February 2017

There is a national challenge to understand child and adult welfare. I have spent my whole life...42 years being trained to advocate and teach healthy dynamics, and for me it was life and death because my ACE score was either going to be a crutch or a gift. My training began in my mother's womb. I started my development out being fed stress chemicals, and fear chemicals, because my mother was surrounded by toxic stress, poor choice behaviors, and a family who did not support her. She is one...

Dr. Veenod L. Chulani ___________________________ The Arizona House of Representatives Committee on Health heard presentations on Feb. 9 on “Overcoming Adverse Childhood Experiences: Creating Hope for a Healthier Arizona.” During the meeting, House Health Chair Heather Carter noted that the hearing was the first step in an ongoing discussion about the importance of addressing childhood trauma. Rep. Carter H.B. 2198 , sponsor ed by Rep. Heather Carter and co-sponsor ed by Rep. Regina Cobb who...

For the first time in the United States, training is available for using the Abecedarian Approach with fidelity. Developed by Dr. Joseph Sparling (right) in the 1970s and significantly updated since then, the Abecedarian Approach has produced far-reaching and significant outcomes for children that have lasted for decades, as documented by the most famous study in early childhood care and education, FPG’s Abecedarian Project. Ongoing research has demonstrated the long-term educational,...

There are many ways that American culture tells women to be quiet—many ways they are reminded that they would really be so much more pleasing if they would just smile a little more, or talk a little less, or work a little harder to be pliant and agreeable. Women are, in general, extremely attuned to these messages; we have, after all, heard them all our lives. And so: When presiding Senate chair Steve Daines, of Montana, interrupted his colleague , Elizabeth Warren, as she was reading the...

Right now, those of us most vulnerable and least protected are under attack and whole communities―Black, Muslim, disabled, queer, trans, and women-identified folks are being targeted in the streets and in legislative halls. The threats are real and calculated. And the attempts to shore up the institutional correlation between the right to live and able-bodied, white, monied maleness is dangerous and deadly for the rest of us. We can’t overstate the impact that the outright plunder of...

Making Connections for Mental Health and Wellbeing Among Men and Boys is a national initiative to transform community conditions that influence mental wellbeing, especially for men and boys of color, veterans, and their families. Sixteen communities across the U.S. are developing and activating strategies to enhance their sociocultural, physical/built, and economic and educational environments. The Movember Foundation is funding the work; Prevention Institute is providing coordination,...

Criminologists have debated for decades whether police carry racial biases into their work—particularly the kind that leads them to kill African Americans at disproportionate rates. Much of the research in this arena suggests that yes, on balance, police officers of all races do tend to perceive African Americans as more threatening than whites. The much-revered University of California Berkeley criminology professor Paul Takagi wrote as early as 1974 that “the police have one trigger finger...

The state asks what resources, opportunities, services or supports do teens need in order to be able to behave better? Teenagers make mistakes. They sneak out past curfew to drink at a house party, shoplift clothes, graffiti their names in bathroom stalls, talk back to authorities and throw punches in heated moments. Our juvenile justice system views some of these violations as youthful folly; others are deemed criminal offenses. Unjustly, skin color or socioeconomic status might determine...

A toddler came into my examination room recently at Bayview Child Health Center in Bayview Hunters Point, an underserved, largely African-American neighborhood in San Francisco. Her mother was worried that she wasn’t growing properly, and she was right: At the age of 2½, her daughter ranked at the very bottom of the height and weight charts that pediatricians use to gauge whether kids are growing normally. My patient’s mom had tried everything she could to help her daughter eat right and...

I never cease to be amazed at how a subconscious block – made of old ideas, beliefs, or impressions – can affect present day life. Moreover, it’s possible for a subconscious block to totally sabotage your goals while leaving no clue as to its source. In fact, you may be completely in the dark while said subconscious block has its way with you. That’s why I found hypnotherapist Lora Cheadle’s article about goals and subconscious blocks to be so interesting. I sent Lora a note to ask her some...

My first trip to the Robert Taylor Homes—a high-rise housing project on Chicago’s South Side—was after a shooting. Dust blew everywhere because there was no grass to hold down the dirt. The elevator was covered with graffiti and stank of urine. There were police cars and an ambulance in front of the 16-story building, which was one of a complex of 28 concrete towers that comprised an enormous public housing development. At one point, more than 20,000 people lived there. That was nearly 30...

A unique partnership aimed at the health and welfare of children exposed to trauma due to violence launched July 7, 2016. Adverse Childhood Experiences Response Team (ACERT), a response team that can be deployed to serve children who have been exposed to violence is the first initiative of its kind in the United States. The initiative was made possible by a three-year $150,000 grant from the HNH Foundation to Project LAUNCH (Linking Action for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health) at Manchester...