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Life is hard. None of us makes it through unscathed. Unfortunately, though, some of us have a much tougher journey on this planet than others. Most distressingly of all, children and babies are by no means immune from the wounds that this world all too often inflicts. Indeed, for many children, trauma is not a future threat but a present reality. And these adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have a devastating long-term impact across all domains of a child’s life. This includes...

By Kelly Kasulis Cho, Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images, The Washington Post, February 2, 2023 Long-term exposure to even low levels of air pollution is linked to increased incidence of depression and anxiety, a U.K. study suggests, adding to a wave of evidence that fossil fuels may be negatively impacting mental health. Researchers in the United Kingdom and China followed nearly 390,000 adults in the U.K. for roughly 11 years and found long-term exposure to multiple air pollutants was...

By Sabrina Moreno, Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios, Axios, February 2, 2023 Public school districts that received a windfall of COVID relief funds for mental health services are confronting a new dilemma: How to sustain counseling, screenings, teletherapy and other programs when the money runs out. Why it matters: The youth mental health crisis is not getting better , and schools are increasingly being pressed into service as first responders amid rising rates of suicidal ideation,...

By Maura Kelly, Illustration: Mary Delaware, Harvard Public Health, February 1, 2023 The gun control debate always heats up after a mass shooting, as it has in the wake of the twin shootings in California last month. The summer’s mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, finally spurred lawmakers to action with the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act bill, the first meaningful piece of gun legislation in two decades. But the U.S. gun problem is still the world’s...

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is to protect both Māori and non-Māori. This post is to honour a father who lost almost everything in his pursuit to protect his children from harm and to ensure they accessed quality education because he loved them This post is to honour all fathers who are denied their right to be a father simply because they are men. New Zealand is a nation that is like a pendulum. We move between polar opposites. We can't seem to find balance. In days gone by, women were once...

Survivor Stories with guest Michael Skinner - YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIcufSmFCXo&t=33s A thought provoking discussion and insight on healing from trauma and sexual abuse. Presented by Ask A Sex Abuse Survivor - Amplifying survivor voices worldwide "I attended this event, and Michael has a gentle approach to making sexual and physical trauma stories become meaningful and a source of hope." - Jacek_Jack Haciak

Here’s a thought. Kids who experience parenting behaviors and practices generally recognized as supporting the healthy development of children often grow into kind, responsible, hardworking, ethical adults who don’t behave in ways that harm themselves and others. Over the years Congress created policies and laws that are detrimental to public health. Now we are faced with the monumental task of changing those policies and laws. If Congress had been made up of people who had experienced...

By McMaster University, Image: Aging Cell (2023), MedicalXpress, February 1, 2023 Exposure to a greater number of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may accelerate biological aging in older adults, a McMaster University study has found. The research was published online in the journal Aging Cell . The study analyzed data from 1,445 participants aged 45 to 85 years from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. The participants provided blood samples for DNA methylation analysis and...

By Catherine Ho, Photo: Justin Sullivan, Staff/Getty Images, San Francisco Chronicle, February 1, 2023 Last week brought a relentless wave of horrific news events: two California mass shootings two days apart, the release of video footage showing Memphis police officers’ violent beating of Tyre Nichols, and the release of a body-cam recording showing an intruder’s attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul in the couple’s San Francisco home. Each incident was disturbing, and in some...

By Isabel Wilkerson, Artwork: Lavett Ballard/TIME, Photography: Eric James Montgomery, TIME, February 2, 2023 How did our country arrive at this moment of rupture and fury? How is it that mass shootings, even of children in their classrooms, and police killings of unarmed citizens of color like Tyre Nichols have become a feature of our days? How is it that politicians are banning books in a country whose founding First Amendment protects the right to free speech? How is it that the U.S.,...

By Scott Neuman, Photo: Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty Images, National Public Radio (NPR), February 1, 2023 February marks Black History Month, a tradition that got its start in the Jim Crow era and was officially recognized in 1976 as part of the nation's bicentennial celebrations. It aims to honor the contributions that African Americans have made and to recognize their sacrifices. Here are three things to know about Black History Month: It was Negro History Week before it was Black History...

By Association for the Study of African American Life and History, February 2023 African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression, in all forms, especially the racial terrorism of lynching, racial pogroms, and police killings since our arrival upon these shores. These efforts have been to advocate for a dignified self-determined life in a just democratic society in the United States and beyond the United States political jurisdiction. The 1950s and 1970s in the United States...