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“The way we show up among our peers, in our communities, and in our societies will either foster a culture of belonging or it won’t. Avoidance, apathy, gaslighting, and disconnection may have gotten us where we are now, but they won’t get us where we’re going,” says PACEs Connection’s newest staff member, Kahshanna Evans, as she begins her role in helping people who want to start or revitalize PACEs Connection communities learn how to do community development. Evans brings a passion for...

By Krista Goldstine-Cole, EdD, co-principal investigator, Into the Black Box study of developmental adversity, Billings, Montana - April 25, 2023 A team of researchers at the University of Montana School of Public and Community Health Sciences has launched Into the Black Box, an extensive and ground-breaking study of how some adult learners turn information about developmental adversity—the traumas, adversities, and significant stressors that are sufficient to alter the brain, body, or...

Young children need much support as they grow up and learn about the evolving world that seems so big when we’re small. We know that many factors can negatively affect our child’s mental health and well-being. Still, many don’t always consider the impression that unstable and unhealthy housing can create on a child. When your kids have lived in a place with unpredictability and high tension, they may experience issues later in life. Today, we will discuss how housing can create adverse...

Ann Peetermans and Iosif, who lives with her as a boarder, feeding a donkey in the backyard of her home in Geel, Belgium. (Ilvy Njiokiktjien/The New York Times) By Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Koba Ryckewaert, The New York Times, April 21, 2023 A painful loop has defined Iosif’s 53 years on earth: trauma, mental breakdown, psychiatric institutionalization. From his native Romania to a failed asylum bid in Belgium and later divorce and financial distress, Iosif’s condition has punctuated crises...

By Usha Lee McFaring, Photo: Adobe, STAT, April 14, 2023 B lack people in counties with more Black primary care physicians live longer, according to a new national analysis that provides the strongest evidence yet that increasing the diversity of the medical workforce may be key to ending deeply entrenched racial health disparities. The study , published Friday in JAMA Network Open, is the first to link a higher prevalence of Black doctors to longer life expectancy and lower mortality in...

By Rudy Perez, Photo: Aaron/LA Photography/Shutterstock, Housing Matters, April 12, 2023 Every year, nearly 10 million people are released from prisons and jails in the United States. Formerly incarcerated people face significant barriers to reentry, such as challenges securing stable employment, housing, public benefits and access to education and the denial of voting rights. Because of the revolving door of homelessness and incarceration , many people in jail or prisons either experienced...

By Thomas Bognanno, Image: Getty, Forbes, April 21, 2023 On my desk, I have always kept a small hourglass. Inevitably, I am drawn to it throughout the workday. As I write this, I have only a few hours remaining as CEO of CHC: Creating Healthier Communities. After more than 40 years of nonprofit leadership, the hourglass is a powerful symbol of how quickly time passes and the inevitability of change. More than that, it is a reminder that time is precious. With the hours, days and years we...

Ralph Yarl, 16, was shot and wounded after mistakenly going to the wrong house to pick up his siblings. (Lee Merritt/Reuters) By Rachel Hatzipanagos and Timothy Bella, The Washington Post, April 19, 2023 When Ralph Yarl rang the doorbell of Andrew Lester’s Kansas City, Mo., home by mistake last week, the 84-year-old White man was “scared to death,” he told police. The Black teenager was looking for his two siblings who were playing at a friend’s house. Instead, he arrived at Lester’s door —...

To mark the anniversary of the passage of the landmark legislation of the Georgia Mental Health Parity Act, we are sharing a letter written a year ago by Roland Behm, Co-founder of the Georgia Mental Health Policy Partnership, Board Member and Former Board Chair, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) Georgia Chapter. The letter is to his son, Kyle, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2010 as a junior in college and died by suicide in August 2019.

From the Washington Post, April 23, 2023: When Iowa lawmakers voted last week to roll back certain child labor protections, they blended into a growing movement driven largely by a conservative advocacy group. At 4:52 a.m., Tuesday, the state’s Senate approved a bill to allow children as young as 14 to work night shifts and 15 year-olds on assembly lines. The measure, which still must pass the Iowa House, is among several the Foundation for Government Accountability is maneuvering through...

Their “Earth Day,” held on April 22, 1970, brought more than 20 million Americans—10% of the total population of the country at the time—to call for the nation to address the damage caused by 150 years of unregulated industrial development. The movement included members of all political parties, rich Americans and their poorer neighbors, people who lived in the city and those in the country, labor leaders and their employers. It is still one of the largest protests in American history.

(photo: Jenna Kunze) To read more of Darren Thompson's article, please click here. NEW YORK — Indigenous scholars presented a report on Tuesday on Indigenous determinants of health at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) 22nd session. The study was delegated during UNPFII 21st session and aims to create positive health and wellness outcomes for Indigenous communities worldwide. The study also responds to the U.N.’s adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development...