiming to block that pipeline by preventing arrests for minor crimes, diverting kids who have been...

Representing the Philadelphia ACE Task Force and Drexel University , Dr. Lee Pachter, pediatrician, shared an introduction to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), the difference between healthy stress and toxic stress in childhood, its impact on lifelong health and well-being & the universality of ACEs in so many of our children's lives. He also discussed the protective factor and buffering value for a child that unconditional love and support from an adult - parent, teacher or neighbor...

The link between traumatic experiences and the development of addiction has been well-documented . Edward Khantzian, who originated the self-medication hypothesis of substance abuse, writes that “human emotional suffering and pain” and an “inability to tolerate [one’s] feelings” are at the root of addiction. People may use alcohol, drugs, or gambling to numb or control distress, low self-esteem, anxiety, or depression. But there is virtually no empirical research on the potential link...

Postpartum depression is recognized and understood today more than ever before, thanks to advances in research and public awareness campaigns. While the stigma around the disorder isn’t entirely gone, many new moms who might have once suffered in silence are reaching out for help—and speaking out about their experiences. But women aren't the only group that can be affected by postpartum depression: New dads can struggle with it too. Fathers don’t suffer from depression in the same way, or at...