June 2017

As an explosives expert in the U.S. Marine Corps, Zack Clayton had many close calls diffusing bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. “You always know it’s a possibility that something could go off, but if you let that fear get to you, you can’t do your work,” he said. “You go into survival mode.” After four combat tours, Clayton received an honorable discharged in June 2014, but the experience left him with a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. He moved to San Diego and...

D epression strikes far too often during adolescence, especially in teenage girls, a new study shows. More than a third of all teen girls in the United States wrestle with depression by the time they turn 17, according to new data regarding the state of children's' mental health. The study, which involved researchers from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, examined reports of depression that began as early as 11 years of age through as late as 17 years of age. By the time they exited...

Collaborative care was more effective than colocation in reducing depression symptoms among an ethnically diverse and socioeconomically challenged cohort of individuals receiving primary care, according to findings presented at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting [For more of this story go to http://www.healio.com/psychiatry/depression/news/online/%7b2a9c71ff-89f5-4c8d-8363-e61955aec320%7d/collaborative-care-more-effective-than-colocation-for-depression-in-primary-care]

Students and employees at Heritage Academy in Jerome will get training starting this fall on ways to help prevent suicide and bullying. It’s among 10 Idaho schools to receive a $2,400 grant from the Idaho Department of Education, in partnership with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Money will be used for training over two years to implement Sources of Health, a mental health wellness program. It helps middle and high schoolers cultivate a set of strengths research shows can be...

Rural America carried President Donald Trump to his election night upset last November. Trump Country it may be, but rural counties and small towns also make up Medicaid Country — those parts of the nation whose low-income children and families are most dependent on the federal-state health insurance program, according to a report released Wednesday. Medicaid’s enrollment has swollen to more than 72 million in recent years, and the ranks of uninsured Americans has fallen to 9 percent in 2015...

Does investing in public housing keep people healthier? New research explores this question, which appears timely, especially as the Trump administration proposes to cut $7.4 billion — about 15 percent — from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budget , and HUD Secretary Ben Carson argues that too much government assistance fosters dependency and perpetuates cycles of poverty. The study , published Monday in the journal Health Affairs, found that receiving housing assistance...

To keep my sanity and peace of mind, I must remember that there is always something beautiful happening, co-existing simultaneously with the unconscionable. That the power of just one person and their decision to do good has ripple effects. In this endeavor, I stumbled across Sidewalk Talk. After my first volunteer Sidewalk Talk I was so inspired I immediately signed up as a Los Angeles City Leader. A profound transformation happens in this experience that mere words cannot describe. And I...

Holly White-Wolfe, an analyst for the Sonoma County Human Services Department , marvels at the changes that have happened in a short amount of time. A few months ago, she and Karen Clemmer, then Coordinator of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health for the County Department of Health Services , were comparing notes on how their respective agencies were building trauma-informed capacity among employees and trying to embed that knowledge in practice. “A year ago,” Clemmer said at the time, “we...

"Why don’t you love me? Why don’t you care enough to care?," writes the high school girl who wrote a letter to her alcoholic father but never mailed it. She asked me to share it on my blogs, instead. It’s the rawness of her hurt, so many years into her life, that drew me to share her letter. Helping children and adults understand the secondhand drinking (SHD) impacts a child experiences when growing up with a parent’s alcoholism* is essential to helping a child (or an adult child) heal from...

Author’s Note: It took me over a month to write this because simply describing what it is like to struggle with the symptoms of C-PTSD resulted in triggering fear, anxiety, and flashbacks. I persisted with this narrative because I want people who have never experienced the complexities of this illness to have a better understanding of what someone with PTSD or C-PTSD might be trying to manage. If you personally struggle with anxiety, have PTSD or C-PTSD, or you are triggered by descriptions...

You’ve worked through the questions in our infographic “ What Lies Beneath Behavior? ” and instead of judging or punishing you’ve figured out the child is just trying to do the best they can to communicate whatever pain or distress lives inside of them… “So now what do I do?” you ask. As promised, we have produced a second infographic to provide you with a step-by-step guide to a trauma-informed response. The bad news is that there is no manualized program, no one-size fits all solution, no...

As America grapples with its overreliance on incarceration and advocates call for the end of mass incarceration, we must also focus on reducing all criminal justice involvement, including probation. By far the largest segment of the criminal justice system in America is probation. There are more than seven million people in the country under the control of the criminal justice system. More than half, just under four million, are not in prison but under the supervision of probation. [For more...