This is the second of two articles in the New York Times on maternal mental illness. Cindy Wachenheim was someone people didn’t think they had to worry about. She was a levelheaded lawyer working for the State Supreme Court, a favorite aunt who...
This is about a major education paradigm shift. It is NOT about charter schools. The growing number of schools that the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) has handed over to charter operators is sad. The district’s “failing”...
Nora Baladerian is a clinical psychologist who specializes in helping people with disabilities who have been abused, mostly sexually abused. She directs the Disability & Abuse Project, which strives to reduce the risk of abuse, to promote healing, and to seek justice for people with developmental or intellectual disabilities who have been abused. Q. What kind of work do you do that involves ACEs? A. My primary work is providing psychotherapeutic treatment to...
[Fred R. Conrad photo] In an unglamorous pocket of Long Island City, Queens, between two of the nation’s largest public housing projects, dozens of women could tell comparable stories about Sister Tesa. Twenty-seven years ago, answering an open call from an older nun, she started a home for children whose mothers were in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Last year she was honored by the White House. Now, on a drizzly May afternoon, she walked the battered streets of her...
[Kristen Moe photo] To say that Camden has a bad reputation would be an understatement. Indeed, Camden, just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, has about the worst of any city in America. It’s been ranked at various times as both the poorest and the most dangerous. In 2012, it ranked as the number-one most dangerous city in the country . It’s also one of the worst urban food deserts in the country. In September of 2013, the last centrally located grocery store closed...
...But going from no income and no job prospects to a job that pays $20,000 a year is still a tremendous step up. Empowerment training also helps people stop thinking about low-paying jobs as dead-end jobs and start viewing them as opportunities. The...
[Photo: Stephanie Loos/Reuters] A very poignant post from Tina Traster, who wrote Rescuing Julia Twice: A Mother's Tale of Russian Adoption and Overcoming Reactive Attachment Disorder . The headline doesn't do this essay justice. My hands hover over the computer keyboard. They are trembling. I hold down the shift key and type the words with intention, saying each letter aloud: “R-e-a-c-t-i-v-e A-t-t-a-c-h-m-e-n-t D-i-s-o-r-d-e-r.” The words “reactive...
Angelina Jolie, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, and US Secretary of State John Kerry closed End Sexual Violence in Conflict summit Friday, which brought together representatives from more than 120 countries. The four-day event - the largest...
After years of decline, the number of confirmed cases of the physical abuse of children in Maine has climbed dramatically in recent years – much higher than the national average. Those who work with abused children say they’re not sure why...
Dr. Paul J. Fink, a longtime Clinical Psychiatry News columnist and editorial adviser, and leader in the field of psychiatry, died June 4. He was 80. Dr. Fink, a psychotherapist, psychiatry professor, and speaker, was a fierce advocate for his beloved...
It was a full house at the Robert J. Cabral Agricultural Center on Wednesday as the San Joaquin County Probation Department, in partnership with the Sierra Health Foundation, announced the Positive Youth Justice Initiative . The Positive Youth...
On a Wednesday night, just a few days before Fathers Day, a group of young men gather in a classroom on the fourth floor of Children's Hospital in Los Angeles. There's food — pizza, soda and cookies — and the men stack their paper plates...
In Ohio, county behavioral health authorities (AKA county mental health and recovery boards) conduct the planning, funding and monitoring activities of publicly funded mental health and alcohol/drug services. County mental health and recovery boards...
Photo credit: Namaste, Flickr . Emotional stress is undeniably uncomfortable. But the real danger it poses is the damage it can do to our bodies, causing or exacerbating health problems ranging from headaches to high blood pressure. If we could...
Individuals going through severe psychiatric crisis often have the experience of feeling not heard, and often feel misunderstood. At the same time, family members often don’t get a chance to participate in their loved one’s treatment plan...