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Los Angeles County agreed Thursday to new jail-release planning policies designed to interrupt the incarceration-to-skid row pipeline for inmates with mental illness and dementia. The new procedures are aimed at stabilizing an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 mentally ill inmates who leave jail each month and at helping them find housing, benefits and employment and thus avoid reoffending. “We know if you leave the jail with a place to stay and your next follow-up appointment you’re less likely to...

What happens when traditional addiction treatments don’t stick, and people continue using dangerous opioids like heroin and illicit fentanyl anyway? That’s the central question behind a huge report by the RAND Corporation. The review of the research looks at two harm reduction interventions that try to help people who aren’t in conventional treatment: prescription heroin and supervised drug consumption sites . Both approaches are used around the world — in Australia, Canada, and Europe — but...

In the new report, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Resilience, and Trauma-Informed Care: A Public Health Approach to Understanding and Responding to Adversity , Professor Hugo van Warden, t he director of public health for NHS Highland (Scotland), writes: "This report deals with ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences’ and chronic exposure to ‘toxic stress’. A key message in this report is that such experiences increase the risk of later development of poor mental health, adverse behavioural...

A traumatic event or another crisis can act as the catalyst to cause or exacerbate an already upside down hierarchy. Over time, this inverted hierarchy will lead the problem symptoms in the child and/or other family members, a lack of boundaries, coalitions, or a lack of love or limits. On Tuesday, December 11 at 1 pm ET, the Family Trauma Institute presents a webinar that answers the question: "Why is theory so essential to helping the trauma therapist know where to tap to discover the root...

Those of us with Childhood PTSD sometimes find ourselves repeating the same old mistakes, right when we thought we were doing okay. These half-conscious decisions are most likely to happen when we're dysregulated, emotionally and neurologically. In this video excerpt from my course, Healing Childhood PTSD , I talk about three emotions that drive dysregulation, and in turn, self-defeating behaviors (which can be the source of MOST of our present day problems). If you think you might have...

When hurt people hurt hurt people, the effects can be even more devastating.

Last weekend I saw The Grinch at the movie theater with my nephews and family. Everyone knows the historic tale of the Dr. Suess book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Grouchy green guy steals Christmas from innocent town in an attempt to make his own pain go away. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work, and the kind hearts of the Whos in Whoville show the Grinch that the spirit of Christmas comes from their hearts and not material goods. I guess this was the first time I watched The Grinch in...

“All I do know is as we age, the weight of our unsorted baggage becomes heavier . . . much heavier. With each passing year, the price of our refusal to do that sorting rises higher and higher. . . . "

Video of the first-ever performances of LOOK FOR ME, the musical about healing from trauma, is now available on YouTube. Look For Me was created to challenge one of the most pervasive myths about trauma and PTSD: that the damage done by traumatic experiences is a life sentence. The video now available is from performances of a 25-minute excerpt of the show presented at the New York New Works Theatre Festival in September, 2018. The excerpt captures the full storyline of the main character,...

Was corresponding this week with Dr. Claudia Gold this week and learned about an amazing webinar series for parents. Here's a link to the interview with @Claudia Gold. "Make some room in your life for people who listen to you - wherever that is. If no one is listening to you, you aren't going to be able to listen to your child." Dr. Claudia Gold That is one of my favorite quotes from the webinar. Here's more about the entire parenting series: Here's the link to the rest of...

As we discussed the Seven Mindsets, I was reminded how I had made a concerted effort to change my thinking patterns and create new habits filled with positivity instead of focusing on the struggles when I first started out on my healing journey.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ( PTSD ) is a relatively common condition, affecting nearly seven percent of people over the course of a lifetime and over 3.5 percent of people in any given year, according to the NIMH from National Comorbidity Survey data. Other estimates suggest even higher rates, more so in at-risk groups. PTSD is more than two times higher in women than men, and PTSD is associated with higher suicide rates. Fifty to 70 percent of US citizens are expected to experience major...