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Public School 48, where I’m on staff as a social worker, sits on a block between a juvenile detention center and a strip club. The school serves around 900 mostly Hispanic and African American children in prekindergarten through fifth grade, with a large percentage of those kids living in shelter apartments. Of course, PS 48 has an educational mission, not a clinical one, but I’m part of a service staff that includes speech, occupational, and physical therapists. I’ve been a school social...

The challenge to the Trump administration’s travel ban has been pulled from the Supreme Court docket for now, but the justices still have an opportunity this coming term to confront a high-profile case that raises direct questions about racial or religious animus. The court has been asked to overturn its own precedent and invalidate a Louisiana law that permits criminal convictions in felony cases where a jury is not unanimous in finding guilt. Only two states — Louisiana and Oregon — employ...

“ 24 Things People Don’t Realize You’re Doing Because of Your Social Anxiety ” was published on The Mighty . Written by Sarah Schuster When people think of social anxiety , many imagine a shy introvert who doesn’t go out and doesn’t say much. While this version of social anxiety exists, living with it is more than just being “shy.” In fact, not everyone who has social anxiety is even quiet . Social anxiety manifests itself in many ways, some which might even surprise you. To find out some of...

Policymakers increasingly recognize the impact of trauma and adverse childhood experiences on lifelong physical, emotional, and social health and are beginning to support efforts for incorporating trauma-informed care into the health and social service sectors. This new CHCS blog post looks at how proposed state and federal legislative, regulatory, and contracting policies aim to reduce trauma and toxic stress and promote resiliency and trauma-informed practices. It also explores how federal...

If the risk factors of Childhood Trauma | ACEs and Mental Illness are not treated at the same time as the addiction (aka substance use disorder), it is just about impossible for a person to successfully treat their addiction and succeed in long-term recovery . Every week I receive calls and emails from family members and friends trying to find treatment for their loved one’s addiction,* aka substance use disorder. These kinds of phone calls and emails are heartbreaking. Their panic, anger,...

We know there’s a widening geographic economic gap in the United States, most vividly described in the months leading up to the 2016 election as a battle between the “left behind” and the “coastal elites.” Now we have new detail on how that breaks down by locality . One in six Americans are living in ZIP codes that are considered economically “distressed,” according to the Economic Innovation Group’s 2017 Distressed Communities Index . More than 84 million others—one in four—live in...

During the last presidential election season, I visited a dear friend. In her front yard, I saw a sign for a candidate whom I vehemently opposed. “Are you kidding me?” I thought, in a moment of disbelief. I knew my political views were different from those of my friend, and I have also known her for over ten years as a kind, generous, salt-of-the-Earth kind of person. You might be wondering which candidate it was, but that’s not the point of this story. The point is about my attitude: While...

As lawmakers prepare this fall to debate plans to overhaul the state criminal justice system, one priority for advocates is a proposal that would allow defendants to be spared incarceration for nonviolent offenses if they are the primary caretaker of a child. The challenge, activists said, is persuading lawmakers to adopt the plan alongside less controversial reforms expected to easily win passage. “My concern is that we pass one bill and the other one ends up not getting through the...

Just off the banks of the parched Santa Cruz River in Tucson, Arizona, gardeners at Las Milpitas de Cottonwood Community Farm are harvesting a bounty of produce. They grow hot and sweet peppers, summer squashes, Nichols and Punta Banda cherry tomatoes, basil, okra, beans, corn, and the striped, oval Tohono O’odham watermelon: a desert-adapted watermelon with sweet orange-yellow flesh, cultivated by the Tohono O’odham tribe over generations in the Sonoran Desert region. An urban community...

Childhood trauma comes in many forms. Whether it’s the shock of a friend’s sudden death or violence in school, we’ve heard far too many stories about students having to recover from traumatic events. But trauma can also rear its head in more subtle ways. It’s easy to write off a misbehaving student as “troubled.” But often, this behavior is a direct result of continued trauma at home. Abuse, neglect, struggles with poverty are all part of a particular type of trauma called Adverse Childhood...

Is health care a right? The United States remains the only developed country in the world unable to come to agreement on an answer. Earlier this year, I was visiting Athens, Ohio, the town in the Appalachian foothills where I grew up. The battle over whether to repeal, replace, or repair the Affordable Care Act raged then, as it continues to rage now. So I began asking people whether they thought that health care was a right. The responses were always interesting. [For more on this story by...

The Portland Police Bureau maintains the gang database was kept confidential but acknowledges the fear among black and Hispanic residents that the information was spread to employers and housing providers. “Because there was a lack of trust, they didn’t believe us,” says police Capt. Mike Krantz. Gang databases are used across the U.S. by local police departments, some states and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. These law enforcement agencies create the databases by adding people...