On July 11, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held its first-ever hearing on childhood trauma, featuring emotional testimony from survivor witnesses, as well as a number of prominent public health experts and government officials. The hearing took place just a little over a month after the announcement of the Rise from Trauma Act , bipartisan, bicameral legislation that would fund increased services and supports for trauma-impacted children and families. (See previous MIA Report: “...

Deadline is May 20, 2019 The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health will present a thematic report to the 74th UN General assembly in October 2019 on the role of medical education in strengthening the health workforce, including doctors and other health workers. For a detailed explanation of the feedback sought, please see the relevant extended note . In a snap-shot the Special Rapporteur...

Don’t get me wrong: of course I care deeply about the mental and physical health of children, including my own son’s. I don’t want students to suffer in silence and shame. But I am very concerned about just how this topic will be taught in schools.

I was raised by Jewish grandparents who grew up during the Great Depression. (I guess this makes me an honorary Baby Boomer, even though I’m technically Generation X.) My grandmother loved to tell me stories told to her by her father, my great-grandfather Max Schumacher, who emigrated to the US from Poland in 1914, and died before I was born. “Your great-grandfather was sitting on the stoop with this little girl, and a Cossack rides by on his horse and pop! shoots the little girl in the...

James Redford, director of Paper Tigers , a documentary about the journey of students and teachers at a trauma-sensitive alternative high school in Walla Walla, Washington, posed a provocative question in a recent blog : can school heal children in...

(Originally published here on The Huffington Post.)   Another "May is Mental Health Month" has come and gone, and it is time to build on years of awareness campaigns and move into action to promote whole health and recovery. People with serious...

On December 17, 2014, over 20 people met from across the Washington, DC metro area to begin a dialogue on how to move towards creating trauma informed communities. The event was co-sponsored by the  STAR Center , a national technical assistance...