July 2018

Within the last few weeks, I have heard of two more young people dying from heroin overdoses. Tragedies like this are becoming ever more common. Right now, in my opinion, there is a heroin/opiate epidemic going on. It’s spanning all ages, all races, all genders, and all socioeconomic statuses! It doesn’t matter if your town has a Starbucks or a beautiful, organic farmers market. It’s happening. It’s serious. And it’s starting young. What’s worse? Opiates are deadlier faster than many other...

The idea of adding an adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) screening tool to your practice’s workflow can be daunting – which tool, will you have time, does it add enough value? The Child Health and Development Interactive System (CHADIS) is helping to address this challenge by partnering with the National Pediatric Practice Community on ACEs (NPPC) to add an ACEs questionnaire into its system. Join this webinar to learn more about how this collaboration can help support your efforts to...

(Cissy's note: I've known this professor, Alissa Ackerman, for a few years and she's stretched my thinking on restorative justice, sex offender research, and policy and survivor-led advocacy. It's nice to see her work covered more often and more widely). The following is an excerpt published on the California State University, Fullerton website today.

Resilient Communities are Healthy Communities…what’s good for health is good for climate!” Authored by: Judy Robinson and Sara Jensen Carr, Design 4 Active Sacramento Climate change directly threatens the health and well-being of California’s nearly 40 million people. Without intervention at the local, regional, and state scales, these dangers will only become more pronounced in coming years. The Safeguarding California Plan devotes an entire public health chapter to these risks, stating:...

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A new report looks at the state of humanitarian aid. The world was generous, says the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2018 . A record amount of funds went to crises that range from the ongoing Syrian civil war to the drought in the Horn of Africa . Do you know how much the world spent on emergency relief? Which countries gave the most money? And which countries received the most? Take this quiz to test your knowledge. [For more on this story by MALAKA GHARIB, go to...

We’re busy people. Our to do list-wake, prep, eat, email, travel, meetings, calls and deadlines. Then there’s our kids-wake, feed, transport, talk, feed, homework, mini-crisis, hug. Then there’s screen time with CNN, NY Times, The Guardian, LinkedIn, FB and Twitter. Honestly, there’s just not another free minute in the day, right? In an odd way, being so overextended brings you some satisfaction. You did design your lifestyle, right? I get it. When it comes to supporting a progressive cause,...

Interview with Ms. Melanie Blow of Stop Abuse Campaign, Rochester, N.Y. A woman's body was found last winter in an area of our city known for drug use, prostitution and crime. This time it is personal. This woman and her brother used to play with my own child. I'm not just heartbroken that my nephew, and now my niece, have both died in this opiate crisis that is so severe it has actually lowered America's life expectancy. I want to help. Two years ago I was introduced to Ms. Melanie Blow of...

Up to 30 percent of teenage girls in some parts of the United States say they have intentionally injured themselves without aiming to commit suicide, researchers have found. About one in four adolescent girls deliberately harmed herself in the previous year, often by cutting or burning, compared to about one in 10 boys. The overall prevalence of self-harm was almost 18 percent. [For more on this story by Emily Baumgaertner, go to...

Out-of-home placement is sometimes necessary to meet the developmental needs of infants and young children through safe, stable and nurturing primary caregiving relationships. Foster parents may include caring and committed adults who have been trained to take on the fostering role with or without the possibility of adoption. Some of these parents might also be kinship caregivers (related family members), or fictive kin (individuals who may be close to the family such as friends). Federal...

If a family has no means of transportation, consistent prenatal care becomes extremely difficult. If a mother is homeless, she is less likely to attend a child wellness visit. If a one-year-old is hungry, brain development is detrimentally impacted. And if a toddler is experiencing trauma at home, he or she cannot focus on learning. While there is significant evidence around the value of investing in early childhood to improve physical, social, and emotional development later in life, more...

CINCINNATI: If your car was heading for a ditch, would you steer back onto the road or let it crash? As a certified trauma therapist, I have seen how timely intervention in the life of a suffering child can avert a tragedy. Unless Gov. John Kasich intervenes to stop the scheduled execution of Robert Van Hook, all Ohioans may soon participate in the end result of too many missed opportunities. Many studies confirm the detrimental effects on brain formation when children suffer traumatic...