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On Wednesday, an autopsy confirmed that Paul O’Neal, a 17-year-old black male, was fatally shot in the back by Chicago police. O’Neal’s killing has sparked several large protests in recent weeks, led by local Black Lives Matter youth organizations. The demonstrations over O’Neal’s killing come on the heels of numerous youth-led campaigns protesting the Chicago Police Department’s detention and interrogation center at Homan Square , and the department’s alleged cover-up of the 2014...

Before we discuss the science of my being a pregnant father I should divulge that I’ve also been a pregnant grandfather. I know there is much controversy nowadays around imagining that I am pregnant when my wife is the one navigating morning sickness, hormone flooding, weight gain, back pains, labor pains, fears of all of the above and so much more, but the fact is that a mother-to-be or a mother who is about-to-be-a-mother-again needs all the help she can possibly muster and if deciding...

As recently as April of this year, former president Bill Clinton defended the welfare reform bill he signed into law on August 22, 1996—twenty years ago today—as one of the great accomplishments of his presidency. The bill scrapped the welfare program known as Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) and created a new one that lasts to this day—Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). There was a grandiose idea behind the change: TANF was no simple safety net; it was also meant...

In May, 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder invited several cast members from the HBO series “The Wire” to Washington, D.C., to help promote a Justice Department initiative called the Drug Endangered Children’s Task Force. “The Wire,” which aired for five seasons and was acclaimed for its nuanced portrayal of the war on drugs, was a favorite of both Holder and President Obama. Holder jokingly ordered the show’s creators, David Simon and Ed Burns, to produce a sixth season. “I have a lot of...

Heimat is a German word with no direct translation in English, likeschadenfreude, or zeitgeist. It describes the relationship between a person and his built environment, somewhere between the feeling of home and homeland. Since August of 2015, Germany has become home to more than 1.1 million refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers. This influx has German architects and urban planners asking the question: “Do we have a refugee crisis on our hands? Or a housing crisis combined with huge...

THE AVERAGE citizen has now heard (multiple times) the story of people with psychiatric diagnoses who are slipping through the state’s cracks, how their families are desperate but lack resources, and how the mental health system is failing us all. Yet there are two related stories that are hardly getting told: one good, and the other very, very bad. Let’s start with the latter. While so many people argue for increased access to treatment, few stop to examine those elements of which it is...

David Bornstein, a columnist for the New York Times , posted the third of a three-part series ( Putting the power of self-knowledge to work ) about communities that are integrating trauma-informed and resilience-building practices based on ACEs science. (Part one — Tapping a troubled neighborhood’s inner strength , and part two — How community networks stem childhood traumas .) It’s a terrific series, with information that we can all use, and I highly recommend reading them all. Some members...

As Kim Scott, the President and CEO of Trilliam Family Services points out in his recent blog post , the not-for-profit sector has reached a critical moment in an era of healthcare transformation. There is an increasing need for cross-sector solutions to our biggest social challenges. This means that organizations working in isolation leave themselves at risk for losing connection with the communities they intend to serve. For this reason, not-for-profits must take control of the narratives...

D.C.’s affordability problem arrived and grew—rapidly. For low-to-middle income households, average monthly rent in the District has gone up by between about $50 to nearly $400, adjusted for inflation, between 2002 and 2013. The number of apartments that cost less than $800 per month, adjusted for inflation, was nearly cut in half in that same time period . Incomes, meanwhile, have remained largely the same. Now, D.C.’s government is trying to ramp up efforts that would ease some of the...

Last week, Gallup research reported that living in “white, segregated enclaves” increased one’s chances of supporting Donald Trump. Jonathan Rothwell noted that “Limited interactions with racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, and college graduates may contribute to prejudicial stereotypes.” While that’s hardly a new insight, the rise in overt racism that Trump has apparently unleashed underlines its importance. When people of various races and backgrounds share the same schools, parks,...

Back in March, I stumbled upon an interesting study one morning on CBS This Morning, addressing the question of “What makes a good life?” I had been thinking about my own clinical work and how many of my clients over the years have talked to me about their relationships. I knew I had to write a post about it and finally I got around to it. Mental health issues are often related to dissatisfaction, dysfunction or difficulties with relationships. In fact, one of the most important factors in...

Note: Crystal Amundson LCPC, RPT-S runs a private practice in Helena, Montana, where she works as a child play therapist. Crystal specializes in Play Therapy, working with children ages 2-12, alongside their caregivers. She is a previous employee and current board member at Intermountain. Her passion and expertise is in the field of early childhood mental health. Crystal prepared this case study with accompanying prompts for action by faith-based groups and community groups that hope to make...