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Suicide is becoming more common in America, an increase most pronounced in rural areas, new research has found. The study, which appears online today (Sept. 6, 2019) in the journal JAMA Network Open , also highlights a cluster of factors, including lack of insurance and the prevalence of gun shops, that are associated with high suicide rates. Researchers at The Ohio State University evaluated national suicide data from 1999 to 2016, and provided a county-by-county national picture of the...

By World Health Organization (photo by WHO/Malin Bring) The findings of a new study on the life-course health consequences and associated annual costs of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) show that preventable trauma in childhood costs north America and the European Region US$ 1.3 trillion a year. The article, published in the Lancet and co-authored by Dinesh Sethi and Jonathon Passmore, Programme Manager, Violence and Injury Prevention, WHO/Europe, looks at the legacy of ACEs and their...

(From left to right) State Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris, Rep. Jackie Speier, and Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, participate in a town hall meeting on gun violence at Lincoln High School in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, August 27 Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle Editor's note: In her role as state surgeon general, Dr. Harris addressed gun violence as preventable and important to treat as a public health issue. She said that in 2017, there were...

By Jason Sanchez, EdSource, August 24, 2019 Before you make any law that affects public education, please talk to teachers — teachers from rural and urban areas as well as poorer and wealthier areas. Students, parents and teachers represent the largest proportion of the population that is directly affected by laws impacting public education. Please spend most of your time talking with them to understand how they will be affected. Then talk to school and district administrators, lobbyists and...

By Angela Hart, Politico, August 26, 2019 California will lead a multistate lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging a proposed federal regulation that would lift court-granted protections for young migrant detainees, allowing immigration authorities to detain children indefinitely — in quarters they see fit. The lawsuit, to be filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, challenges the Trump administration rule seeking to invalidate the 1997 Flores...

By Nila Bala and James Dold, The Hill, August 27, 2019 Over the last three decades, through both Democratic and Republican administrations, thousands of children have been warehoused in prisons with adults. We have usually ignored the cages these children are in because they were convicted of crimes in the adult criminal justice system. But we cannot ignore the fact that regardless of what they have done, they are still our children. Congress has a chance to enact reforms that assist...

California is about to launch an ambitious campaign to train tens of thousands of Medi-Cal providers to screen children and adults up to age 65 for trauma, starting on January 1, 2020. It is well-established that the early identification of trauma and providing the appropriate treatment are critical tools for reducing long-term health care costs for both children and adults. Research has shown that individuals who experienced a high number of traumatic childhood events are likely to die...

By David Leffler, The Washington Post, August 19, 2019 At 9 on a chilly February morning in Austin, Elizabeth Minne met in her office with a former counseling client and her mother. The three were all smiles, catching up for the first time in ages. As their laughter faded, they recalled their weighty introduction five years before, when Minne’s mission to create a comprehensive mental health-care system for Austin’s schools was still in its infancy — and her client, Sarah Luna Newcomer, was...

On July 3, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 188 also known as the Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act. The CROWN Act amends the California Education Code and the Fair Employment and Housing Act’s definition of race to include traits historically associated with race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles. Protective hairstyles include, but are not limited to, “braids, locks, and twists.” The legislation makes California the...

Researchers from the University of California at San Diego recently conducted what they said is the first nationwide investigation into nurse suicides in more than 20 years. They found that both male and female nurses had higher rates of suicide than men and women in the US . The findings are consistent with the increasing rates of suicide across the country. The US suicide rate has risen in recent years, increasing by 28% in the past two decades , to the highest it's been since World War II...

WASHINGTON — Senator Elizabeth Warren on Friday proposed a sprawling set of policies relating to Native Americans and indigenous tribes, accusing the federal government of years of neglect and calling for major economic development initiatives and new legal protections that would give tribes more control over criminal justice and development on their land. Warren proposed wholesale changes in the way the federal government interacts with Native American tribes. She pledged to revoke the...

By Mark Eichmann, WHYY, July 26, 2019 When a child experiences trauma like a domestic violence incident at home, the impact on their life can last weeks, months or even years. It can also have an immediate effect on their success in the classroom. Gov. Carney signed a law on Friday that’s designed to provide more support for those students — immediately following a traumatic incident. The Take Care Delaware law calls for police or emergency care providers to inform school officials if a...