July 2022

Attend this webinar to learn how to strengthen your coalition by partnering with your local health department and using the new Public Health Infrastructure funding to build their workforce and partnerships.

By Giles Bruce, Photo: Giles Bruce/Kaiser Health News, National Public Radio, June 10, 2022 Linnea Sorensen falls into a funk whenever her girlfriend of four years leaves for her six-month stints with the Marines, and the high school junior has trouble concentrating on her classwork. "I'm somebody who struggles with my mental health quite a bit," said the 17-year-old, who attends school in Schaumburg, Ill., a suburb of about 77,000 people northwest of Chicago. "When you're in school and not...

By Nicole Sturzenberger, Sustainable America, June 30, 2022 As parents, we teach our children small things each day, with the hope of preparing them for an eventual departure and life on their own. As climate change becomes an increasingly prevalent part of our lives, raising them to protect and care for the earth is imperative. Like many aspects of parenting, creating healthy habits involves repetition and explaining the reason behind why we do things. If we don’t explain why composting...

By Jenny Taitz, Illustration: Derek Abella, The New York Times, July 7, 2022 Following nonstop news in an era of gun violence, war and political divide can become overwhelming. And amid our many ongoing challenges — the pandemic, climate change, economic uncertainty — it’s understandable to feel sad, angry and anxious. As a clinical psychologist who specializes in giving people the tools to cope with intense emotions, I know how difficult it can be to remain positive — or simply balanced —...

Chris Wilson is the author of the book: "The Master Plan." He is a living example of how discipline, self-determination and knowing your self worth can change everything: including getting yourself out of prison. Chris Wilson splits his time between Baltimore, Maryland, and New York City and works as a visual artist, author, film producer, and social justice advocate. Through his work, he investigates societal injustices, human relationships, and public policies.

Eating disorders have been expanding dramatically in recent decades, and the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have pushed us to even higher rates of eating disorders. Hospital wards are full of children who need to be medically stabilized before they can even begin treatment for the condition. The frustrating thing about the increasing rates of eating disorders is that we know many of them are preventable. As biopsychosocial disorders, they are rooted in heredity and individual psychology, but...

These three cognitive countermeasures round out the skills for neutralizing shame imprinted in the first 18 years of life. They complement the right brain strategies described in recent articles.

Healing the Mind, Body & Spirit Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health “ Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars”. Kahlil Gibran The Surviving Spirit Newsletter July 2022 “ By giving ourselves unconditional kindness and comfort while embracing the human experience, difficult as it is, we avoid destructive patterns of fear, negativity, and isolation.” -...

Full implementation of a trauma-informed approach typically takes three years to accomplish, but many organizations are looking for more manageable solutions that require fewer resources. If you want to implement trauma-informed practices but aren’t ready for full implementation, here are some of the most important aspects of trauma sensitivity training that you can share with your team. Developing a One-Page Resource for Trauma Sensitivity Training Recently a colleague asked for my input on...

By Dana Goldstein and Ava Sasani, Photo: Jamie Kelter Davis, The New York Times, July 16, 2022 She was just 10 years old, so young that many people were horrified when they heard it, and others refused to believe it. But the ordeal of the child rape victim in Ohio who had to cross state lines for an abortion, and the ugly political fight that followed , have highlighted two uncomfortable facts: Such pregnancies are not as rare as people think, and new abortion bans are likely to have a...

By Chris McGreal, Photo: Carlo Allegri/Reuters, The Guardian, July 17, 2022 This might be just another negative news story. And if it is, there is evidence that many of you will turn away in despair. The Reuters Institute revealed last month that 42% of Americans actively avoid the news at least some of the time because it grinds them down or they just don’t believe it. Fifteen percent said they disconnected from news coverage altogether. In other countries, such as the UK and Brazil, the...

By Ronald Brownstein, Image: Getty/The Atlantic, The Atlantic, July 15, 2022 M other nature is entering a dissenting opinion on last month’s Supreme Court decision that weakened the federal government’s ability to combat climate change. With record heat in Texas that is testing the state’s power grid, a California wildfire that has threatened an ancient grove of sequoias considered a foundation stone of the national-park system, and persistent drought across the West that is forcing...