Blog

One of my best friends, Heidi Aylward, is a high ACE scoring mother of two. She's also a feisty, funny and has a full life balancing work, parenting, friends and all the responsibilities of tending to home and loved ones. And she is a woman who used WIC . WIC defines itself as "The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides Federal grants to States for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant,...

The Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC) Scale is one of the first psychometrically valid measure of TIC published in the peer reviewed literature. It was developed collaboratively by the Traumatic Stress Institute of Klingberg Family Centers and Dr. Courtney Baker at Tulane University. The ARTIC Scale measures service providers' attitudes favorable or unfavorable toward TIC. It is based on the premise that staff attitudes are an important driver of staff behavior -- and the...

Unemployed and fighting to stay clean, Jayne Fuentes had few options when a judge offered her a particularly unappealing choice – go to jail or spend her days on a work crew. Her crime? Being too poor to pay the fines and court costs that came with a drug conviction and several theft charges. “But when I was done with the work crew, I still owed $2,700 on another debt,” says Fuentes, 48. “I could have ended up in jail again.” Instead, the threat of being back behind bars or assigned to...

An unfortunate side effect of the biological revolution of psychiatry is in perceiving emotional discomfort as undesirable or bad, something we shouldn’t feel, something that can be medicated away. And while medications can be life-saving and necessary with severely disabling conditions such as psychosis, mania, depression, and debilitating anxiety, to name a few, perhaps we’ve taken a troublesome short-cut along the way. I worry that mental health may now be seen as the absence of mental...

For nearly a year now, the media has been fascinated by Donald Trump's every utterance, the more sexual and outrageous the better. Did he really talk about his schlong? Did he really say "blood coming out of her whatever?" Did he really say John McCain wasn't much of a war hero because he was captured? Well, yes, yes, and yes. Will he really be the GOP nominee for president? Absolutely, comrades. When it comes to a Trump presidency, there is a hell of a lot to be concerned about. But one of...

Last November, student activists at Pomona College, a selective liberal arts school in Southern California, demanded a change in the way that professors are evaluated. Alleging “unsafe academic environments,” they wanted future candidates for promotion or tenure to be judged in part on “a faculty member’s support of a diverse student body.” College President David Oxtoby dubbed it “an idea with merit.” And a semester later, faculty were set to formally vote on the matter. The language before...

The first shot in Mexico’s drug war was fired in December 2006, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon sent 6,500 security forces to reclaim Michoacan state from feuding cartels. “The battle against organized crime has just begun,” Calderon’s interior minister declared , “and the fight will take time.” He wasn’t kidding. That fight has now taken nearly 10 years, and tens of thousands of lives . And Mexico has little to show for it , besides death and destruction. In fact, the battle is as...

Growing up in York County, I was fortunate to have opportunities many children lack, including the opportunity to receive a quality education that prepared me for my career in pediatric medicine. Today, as a pediatric resident at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital, I have experienced first-hand how challenges in a child’s growth and development – if left unaddressed – can limit opportunities, including the opportunity to learn. That is why I want to see the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania...

New federal data show a continuing deep gulf between the educational experiences of traditionally disadvantaged student groups and their peers on a broad range of indicators, findings that follow years of efforts by government and advocacy groups to level the playing field in U.S. public schools. Black and Latino students are still more likely to be suspended, more likely to attend schools with high concentrations of inexperienced teachers, and less likely to have access to rigorous and...

"White privilege. It’s the phrase bigots hate to hear and progressives love to denounce. If you are white and clicked on this blog to be congratulated for naming your privilege, you can stop reading in a few characters. Thank you for naming your privilege. It’s a good starting point of solidarity with people of color (POC) to name that your privilege exists. But naming your privilege is not the same thing as taking actions to reject it and dismantle white supremacy. White allies are quick to...

It’s not every day I get to bring an entire pizza party to 30 kids, but a few weeks ago, that’s exactly what I got to do. I went to visit the youth leaders at Cherokee Point Elementary School , San Diego’s first trauma-informed elementary school. We were celebrating a major accomplishment. A few months ago, I wrote about my visit to Cherokee Point to visit youth leaders and talk about Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) Month, which occurs every April. During my initial visit in March, youth...

It doesn't matter if you're an 18-year-old fresh out of high school, or a 32-year-old parent going to community college to earn an associate degree in nursing – college is stressful for most students. Struggling with depression and anxiety while trying to balance academics, work and life can make a challenging academic experience even more difficult. Results from a study released earlier this year found that half of the 4,000-plus community college students surveyed have a current or recent...