Blog

Later today, the Ferguson City Council will meet to vote on a consent decree released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) after an investigation turned up evidence of civil rights violations . The document is a temporary agreement between the DOJ and the city of Ferguson, Missouri, that requires the city to reform its training, protocol, and community relations in order to avoid facing a lawsuit. The DOJ released the 131-page document late last month, giving the city council and the people...

The other week was momentous for those interested in the elusive goal of juvenile justice reform. On January 25, the Supreme Court ruled that people serving mandatory life sentences for murders they committed as juveniles must be allowed to petition for new sentencing or parole hearings. The same day, President Obama issued a ban on solitary confinement for juveniles in the federal system, citing studies of lasting psychological damage linked to the practice. [For more of this story, written...

As Ebola fades, a mental-health crisis is coming in its wake. At the height of the outbreak, West African countries that had no more than a roomful of doctors and too few nurses threw thousands of ordinary people—taxi drivers, accountants and college students among them—onto the front lines. Now, many of the Ebola fighters are battling their own, quieter afflictions. Alcoholism, depression and drug addiction are raging, health officials say, in countries that have even fewer...

   The first time Alexandrea Murphy heard someone at a meeting of the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative use the phrase, “Hurt people hurt people,” she scribbled down those four words so she wouldn’t forget.    In an area—Cook County, home to Chicago and the second most populous county in the nation—that has been plagued by devastating gun violence, that phrase helped her think differently about the rising number of shootings and deaths.

Echo's conference this year is packed with great workshops for teachers, parents and anyone who works with children and their families. In addition to the not-to-be-missed keynotes (such as Susan Craig ), we are proud to present: Jose Ivan Arreola-Torres Workshop Spotlight: Holistic Healing for Immigrant & Undocumented Youth In this important workshop, Jose Ivan Arreola-Torres will talk about an often overlooked aspect of student mental health - the mental and emotional...

The Educational Purchase License of 'Paper Tigers' will be available to ship starting on March 15th, 2016 for K-12, University, and Public Library institutions. This license will allow your institution to keep Paper Tigers and host multiple screenings of it in the future.  CLICK HERE to learn more. --If you'd like to host your screening in the first two week of March, please contact us at edu@tugginc.com and we'll discuss how to ensure it arrives on time. --The Educational Purchase...

As I read the article “TPS board considers contracts for consultants” (Feb. 2) I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. As Tulsa Public Schools seeks to address the discipline problems in their classrooms it appears that a consultant experienced in mental health was not considered. Certainly, experts in education like Kimberly Lewis and Tisha Edwards mentioned in the article are of paramount importance to these matters. However, as a child and adolescent...

Oprah Winfrey’s book, “ What I Know For Sure ,” comes to my mind often when I look at what life has presented me with and what I face each day. I often ask myself what do I know for sure about girls involved in our juvenile justice system. What I know is that our girls today are scared and often lack the guidance of a caring adult. It is my experience that many girls who come into contact with the juvenile justice system have experienced some form of trauma, mental health...

Monserrat Zarza was 15 years old when she was assigned to a group home, only six months after entering the Los Angeles County foster care system. Group homes provide a placement option for hard-to-place children “with significant emotional or behavioral problems,” according to the state of California. Being in an environment with several dozen other troubled kids was not what Zarza expected when she gathered the courage to pick up her phone and ask for help after a decade of...

The Community & Family Services Division at the Spokane (WA) Regional Health District has come through again, with a Spanish version of the parent handout (in English) that we posted last year , and which has been downloaded thousands of times. The English versions came about whiledoing a story about the trauma-in formed elementary schools in Spokane, WA .I interviewedp ublic health nurse Melissa Charbonneau who said that she'd been giving an...

Photo by Kim Seng A study showing that women veterans commit suicide at six times the rate of civilian women has prompted U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and colleagues to propose legislation requiring the VA to develop gender-specific suicide prevention programs. The “Female Veterans Suicide Prevention Act” would expand the Department of Veterans Affairs’ annual evaluation of mental health and suicide-prevention programs to include data specific to female veterans.

Hung above social worker Patrick Duganz’s desk in the Gallatin County Health Department is a quote from anthropologist Margaret Mead, to the effect of how teaching men to be good fathers represents “the supreme test of any civilization.” By that standard, his job — as the department’s “dad liaison,” or, technically, “father engagement specialist” — is among the most important in town. “We know we get the best outcomes if...