January 2016

The Sunday, Jan. 17 Providence Journal carried this outstanding front page story (plus a second feature on the ACE study). Not mentioned in this story but reported elsewhere, a few leaders from Warwick, RI visited the founders of the Peace4 Tarpon Springs for ideas and inspiration and another effort is underway in West Warwick and Woonsocket with funding from Rhode Island Health Department’s and CDC's Health Equity Zones program  to support the reduction in health disparities.

Catherine Woodiwiss , Associate Web Editor at Sojourners writes this powerful article about how her traumatic experiences changed her.   I knew that pain was a part of life, but — thanks in part to a peculiar blend of “God-has-a-plan” Southern roots, a suburban “Midwestern nice” upbringing, and a higher education in New England stoicism — I managed to skate by for quite some time without having to acknowledge it. After a handful of traumas in the...

Here is a story I came across from a woman who wrote about her reaction to sexual trauma -- Sex After Trauma (Pt. II): The Psychology Behind My Promiscuity  that was written by Katherine Ripley and published on the Huffington Post. The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study linked childhood trauma to later behaviors, and one such behavior was increased promiscuity. Three separate measures for sexuality were queried with “The risk of early intercourse, promiscuity, and sexual...

There's been a lot of conversation lately about people of color dealing with " only one in the room " syndrome in the workplace. But in 2016, it's still remarkably easy to be the only person of color in any given social situation. My Code Switch teammate Gene Demby and I were talking about this yesterday. We've both been to parties in D.C., Philadelphia, LA — all majority nonwhite cities — where we at some point looked up and realized we were "the only one in the room." We live...

Addicted to prescription painkillers after a high-school sports injury, Cameron Burke moved on to heroin, which was cheaper and more easily accessible. His parents tried everything, more than once sending him out of state for treatment. "It was never enough," Jennifer Weiss-Burke of Albuquerque, N.M., told a local TV reporter last year. "Thirty days here, 30 days there, maybe detox for five days. It was never long-term, and that's what he needed. Recovery from heroin addiction requires...

On any given episode of East Los High, the highly addictive teen soap on Hulu that just got a fourth season, you'll see love triangles and heartbreak, mean girls and bad boys, and some seriously skillful dancing. Think a Latino Degrassi meets Gossip Girl meets Glee. Clocking in at 20 minutes an episode with lots of online extras, the show is calibrated to get fans in their tweens, teens and 20s to inhale and then tweet things like "Finished all 3 seasons of #EastLosHigh in a week and now I...

Many people having surgery for severe obesity also have mental health conditions, particularly depression and binge-eating disorder, a new review finds. The analysis of 68 studies found that almost one-quarter of obesity surgery candidates had a mood-related disorder, usually depression . Another 17 percent had binge-eating disorder, researchers report Jan. 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Obesity surgery, known medically as bariatric surgery , can be an option for...

Santa Clara County has become the first county nationwide to establish an Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Affairs, county officials announced Thursday. "I am proud to say that Santa Clara County is now the first county in the nation with an office exclusively dedicated to serving the LGBTQ community," a statement from Supervisor Ken Yeager, the first openly gay official elected in the county, said. "While our country and this County have come a long way in recent...

In many ways we create our own anxiety. It might be our habits or the actions we take. It might be our perspective on everything from traveling on airplanes to how life works. The good news is that we can do something about these triggers—instead of letting them generate needless anxiety, sink our mood and rule our lives. Below, counseling psychologist Rosy Saenz-Sierzega, Ph.D, shared four potential triggers and how we can reduce or navigate them healthfully. [For more of this story,...

It is well known that telling a kid she is smart is wading into seriously dangerous territory. Reams of research show that kids who are praised for being smart fixate on performance, shying away from taking risks and meeting potential failure. Kids who are praised for their efforts try harder and persist with tasks longer. These “effort” kids have a “growth mindset” marked by resilience and a thirst for mastery; the “smart” ones have a “fixed...

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reports that 64,747 licensed gun dealers (defined here as gun shops, pawnbrokers, or individual sellers) existed in the U.S. as of December 2015. But that raw number alone might not mean much to you. So a new mapping project by data viz company 1point21 Interactive tries to contextualize this number by comparing it to something all Americans know exists in abundance: Starbucks. ”Looking at the Federal Firearms License data, the...

The office responsible for providing free legal services to defendants in New Orleans who can’t afford lawyers will start turning clients away this week. The city’s public defender’s office warned last fall that this day was coming. And it came on January 12, when the office announced that it would have to stop taking on indigent clients charged with serious felonies, particularly those facing life sentences. The office no longer has enough staff or resources to handle the...