July 2018

People who use injection drugs in Vancouver, British Columbia, can do so, if they choose, under the watchful eyes of someone trained to help them if they overdose. This is the idea behind supervised injection sites, and it's an approach that over a dozen U.S. cities or states are considering to prevent drug overdose deaths and the spread of disease. Public health authorities in Vancouver, Canada, have run a supervised drug use center, Insite , since 2003. And as the death toll reaches record...

Over the months that I was pregnant, my overriding fear was that I would not be able to afford a child. How much do diapers cost? I asked a friend with a 1-year-old, as if the answer wasn’t online. She couldn’t answer; diapers were just one of countless minor recurring expenses. The cost of child care, however, she could tell me. If it didn’t cost an arm and a leg, it did seem that every month she cut off a finger and a toe and Venmo’d them to her nanny — a payment that despite its size was...

Black babies are two times more likely to die in their first year of life than white babies. This is a gap that has persisted in our country for decades. Around the country, people are trying in big ways and small to close it. The Castlemont neighborhood in East Oakland is known as a Best Babies Zone . The idea of this initiative is that improving life for everyone in the community will ultimately save babies. [For more on this story by Priska Neely, go to...

After 10 years of hiding under bushes, down dank alleys and bouncing in and out of crowded homeless shelters, Sabrina Jones had had enough. The street counselor who’d been bugging her since last year to give San Francisco’s Mission Street Navigation Center a try won out. Jones went in. More than a month later, she is free of heroin, getting therapy for depression, and is lined up for supportive housing. At 49, with her first two grandchildren recently born, Jones would like to be part of...

Have you heard of the National Nurse for Public Health? Can you imagine having the patience, determination and relentless nature to wait 13 years for a Bill to be heard in committee? Teri Mills MS, RN, CNE ® is the thought leader behind the idea of having a National Nurse. In 2005, Teri had this Op-Ed published in the New York Times: America's Nurse By TERI MILLS MAY 20, 2005 Teri's NYT Op-ed captured national attention by providing a compelling case for a nurse to lead a national health...

Review from Amazon: Childhood experiences can affect a person’s lifelong health. Thinking Developmentally presents a clinical framework for understanding the impact of toxic stress and both adverse and affiliative childhood experiences on development. It makes a compelling case that many diseases of adulthood are not adult-onset, but rather adult-manifest, based on genetic and epigenetic consequences from early childhood experiences. Garner and Saul examine the needs of children and the role...

Drug addiction has altered the life of my beautiful daughter and the family that loves her. One who has not experienced watching a child succumb to the insidious substances such as methamphetamine and heroin would have a difficult time imagining the toll it takes on a person’s happiness and wellbeing. The impact of the trauma as a result of our family's experience continues to be prevalent in our lives; yet, one of my responses to this tragedy was to direct my energy into helping others in a...

I've struggled with anxiety throughout my life. A difficult childhood and my highly sensitive personality meant I grew into an anxious kid—there was just too much pain and emotional overwhelm for my young brain to handle. My anxiety most often manifested as perfectionism and people pleasing, so from the outside everything seemed great. I excelled in school and I was a good kid who did as she was told. But there was a war inside me. I felt broken, unable to navigate these huge feelings of...

To read this article by Miriam Jordan , Katie Benner , Ron Nixon and Caitlin Dickerson, please click here .

On Friday, June 22, NorthLakes Community Clinic and event sponsors Minong Area Chamber of Commerce, Jack Link Aquatic & Activity Center, Northwood School and Sevenwinds Casino, welcomed to Minong the Wisconsin First Lady Tonette Walker and Carol Howard, executive director of Fostering Futures. Eighty-eight guests watched the documentary “Resilience,” which explains the science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), or toxic stress, which has a major impact on learning in children and...

Eastway Elementary in Durham bustled with chatter Wednesday morning as children played at the East Durham Children’s Initiative (EDCI) Science Technology Engineering Arts Math (STEAM) and Literacy Camp. Campers finished their morning instruction while also preparing to welcome a special guest joining them for lunch. North Carolina First Lady Kristin Cooper visited EDCI’s STEAM and Literacy Camp during a tour of summer meal sites in Durham and Raleigh to highlight and learn from programs that...

The Trump administration this spring tried to remove pro-breastfeeding language from a World Health Organization resolution. But here at home, breastfeeding has steadily become more accepted and accessible — culminating this year in the 49th and 50th states enacting laws to allow it in public. The World Health Organization resolution stated that breast milk is the healthiest choice for babies and encouraged countries to crack down on misleading claims from purveyors of formula. Attempts by...