May 2020

Donna Jackson Nakazawa was a featured guest in an online conversation about coping with COVID held on Twitter recently. It was hosted by KPJR Films . Donna was asked about "effective 'go-to' survival techniques" for parents and her Twitter thread response is comforting, centering, and compassionate. Her words are consolidated and shared, with her permission, below: Donna Jackson Nakazawa is a science journalist and the author of six books, including “ The Angel and the Assassin: The Tiny...

By Janis Gonzales, Santa Fe New Mexican, May 13, 2020 Over the past few weeks, pediatricians have been trying to raise awareness about the steep decline in vaccination rates that we have been seeing as parents cancel well checks and babies go months without being seen by a physician. But there is an equally alarming problem, one that also goes unseen and has remained largely under the radar while the news focuses on the more sensational COVID-19 headlines. The changes that have occurred in...

Debra Engle is the bestselling author of The Only Little Prayer You Need: The Shortest Route to a Life of Joy, Abundance and Peace of Mind (Hampton Roads Publishing), featuring a foreword by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and an endorsement by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

Thoughts to share - “The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.” - Caroline Myss “But one thing for sure, if you do not address your trauma, it will undress you.” - Sharon Wise “We can't always choose the music life plays for us, but we can choose how we dance to it.” - Unknown Compassion at the Mirror - Psychology Today - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-clarity/201903/compassion-the-mirror "Having compassion for our own distress has...

The New Jersey Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics Healthy Spaces program offers this webinar to provide strategies for health care providers to provide trauma-informed care during virtual patient encounters. Drs. Nicole Leopardi and Ruth Gubernick will share guidance on outreach messaging, stress management, and positive discipline. Participants will also engage in thoughtful reflection on how to implement small tests of change to adapt patient care and support connections with families...

When the word prayer comes to mind one might conjure images of organized religious services. However, prayer is a much richer and more meaningful experience than only that experienced through contact with a church, synagogue, r mosque, or other places of worship. Indeed, there are many mental and physical health benefits to speaking to and cajoling a higher power. In today’s piece, we shall examine together prayer and how it can benefit those who live with the aftereffect of severe trauma;...

By Laura Ungar and Elizabeth Lucas, Kaiser Health News, May 12, 2020 In nearly half a million American homes, washing hands to prevent COVID-19 isn’t as simple as soaping up and singing “Happy Birthday” twice while scrubbing. In many of those homes, people can’t even turn on a faucet. There’s no running water. In 470,000 dwellings in the United States — spread across every state and in most counties — inadequate plumbing is a problem, the starkest of several challenges that make it tougher...

By Christina Caron, The New York Times, May 8, 2020 The wails. The screeching. One more conference call interrupted. After months of social distancing, children are as frustrated as their parents. “They’re fighting over who’s sitting in what chair,” said Ana Balich, a mother of three who lives in Chicago. “They always fought about stuff like that, but it just seems like its been worse.” In her household, like so many others, daily routines have been disrupted and her children are spending...

By Margaret Miller, American Academy of Family Physicians, May 14, 2020 I'm sitting on my back porch in sunny South Carolina, where I recently experienced virtual graduation from my medical school in Tennessee, and I'm having a hard time writing this blog post. There are moving boxes to be unpacked in the kitchen, our mattress is lying on the bedroom floor, and the only place we have to sit in the living room is a giant recliner from Big Lots that we're forced to share until our couch...

By Steven Loeb, Vator, May 14, 2020 "That’s the best case scenario, in the U.S., with insurance; think about the rest of the world, it’s even worse," she said. The question is then, how to cut that down, a topic which was broached by Vasan and the rest of the panel, which included Alon Matas (Founder and president of Betterhelp), Brian Garrett (Co-founder & Managing Director, Crosscut Ventures), and David Bond (Director of Behavioral Health, Blue Shield of California – Promise Health...

By Bryan E. Robinson, Psychology Today, April 15, 2020 Although we don’t know exactly when, at some point in the future self-isolation will end, and many of us will return to offices, restaurants, and houses of worship. But what will that look like? One thing for sure, we will never return to normal; we will return to “a new normal.” And each of us will have repair work to do as we re-enter the world of physical proximity to coworkers and reconnecting with friends, neighbors, and loved ones.

By Bryan Robinson, May 1, 2020 May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It has been observed in the United States since 1949, reaching millions of people. There is no better time than the month of May, 2020 to highlight the importance of helping people re-adjust from the aftermath of the earth-shattering pandemic that has thrown so many of us off the normal course of our personal and professional lives. That includes first responders and all the medical personnel also suffering from PTSD and...