December 2021

Self-Care and Its Importance for Relationship Intense Fields Self-care is incredibly important for new members in the counseling field, and overall for any field that is relationship intense. A relationship intense field is any field that requires the practitioner to form a strong relationship or bond with their client in order to complete their job. Examples of these positions are; nurses, counselors, teachers, healthcare providers, or social workers. Self-care is a part of creating a...

OK--so the research has only been done with worms, but the results are intriguing--especially as we are learning more about epigenetics and transgenerational trauma in humans: Mitochondrial Stress Is Passed Between Generations

By Gabrielle Bruney, Image: Showtime Documentary Films, Jezebel, December 3, 2021 “I never wanted to lose my virginity, but it just happened,” says one of the teenaged subjects of the new documentary Cusp . “The whole time I was like, ‘Fuck, what am I doing? Okay, we’re going to say, ‘No.’ One, two, three—.’” She cuts herself off, making a noise that sounds as though a word has made its way out of her throat only to be caught against closed lips. “I just couldn’t say no,” she concludes . “I...

From The Kennedy Forum, December 2021 Invest in Youth Mental Health Fifty percent of mental illness begins by age 14 and 75% begins by the time the brain is fully developed in the mid-20s. The pandemic has significantly worsened the collective mental health of youth, prompting the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Children’s Hospital Association to declare a national emergency in children’s mental health , and, most recently, the U.S.

By Tara Parker-Pope, Illustration: Mike McQuade, The New York Times, December 9, 2021 What good things did you do for yourself in 2021? This year on Well, we suggested a number of small habits that can make life just a little better. It’s not too late to try them, and pick a few you’d like to continue. Here are nine of our favorites. Give the best hours of your day to yourself . What time of day do you feel your best? For some people, we may feel most energetic during the first few hours of...

By Mary Beth Maslowski, Psychiatry Advisor, December 9, 2021 US Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued a public health advisory on Tuesday, December 6, 2021 in order to provide recommendations for how to address the mental health challenges confronting children, adolescents, and young adults, which have been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. The advisory, issued by the Office of the Surgeon General, speaks about actions that various groups, such as, family members, community organizations,...

The last 2 years have been heavy with loss from COVID and COVID-adjacent illnesses - suicide, overdose, and untreated everything. On top of it all, we have often been forced to grieve alone or via zoom, depriving us of the necessary screaming and moaning of our communal lament, and our communal question - WHY? My sister is a public health journalist and wrote this moving piece exploring grief after 2 losses we experienced last year. It helped me to read her words, so eloquently written that...

The National Governors Association along with the Duke Margolis Center for Health Policy and the National Academy for State Health Policy, released today, December 9, the report "State Actions To Prevent And Mitigate Adverse Childhood Experiences." The Executive Summary is included below. To read the entire report, click here. An article about the NGA Learning Collaborative and this report will be posted soon on PACEs Connection. Preventing and mitigating adverse childhood experiences and...

By Kristine Thomason, Mind Body Green, December 6, 2021 In our 2021 Wellness Trends, we predicted that mental fitness would take priority this year—and that phenomenon took off even more than we anticipated. Over the last 18 months, not only has mental health care taken precedence, but we've observed more and more buzz around this topic on public platforms. Between people sharing experiences on social media, doctors providing resources via podcasts, and a society that's slowly becoming more...

By Lev Kushner and Greg Lindsay, Photo: Chris McGrath/Getty Images, Bloomberg City Lab, December 7, 2021 When we think of resource frontiers, it calls to mind the rugged, glamorous classics: oil booms, gold rushes, or, in the not-so-distant future, asteroid mining. But the latest is closer to home. Whether you live in Manhattan, Hollywood, or beyond, the storefronts and sidewalks in your city are being mined. Over the last year, cities across the U.S. and Europe have seen a rapid rise in the...

By Sandee LaMotte, Photo: Vasyl Helevachuk/Adobe Stock, CNN Health, December 7, 2021 As the pandemic stretches on, our collective ability to weather adversities and bounce back to emotional stability is being challenged daily. Many of us have suffered significant trauma from illness, hospitalization and death. Many more have experienced job loss, economic uncertainly and financial instability. And everyone has had to cope with an unprecedented uprooting of social and emotional support...

By Judd Legum, Photo: Ben Margot/AP, The Guardian, December 7, 2021 In the United States, only certain types of theft are newsworthy. For example, on 14 June 2021, a reporter for KGO-TV in San Francisco tweeted a cellphone video of a man in Walgreens filling a garbage bag with stolen items and riding his bicycle out of the store. According to San Francisco’s crime database, the value of the merchandise stolen in the incident was between $200 and $950. According to an analysis by Fair, a...