Blog

In communities across the nation, complex care management teams are deploying “non-traditional” health care workers — including individuals with lived experience or skills that transcend the traditional bounds of health care — to better connect with high-risk patients. The New Faces of the Complex Care Workforce series showcases how these workers are helping in innovative ways to address the needs of adult Medicaid beneficiaries with complex health and social needs. In the second profile of...

One reason people with Childhood PTSD so often have a hard time in relationships is "DWD" -- Dating While Dysregulated. In this video a talk casual sex and how it can SEEM like it's going to help us get re-regulated, but in the long term, it doesn't always go that way. Toward the end of the video, I talk a little about an approach that worked for me and many others, called Structured Dating. It's the cornerstone of what I teach in my upcoming video-based course, Dating and Relationships for...

Safe families produce successful students and thriving communities. Unfortunately, across our towns and cities, family households are not places where all children are safe. Instead, children endure adverse childhood experiences—or ACEs. There are ten ACEs that include physical and emotional neglect; physical, emotional and sexual abuse; and living in households where adults misuse substances, have mental health challenges, are violent to partners, parents are separated, or a family member...

When Sarah Spiegel was in her first year at New York Medical College in 2016, she sat in a lecture hall watching a BuzzFeed video about what it's like to be an intersex or a transgender person. "It was a good video, but it felt inadequate for the education of a class of medical students, soon to be doctors," says Spiegel , now in her third year of medical school. The video, paired with a 30-minute lecture on sexual orientation, was the only LGBT-focused information Spiegel and her fellow...

As a child and adolescent clinical psychologist , I'm a huge fan of using metaphors and analogies when I'm explaining a wide range of psychological facts. I've found that no matter the age, metaphors and analogies are just easier to process. Therefore, whenever I'm talking to someone else about what I do in therapy , I really enjoying referencing an imaginary emotional toolbox. In simple words, my job is to help whoever walks into my office refine that emotional toolbox. Together, we: Find...

The Global Psychosocial Network (GPN) recently released a statement regarding the roles of professionals and volunteers in migrant/refugee camps, detention sites, at the border and in transit zones. GPN represents a network of psychosocial professionals who support and accompany other professionals in the field such as humanitarian workers, healthcare professionals, and social justice activists who are in conflict or disaster zones. The statement was composed by the GPN working group, which...

In the early months of 2018, a disturbing rumor traveled from the southern border of the United States into the office of Dr. Colleen Kraft: Pediatricians in the Southwest were reporting that they had begun to encounter migrant children whom the government had separated from their parents. The reports began to reach Kraft soon after she began her one-year term as president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, one of the country's foremost professional organizations of doctors dedicated to...

With Wall Street titans, tech moguls, and other members of the global financial and political elite set to gather in Davos, Switzerland this week for the annual World Economic Forum, a report published late Sunday found that the planet's richest people saw their fortunes soar by $2.5 billion per day last year as the world's poorest lost wealth. Titled " Private Good or Public Wealth? " and conducted by Oxfam, the new analysis found that 26 billionaires now own as much wealth as the world's...

LOS ANGELES — A police officer is shot dead in Whittier by a gang member . A mentally ill homeless man walks into a steakhouse in Ventura and stabs a man to death in front of his family. In Bakersfield, a man angry over his divorce goes on a shooting rampage , killing his ex-wife and four others. In the aftermath of these high-profile killings, some police officers, district attorneys and politicians were quick to use them as examples to show that criminal justice reform had let dangerous...

This piece is part of an ongoing series by Boston University’s Dr. Sandro Galea on the intricacies of health care and public health. Last month, President Trump signed into law the First Step Act, bipartisan legislation aimed at reforming the criminal justice system. Among other reforms, the Act increases the number of “good time” credits inmates can earn and apply towards a reduced sentence, modifies the “three strikes” rule so people with three or more convictions are automatically given...

Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the appointment of Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, a national leader in pediatric medicine, to serve as California’s first-ever Surgeon General. There is overwhelming consensus in the scientific community around early warning signs and childhood determinants of serious health outcomes. As California's Surgeon General, Dr. Burke Harris will urge policymakers at every level of government and leaders across the state to consider the social determinants of health,...

This blog will tell the fictional story of Claire and her son Davy; it will give you a window into Claire's thoughts, feelings, and behavior. She isn’t perfect. She will make mistakes. There will be times when people try to help Claire and you will be introduced to some great strategies that have been found to work in preventing mistakes that lead to violence. You will have an opportunity to share your thoughts about whether Claire can find a way out of the violence that has plagued her...