May 2023

From CNN Opinion, March 28, 2023 by Jillian Peterson, Ph.D. and James Densley, Ph.D., are co-founders and co-presidents of The Violence Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research center. They are the authors of the award-winning book, “The Violence Project: How to stop a mass shooting epidemic.” The views expressed in this commentary are the authors’ own. View more opinio n on CNN. Since 1996, we have studied the life histories of nearly 200 mass shooters, initially with funding from the...

Children and youth in the United States are experiencing a profound mental health crisis. The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory reports rising rates of psychological distress, including anxiety, depression, and other emotional and behavioral symptoms among children and youth. Among youth ages 12 to 17 who experienced a major depressive episode , nearly half perceived that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected their mental health. Emergency department visits for mental health concerns have...

In this episode of Transforming Trauma, Emily is joined by Dr. Albert Wong, a leading clinician and educator in the field of somatics. A Marshall Scholar educated at Princeton and Oxford, he also served as residential staff at the Esalen Institute for five years. In his most recent endeavor, Dr. Albert Wong is Director of the Trauma Informed Certificate Program at Somatopia, an online training in Somatic Psychology, the body-mind connection and embodied approaches to healing. From Dr. Wong’s...

By Laura Gallant, 5/4/23, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ On March 28 th , the HOPE National Resource Center (NRC) held a panel discussion “HOPE around the Globe.” This event was part of our 2023 Week of HOPE , which focused on the theme of practicing HOPE. The panel consisted of Lynn Kemp, PhD; Teniola Okun, MPH; Saija Westerlund-Cook, and Rebekah Grace, PhD. During the panel, they each shared their experiences implementing HOPE in non-US settings – Australia, Canada, Finland,...

All children need a secure, safe, and stable environment as they grow up. Young kids must have the care and support they need to aid in their development. But children with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are especially prone to struggling as they age if they don’t have stability. While stability and support can come from a child’s housing situation and those who raise them, they also need quality care from the doctors in their lives. A lack of secure, safe, and stable healthcare for...

By Amanda Seitz, Associated Press (AP), May 2, 2023 Widespread loneliness in the U.S. poses health risks as deadly as smoking up to 15 cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic. About half of U.S. adults say they’ve experienced loneliness, Dr. Vivek Murthy said in an 81-page report from his office. “We now know that loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience.

Community paramedic Jason Frye takes Sandra Lane's blood pressure during a visit to her home in Gillette, Wyoming. Frye promised to help Lane sign up for physical therapy and offered to find an anti-slip grab bar for her shower. (ARIELLE ZIONTS / KFF HEALTH NEWS) By Arielle Zionts, Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Health News, May 2, 2023 Sandra Lane said she has been to the emergency room about eight times this year. The 62-year-old has had multiple falls, struggled with balance and tremors,...

By Ambar Castillo, Photo: Claudio Santana/AFP/Getty Images, STAT, May 2, 2023 The research question that pursued Jessica Valdez, an OB-GYN resident physician at the University of California, San Francisco, stemmed from her mother’s womb: How important is it to a birthing woman’s experience to be seen by health care providers who share her primary language? Valdez’s mother was 17 when she immigrated to California from Mexico in the 1970s. She didn’t speak English “and had no idea what normal...

By Matt Richtel, Photo: Tim Gruber/The New York Times, The New York Times, May 1, 2023 The News Mental health-related visits to emergency rooms by children, teenagers and young adults soared from 2011 to 2020, according to a report published on Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The sharpest increase was for suicide-related visits, which rose fivefold. The findings indicated an “urgent” need for expanded crisis services, according to the team of researchers and...

A Books Not Bars demonstration pushes for closing the N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility, among the last three youth prisons to close in California. Photo provided by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. By Nell Bernstein, The Imprint, April 25, 2023 Long before the “school-to-prison pipeline” was a well-worn phrase and even law-and-order Republicans had traded “tough on crime” for “smart on crime,” a tireless group of parents trekked, over and over, to the California state...

Social policies can reduce income disparities in brain structure. In those states providing more generous cash benefits for low-income families, income disparities in hippocampal volume were reduced as were patterns for internalizing psychopathology.

We are excited to announce the First Annual #WeHealUS Trauma-Informed & Mental Health Justice Summit in conjunction with #WeHealUS May Mental Health and Trauma Awareness Campaign . The Justice Summit will feature local, state, national and international organizations and governments that are creating change in the justice system and restoring hope and healing for a better tomorrow. The Summit is free, offers In-Person and Virtual participation and is offering CEUs. Learn more and...