May 2017

“Structural racism” has become a buzzword in white progressive circles. But every time I push a white writer to break down the meaning behind the words without success, or I see a Black Lives Matter sign in an apartment window in a gentrified neighborhood where longtime residents of color are now priced out, I have to ask myself: How much we really know about the theoretically-woke words we’re throwing around? We’re finally starting to call out racial disparities, but do we understand the...

As Baltimore endures record violence, city police and prosecutors are turning to an unlikely source to unlock crime scene clues: children. The Police Department and state's attorney's office will announce Monday that they are partnering with trained interviewers at the Baltimore Child Abuse Center to question children who have witnessed violence or other crimes. The idea is both to help children deal with the trauma and to solve the crimes. [For more of this story, written by Yvonne Wenger,...

A new study suggests using a mindfulness approach helps weight loss. With obesity reaching epidemic proportions, mindful eating — focusing just on what we are eating, not watching television, surfing the Internet, or reading — has become a possible strategy for weight management. The new study, presented at the 2017 European Congress on Obesity (ECO), investigated the relationship between mindful eating and weight loss. [For more of this story, written by Janice Wood, go to ...

Has anyone seen this video posted on the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine (NICAMB) blog? "According to Dr. Ruth Lanius, a parent's experience of trauma can impact their ability to form a close, intimate relationship with their child." Ruth Buczynski, PhD Those of us Parenting with ACEs sure know that's the truth. Developmental trauma impacts our ability to form close and intimate relationships with ourselves, other adults and our children. The video was...

Concord, California Police Chief Guy Swanger talks about Domestic Violence, Policing and the Family Justice Center

First 5 Marin Children and Families Commission featured Jane Stevens in a Marin Communications Forum event on Monday, May 15. Thanks to the hard work of host Michelle Fadelli of First 5 Marin, a full Embassy Suites ballroom of up to 180 Marin County service providers, from a variety of agencies, gathered.

As if it isn't tough enough being an overweight kid, a new study shows it could have long-lasting repercussions for psychological health, too. When compared with normal-weight kids who become overweight adults, overweight or obese youth in the study faced three times the risk of depression in adulthood, the research found. And, that risk was more than four times greater if they were overweight or obese in both childhood and adulthood, the investigators reported. [For more of this story,...

American teens are hitting the bottle less often than they did 25 years ago, new research reveals. The analysis found that while 5 percent of 13-year-olds frequently binge drank between 1991 and 1998, only 2.6 percent were doing so in 2015. Among 18-year-olds, that number fell from 20 percent to less than 15 percent in the same time frame. "Frequent binge drinking" was defined as knocking back five or more drinks in a row, on two or more separate occasions, over the span of two weeks. And...

The juvenile justice system as originally conceived was based on the idea that young people who came into conflict with the law should be given the opportunity for reflection and reform. The earliest places of juvenile confinement were intended to rehabilitate young people, and help them become productive members of society. Over time, particularly in the 1990s, juvenile justice came to focus more on retribution and punishment. Kids were placed out of home for longer periods in increasingly...

Editor’s note: In September 2016, Bob Hassmiller, beloved husband of our own Sue Hassmiller , our senior adviser for nursing, was involved in a bicycle accident that left him critically injured and ultimately took his life. We asked Sue to share her story—and she very graciously agreed—because we believe that a Culture of Health is possible even when people are at their very sickest. She tells us how. My life is separated into two time periods: Before my husband’s accident—and after. Bob and...

When they met this week in Bethel, the state behavioral health boards took a look at the Alaska Mental Health Board (AMHB) and Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (ABADA) report about the adverse effects of discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Alaskans. The boards decided to endorse the report's findings that discrimination brings a higher risk of drug and alcohol abuse and other risk behaviors. The boards think that more access to health and community...

Philadelphia City Council Member Cindy Bass was already thinking about how to cut the city’s ties with Wells Fargo when bank CEO John Stumpf testified last September before the U.S. Senate. Questioning Stumpf about the bank’s fraudulent accounts scandal, Senator Elizabeth Warren said , “So you haven’t resigned, you haven’t returned a single nickel of your personal earnings, you haven’t fired a single senior executive. Instead, your definition of accountable is to push the blame to your...