October 2017

I’ve been dealing with the father wound for most of my life. When I was five years old my mid-life father became increasingly depressed because he couldn’t make a living supporting me and my mother. He took an overdose of sleeping pills and was committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital. Many of us grow up without the presence of a loving, engaged, father in our lives. Some of us lose our fathers through illness, others through divorce, death, distance, or dysfunction. Like most losses,...

A Penn State researcher and her collaborator found that physical abuse was associated with decreases in children's cognitive performance, while non-abusive forms of physical punishment were independently associated with reduced school engagement and increased peer isolation. Sarah Font, assistant professor of sociology and co-funded faculty member of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, and Jamie Cage, assistant professor in Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Social Work,...

Even patients with whom I have the best rapport would probably rather not see me so often. Sometimes I readmit a patient I cared for just weeks before in the hospital. “Nice to see you again,” I offer with a smile. The usual response, loosely paraphrased: I’d rather be anywhere else. This reflects not some deep deficiency in my bedside manner (I think), but rather an essential truth about medicine: People want health, not health care. And those who require the most health care and get the...

On April 28, 1996, a 28-year-old Australian man named Martin Bryant ate lunch at Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur, Tasmania, a historic penal colony that is a popular tourist resort. After his meal, he returned his tray, removed a semiautomatic rifle from his bag, and opened fire. By the time Bryant was caught a day later, 35 people were dead and 23 wounded in what became the worst mass shooting in Australian history—one whose impact is felt even today. There had been previous mass shootings...

After any disaster, parents and other adults struggle with what they should say and share with children and what not to say or share with them. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) encourages parents, teachers, child care providers, and others who work closely with children to filter information about the crisis and present it in a way that their child can accommodate, adjust to, and cope with. No matter what age or developmental stage the child is, parents can start by asking a child...

Carey talks with the Honorable Joni Hiramoto , a judge serving the Contra Costa County Superior Court for the last 20 years. They discuss her expansive work, ranging from hearing domestic violence cases, to teaching young judges, to helping form Richmond’s restraining order clinic.

The kick-off event for our Resilience Awareness community campaign started with the Mayor Allen Pomraning signing a proclamation at the Walla Walla City Council session September 27th. The Proclamation noted CRI's focus on the help, healing and hope that comes when a community understands the impact trauma can have, and how together, we support each other by building stronger connections across all domains and sectors. With a yard sign in hand, members of the CRI planning team celebrated...

Becoming a mother is often portrayed as a magical and glorious life event. But many women don't feel joyful after giving birth. In fact, according to the American Psychological Association , almost 15 percent of moms suffer from a postpartum mood disorder like anxiety or depression, making maternal mental health concerns the most common complication of childbirth in the U.S. And even though these mental illnesses affect millions of women each year, new research shows 20 percent of mothers...

In 2016 more people were arrested for marijuana possession than for all crimes the FBI classifies as violent , according to 2016 crime data released by the agency on Monday. Marijuana possession arrests edged up slightly in 2016, a year in which voters in four states approved recreational marijuana initiatives and voters in three others approved medical marijuana measures. These figures should be regarded as estimates, because not all law enforcement agencies provide detailed arrest...

This week on Reveal, we take a look at prisons as a part of our series And Justice for Some. The number of women in U.S. prisons has increased more than 700 percent since 1980. And for nearly all of that time, Oklahoma has led the nation in locking up women. Reveal Senior Editor Ziva Branstetter teams up with Allison Herrera and The Frontier, an Oklahoma-based investigative news website, to find out why. Reporter Stan Alcorn brings us the story of how one man went to prison for a crime he...

Since the release of Garbage Bag Suitcase , I have had some interesting human encounters. I have traveled around the country and even into a few foreign countries. I have been too epic urban areas and to remote rural communities. I have spoken to groups as small as 3 and as large as 1000. I have spoken for free and paid, all in the hopes of spreading awareness about the child welfare system. I have preached to the choir, so to speak, and I have spoken to crowds who have had absolutely no...

(Multi-agency training held in Knoxville, TN. (l to r) Dr. Andi Clements co-trainer; Dr. Janet Cockrum, training host; Becky Haas, trainer) ____________________________ Statistics recently released from the Tennessee Department of Health offer a grim reminder that 1,631 Tennesseans died from drug overdoses in 2016, which is the highest annual number of such deaths ever recorded in state history. This is an increase from the 1,451 overdose deaths recorded among Tennessee residents in 2015.