Blog

“Gun violence prevention isn’t in my job title, but so much of my work involves me helping young people cope with and curb community violence,” writes LaToya Winton of Communities In Schools of Chicago. Above, attendees of a 2018 rally to bring attention to gun violence in Chicago. John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images By La Toya Winton, Chalkbeat Chicago, August 18, 2023 Half of Chicagoans will witness a shooting before they turn 40. And the average age of a...

By Rachel Zimmerman, Illustration: George Wylesol/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, August 24, 2023 When it comes to microbiome health, many people focus on the foods that will help the trillions of good bacteria in their guts thrive. But less is known about how other factors like stress and trauma influence our gut health. A provocative study suggests that a mother’s stress may leave a lasting scar on future generations by impacting the makeup of her child’s gut microbiome. The gut...

Funeral at Dolores Mission Church, Boyle Heights, CA, by Celeste Fremon, Photoshop alterations also via CF By Samuel Karim, Witness LA, August 23, 2023 My time spent in unsafe neighborhoods and unsafe prisons has taught me a secret: Most people in urban America and locked up suffer from what I consider to be a serious mental health affliction. That problem is what I call “Hood PTSD,” a type of post-traumatic stress disorder . People raised in poorer areas with more violence across the U.S.

Brandon Masters at his home in San Antonio. Masters spent about $22,000 last year caring for his teenage son Braylon, who has bipolar disorder. When Masters developed a rash on the back of his arms and neck last year, his doctor told him it was connected to stress. (LISA KRANTZ FOR KFF HEALTH NEWS) By Renuka Rayasam, KFF Health News, August 14, 2023 After her teenage daughter attempted suicide and began to cycle through emergency rooms and mental health programs during the past three years,...

Dr. Felitti, FYI, I submitted the following suggestion to the National Academy of Sciences' Ask a Scientist program. When parents/caregivers engage in parenting behaviors and practices generally recognized as disrupting the healthy development of children it causes multiple problems for kids, for families, and for communities. An entirely new kind of parenting education that reaches everyone, everywhere could prevent this. Should public health authorities develop this new kind of parenting...

With toxic stresses, emergencies, and weather disasters now happening everywhere Community is Medicine ! To register go the ITRC website: https://itrcoalition.org/current-events-and-news/ (Note: the registration links below do not work)

By Allison Stephens, 8/24/23, https://positiveexperience.org/blog/ Healthy People is a set of public health goals for the country to reach every 10 years. The current version, Healthy People 2030 , recognizes the importance of the HOPE Building Block of engagement by setting a goal to increase the number of people who vote . Voting directly affects community resilience and creates a sense of belonging and mattering. This is also why the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and...

Shelby Quintal, a senior clinician at the Rubin Home for Boys in Troy, New York, says high staff turnover hinders the ability of some foster youth to form stable, healthy relationships later in life. Photo by Hans Pennink. By Susanti Sarkar, The Imprint, August 15, 2023 In her five years at the Rubin Home for Boys in Troy, New York, Shelby Quintal has seen countless social workers and childcare staff come and go. It’s surprising, she mused, that she has stayed this long. As a senior...

From left to right, Jesse J. Helton, Ph.D., Kira Banks, Ph.D., Mark Pousson, Ph.D., and Keon L. Gilbert, D.PH SLU file photos. By Bridjes O'Neil, Saint Louis University, August 2023 Adolescents of color with a disability or special health care need (SHCN) were almost twice as likely to experience racial discrimination compared to peers of color without SHCNs, according to Saint Louis University (SLU) research published in the Journal of Adolescent Health . The study’s authors hope this...

By Linda Geddes, Illustration: Joel Burden/The Guardian, The Guardian, August 23, 2023 I ’ve made a cup of coffee, written my to-do list and now I’m wiring up my ear to a device that will send an electrical message to my brainstem. If the testimonials are to believed, incorporating this stimulating habit into my daily routine could help to reduce stress and anxiety, curb inflammation and digestive issues, and perhaps improve my sleep and concentration by tapping into the “electrical...

By Jackie Powder, Photo: from article, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, August 22, 2023 At the Center for Adolescent/Young Adult Health at Johns Hopkins’ Harriet Lane Clinic, pediatrician Arik Marcell often heard complaints from his young male patients about the free condom brands provided at school or in the community. The discussions gave him an idea. “I created the equivalent of a free condom store in my clinic, really a large closet that they can walk in and see all the...

Surgeons perform a bilateral mastectomy on a transgender patient at a hospital in Boston on Friday, July 15, 2016. The number of gender-affirming surgeries in the U.S. nearly tripled from 2016 to 2019 before declining slightly in 2020 when about 12,800 procedures were done, according to a study published Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023, in JAMA Network Open. (Christine Hochkeppel/Worcester Telegram & Gazette via AP) By Carla K. Johnson, Associated Press, August 23, 2023 The number of...