“Mental Health Is Political,” a guest essay by Professor Danielle Carr in the New York Times (9.20.2022), asks “What if the cure for our current mental health crisis is not more mental health care?” She argues that what has been called an “’epidemic’ of mental illness” medicalizes what is primarily a social and political problem – that is it makes it a medical problem to be dealt with through treatment rather than a larger social problem to be addressed through changes in social policy and...

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Exploring Your BIG NEXT Journey is an 8-week Workshop curated by Dr. Jeff Linkenbach for leaders looking to reconnect to their deeper calling. As leaders in a rapidly changing work environment, you may feel overwhelmed or disconnected from other people, your teams, or your organization. This feeling of disconnection to self and others is at the root of the malaise and it takes a toll on our mental health and the spirit of our organizations . The BIG NEXT journey recognizes our deep need for...

By Patrick Wall, Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images, Chalkbeat, September 23, 2022 The culture war engulfing schools has subjected educators like Richard Clifton to unfamiliar scrutiny — including, in his case, a public records request. In Savannah, Georgia, where Clifton is a longtime English teacher, a group of conservative activists earlier this year began calling for the school board to “purge” books with sexual content from school libraries. After Clifton took a personal...

By Gabriela Aoun, Photo: Gabriela Aoun/The Guardian, The Guardian, September 23, 2022 O n the Saturday before Labor Day, in the east Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights, temperatures outside climbed to 105F (41C). It was the fourth day of California’s longest September heatwave on record. That afternoon, the entire state was under a “flex alert”, in which Californians were asked to turn down their air conditioners and unplug appliances to avoid putting so much demand on the power grid...

By Lynne Terry, Oregon Capital Chronicle, Marijuana Moment, September 22, 2022 A year behind schedule, Oregon’s novel approach to drug addiction has reached primetime. In November 2020, voters overwhelmingly approved Measure 110, making Oregon the first state nationwide to decriminalize the possession of small quantities of drugs and establish service centers to help people tackle their mental health and addiction problems. The centers were supposed to be operational by October 2021. This...

When we discuss implementing trauma-informed change, the conversation largely surrounds how we live trauma-informed values. How does our behavior reflect our values? What about our lifestyle choices, how we engage in relationships, or our attitude toward life’s challenges? When we reflect, we recognize that there are many ways we live trauma-informed values, but there are also many areas where we can improve. So, once we’ve identified the areas we’d like to change, the question becomes, how...