August 2021

By Kaylyn Belsha, Chalkbeat, August 4, 2021 When Jaylyn Suppah was a high school student, she had a lot of questions for her civics teacher. Why were their lessons on Native Americans about tribes from the Midwest, with no mention of regional tribes like hers, the Warm Springs, Wasco, Shoshone-Bannock, and Yakama? Why did the textbook only spend a few pages on their history? And why were critical topics, like the forced assimilation of Native American children at U.S. boarding schools,...

Dr. Tim Brewerton's course on dissociative identity disorder now available, featuring video clips from various stages of treatment and illustrates the dissociative processes and the various "alters" identified. 5 hours of CMEs/CNEs/CEUs are available. Learn more and register at: www.sharpenminds.com/sylvia

Every time I'm interviewed about the trauma-informed movement or parenting with traumatic stress, I talk about the adoption community because adoptive parents have led bringing the trauma-informed movement into school systems and have been doing this work for decades. And I mention the Attachment Trauma Network (ATN) as the prime example although I recognize that many other organizations have and are doing this work as well. Most often, teachers, principals, social workers, adjustment...

By Michelle Cottle, The New York Times, August 1, 2021 Few people dream of living out their golden years in a nursing home. The very idea sparks existential dread in many Americans, conjuring images of grim, institutional dumping grounds where society’s frailest and most vulnerable members aren’t so much cared for as warehoused. Scattered horror stories of neglect and abuse supercharge more prosaic fears about losing one’s autonomy. The coronavirus pandemic made things all the more...

By Stephen Sawchuck, Education Week, July 29, 2021 Shouting. Interruptions. Delays. Even police arrests. In just a few months, the most local of all local forms of American governance—the school board—has been beset with drama. Board meeetings, far from being quiet, by-the-books affairs, have turned into to ground zero of the nation’s political and cultural debates. In Palm Beach County, Fla., meetings have been in disarray over disputes about masking policies and a board resolution on...

By James Lardner, The New Yorker, July 30, 2021 W hat would it take to arouse a sense of financial restraint among America’s top corporate executives and the people who set their pay? More than a global pandemic, it turns out. The C.E.O. of the cruise-ship operator Carnival Corporation, Arnold Donald, got $5.2 million in retention and performance-based stock awards last year, lifting his total 2020 compensation to an estimated $13.3 million—nearly twenty per cent more than his 2019 total.

By Avram Goldstein, California Health Care Foundation, August 2, 2021 In this extraordinary era of pandemic isolation, social distancing, and masking, it makes perfect sense that loneliness and its impact on mental and physical health would garner literary attention. Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, the US surgeon general, released a book early in the pandemic saying America is experiencing a loneliness epidemic . Murthy reported that chronic loneliness works this way: Persistent stress increases...

By Moriah Balingit and Kate Rabinowitz, The Washington Post, July 27, 2021 When school buildings were shuttered last year, Torlecia Bates had not given much thought to home schooling her two school-aged children. Like a lot of parents, Bates, who lives outside of Richmond, viewed remote schooling as a temporary inconvenience, and had plans of sending them back as soon as schools reopened. Then something in her shifted. Following the murder of George Floyd, Bates, who is Black, had a panic...

For my coursework in Building Resiliency, I created a multilevel intervention that uses the CDC’s Social Ecological Model as a framework for increasing resiliency in opioid dependent veterans. The purpose of this intervention is to target a sub-population of individuals who are enduring an epidemic that needs more assistance, especially now that many are being affected by COVID-19. Veterans are a population of people I feel get taken for granted. We need to give more back and spend more time...

Over 250 people from around the United States participated in “Historical Trauma in the American South” on July 15, 2021, the first of six events in PACEs Connections’ Historical Trauma in America Series that examines the impact of intergenerational trauma on the health and well-being of individuals today. Historical trauma—another term for intergenerational trauma—is defined by Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart as multigenerational trauma experienced by a specific cultural group resulting...

By Jason M. Nagata, Kyle T. Ganson, and Omar M. Sajjad, et al., JAMA Pediatrics, May 17, 2021 Research has consistently shown that racism is detrimental to the health of children, adolescents, and their families. 1 These consequences range from higher infant mortality to poorer mental health and juvenile justice involvement. 1 Despite the plethora of known adverse outcomes associated with racism among young people, little is known regarding the number of children who report that they...

How can we create local housing solutions that advance racial and economic equity, mitigate displacement, and ensure affordable and quality housing for all residents? Join us on Monday, August 16, at 11am PT / 2pm ET for Policy Solutions to Advance Housing Justice , an in-depth discussion. In this 75-minute episode, our panelists will focus on the intersection of health and housing, offering equity-focused and people-centered housing solutions. ChangeLab Solutions senior attorney Gregory...