January 2019

In the early months of 2018, a disturbing rumor traveled from the southern border of the United States into the office of Dr. Colleen Kraft: Pediatricians in the Southwest were reporting that they had begun to encounter migrant children whom the government had separated from their parents. The reports began to reach Kraft soon after she began her one-year term as president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, one of the country's foremost professional organizations of doctors dedicated to...

With Wall Street titans, tech moguls, and other members of the global financial and political elite set to gather in Davos, Switzerland this week for the annual World Economic Forum, a report published late Sunday found that the planet's richest people saw their fortunes soar by $2.5 billion per day last year as the world's poorest lost wealth. Titled " Private Good or Public Wealth? " and conducted by Oxfam, the new analysis found that 26 billionaires now own as much wealth as the world's...

LOS ANGELES — A police officer is shot dead in Whittier by a gang member . A mentally ill homeless man walks into a steakhouse in Ventura and stabs a man to death in front of his family. In Bakersfield, a man angry over his divorce goes on a shooting rampage , killing his ex-wife and four others. In the aftermath of these high-profile killings, some police officers, district attorneys and politicians were quick to use them as examples to show that criminal justice reform had let dangerous...

This piece is part of an ongoing series by Boston University’s Dr. Sandro Galea on the intricacies of health care and public health. Last month, President Trump signed into law the First Step Act, bipartisan legislation aimed at reforming the criminal justice system. Among other reforms, the Act increases the number of “good time” credits inmates can earn and apply towards a reduced sentence, modifies the “three strikes” rule so people with three or more convictions are automatically given...

Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the appointment of Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, a national leader in pediatric medicine, to serve as California’s first-ever Surgeon General. There is overwhelming consensus in the scientific community around early warning signs and childhood determinants of serious health outcomes. As California's Surgeon General, Dr. Burke Harris will urge policymakers at every level of government and leaders across the state to consider the social determinants of health,...

This blog will tell the fictional story of Claire and her son Davy; it will give you a window into Claire's thoughts, feelings, and behavior. She isn’t perfect. She will make mistakes. There will be times when people try to help Claire and you will be introduced to some great strategies that have been found to work in preventing mistakes that lead to violence. You will have an opportunity to share your thoughts about whether Claire can find a way out of the violence that has plagued her...

This series was produced as part of the University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism Fellowship with a grant from the Fund for Journalism on Child Well-Being. Other stories in this series include: The Cost of Juvenile Trauma HillRag Wednesday, January 9, 2019 “I have to meet this guy and have sex with him. If I don’t, then he and his friends are going to rape my little sister,” a student at Frank Ballou High School in Ward 8’s Congress Heights told her teacher. The teacher...

Engaging parents in trauma treatment is difficult. No show rates are often high. Both parents and children enter treatment defensive and resistant to change. Treatment should begin with the first phone call. But unfortunately, this call is only used to set up the initial intake appointment or provide reminder calls. In sharp contrast, the Motivational Phone Call Technique is a manualized 15 to 20 minute, 7-question script that uses strength-based questions to quickly build rapport between...

Have you ever considered the term emotiona l concussion? Have you ever thought about what might be involved in an emotional concussion ? Emotional concussions occur when young children Live in homes controlled by alcohol, drugs, explosive tempers Live in homes full of stress Live with dysfunctional adults Have exposure to people who are physically, emotionally, and/or sexually abusive Experience the divorce of their parents From the ACEs Too High website we find, “The life-in-dysfunction...

Good morning everyone. I wonder how many people understand why "miscommunication" happens? If one person is vibrating at a higher frequency or different frequency then the other, it is hard to understand one another. For instance, if one person is in a state of love, peace, harmony and joy and the other is in a place of anger, fear, projecting their feelings and worry it is hard to communicate. Nothing means anything, no word, feeling or action until we assign it meaning. If people can't...

Rocsana Enriquez started thinking about yoga again when she was pregnant. She was 19 and in an abusive relationship. When she was younger, Rocsana, whom I interviewed as part of my research, had taken part in a yoga program in a San Francisco Bay Area juvenile hall run by The Art of Yoga Project . She began using the skills she learned on the mat to slow herself down when she got angry and to pause before reacting. She remembered the breathing techniques and poses that made her feel better...

The next generation is less likely to wear predisposed shackles of trauma because as trauma-informed parents we are re-wiring the traumatically stressed DNA that was passed down to us.