July 2017

Back in the 1970s, a handful of psychotherapists and theorists radically altered the way clinicians viewed and helped emotionally troubled kids. Innovators like Salvador Minuchin, Jay Haley, and Urie Bronfenbrenner audaciously suggested that the existing modes of therapy, still predominantly Freudian in perspective, simply weren't working, and they proposed what would be a complete rethinking of child and family mental health. So influential were these thinkers that their basic ideas seem...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has always been associated with mental health, but new research suggests there's a physical aspect to it too – that a certain area of the brain is larger in people suffering from PTSD. That means we could improve the way we detect and treat the debilitating condition by looking at physical as well as psychological signs, giving doctors something outside the mind that they can study. The research focussed on the left and right amygdalae , those parts of...

Experiencing physical, sexual or emotional abuse as a child, or other stresses such as living in a household affected by domestic violence, substance abuse or mental illness, can lead to higher levels of health service use throughout adulthood. A research paper in the Journal of Health Service Research & Policy provides, for the first time, the statistical evidence showing that, regardless of socio-economic class or other demographics, people who have adverse childhood experiences use...

"Social-emotional learning programs teach the skills that children need to succeed and thrive in life," said Eva Oberle, an assistant professor at UBC's Human Early Learning Partnership in the school of population and public health. "We know these programs have an immediate positive effect so this study wanted to assess whether the skills stuck with students over time, making social-emotional learning programs a worthwhile investment of time and financial resources in schools."...

People who suffer childhood trauma are more than twice as likely to use basic health services, a study has found. Bangor University interviewed 5,400 people in England and about 2,000 people in Wales. It found people with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are more than twice as likely to use A&Es and to be frequent GP surgery users. Prof Mark Bellis said it was "essential" the problems triggered by childhood trauma are recognised. The findings broadly tally with those of a 2016 Public...

Savoring and gratitude are both forms of directed attention. But in contrast to that type of on-task focus, free-form attention is what the brain defaults to when it’s off-task, allowed to move in any direction it wants. It happens when the brain is in what scientists call the resting state. In the 1990s, neuropsychologists began to delve into free-form attention and found that it has many benefits, including for children’s learning and their brain development. To shift instantly into...

On July 11, the “4CA” Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity organized approximately 100 people into small teams of 3-6 people to visit the offices of 80 legislators. Organized by the 4CA steering group led by Center for Youth Wellness, Children Now, and ACEs Connection Network, the day was a decided success.

More than 100 American cities host online open data portals brimming with information on crime, housing, transit, traffic, and neighborhood boundaries. Such initiatives have promised to make government more transparent, accountable, and accessible, at a time when the public’s trust is scraping bottom . But so far, open data has largely fallen short of those lofty ambitions. Part of the problem seems to lie in design: Many online portals are hard for non-expert citizens to use. They keep...

In the June issue of the journal Health Affairs, my colleagues and I published research showing that in 2012, just prior to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the United States had among the widest income-based disparities in people’s perceptions of their own health and health care among a global sample of 32 countries. Compared to people in the top third, those in the bottom third of household income in the U.S. tended to rate their health worse, forgo care they felt they needed...

More evidence of stress's harmful effects comes from a pregnancy study. California researchers found that stress increases the risk that exposure to toxic chemicals in pregnancy will lead to a low birth weight baby. "It appears that stress may amplify the health effects of toxic chemical exposure, which means that for some people, toxic chemicals become more toxic," said senior author Tracey Woodruff, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of...

Recently, a Department of Education administrator (in charge of Civil Rights within the Department at present) stated that 90% of campus rapes were alcohol related. There are NO data, I repeat no data, supporting this position. Here's the citation: http://www.chronicle.com/article/Ed-Dept-Official-Apologizes/240634?cid=trend_right_a, lest you think I am making this up. Who could even make this stuff up -- even if you tried? For me, this kind of misstatement requires more than an apology. It...

A quiet, unsmiling little girl with big brown eyes crawls inside a carpeted cubicle, hugs a stuffed teddy bear tight, and turns her head away from the noisy classroom. The safe spaces, quiet times and breathing exercises for her and the other preschoolers at the Verner Center for Early Learning are designed to help kids cope with intense stress so they can learn. But experts hope there's an even bigger benefit - protecting young bodies and brains from stress so persistent that it becomes...