Blog

There’s a lot of debate about which form of therapy is the most psychologically effective, the most cost-effective, the quickest working and the longest lasting. They all have their benefits and drawbacks, depending on the individual and the kind of mental health problem he or she is dealing with. A new study reports that an eight-week course of group mindfulness training has a similar efficacy to usual care—in the this case, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), which in recent years has been...

On a cloudy afternoon in the Bayview district, Shaquille, 21, was riding in his sister’s 1991 Acura when another car ran a stop sign, narrowly missing them. Both cars screeched to a halt, and Shaquille and the other driver got out. “I just wanted to talk,” he recalls. But the talk became an argument, and the argument ended when Shaquille sent the other driver to the pavement with a left hook. Later that day, he was arrested and charged with felony assault. He already had a misdemeanor...

The first in a series of 6 webinars will be held on Monday, April 24, 3-4 ET on "Safety: Common Ground" in a series: “ Trauma-Informed Innovations in Crisis Services.” The announcement from SAMHSA follows ( URL: https://nasmhpd.adobeconnect.com/crisisvln/ . Telephone: 1-888-727-2247, Conference ID: 9452092#): The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Center for Trauma-Informed Care and Alternatives to Seclusion and Restraint (NCTIC) is pleased to...

What does it mean to be in the present moment? How do we even know if we are present? How do we shift from other states into the present moment? And why does it even matter? It's all here!

As a student assistance counselor, I regularly receive flashy emails from various organizations promoting materials for drug-free schools. Secretly I roll my eyes and strike the trash icon. “Drug free schools - ha, right?!” It may sound cynical or jaded that I don’t believe in drug-free high schools. It’s not that. The truth is I don’t believe a drug-free high school exists. This isn’t from a lack of effort or concern. As a product of the “Just Say No” era, schools have worked for decades to...

Britain's Prince Harry's two-decade struggle to deal with the death of his mother, Princess Diana, is sadly all too common for children who suddenly face the loss of a parent, mental health experts say. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph this week, Prince Harry admitted that his inability to process his mother's death in childhood led to two years of "total chaos" in his late 20s. The prince sought professional counseling at 28 at the urging of his older brother, Prince William, after...

The director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation 's* Juvenile Justice Strategy Group sounded an alarm Monday about a slowing of progress and an increase in the length of time youth are being incarcerated in some of the 300 sites of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative . Nate Balis spoke at the 25th anniversary celebration of the Foundation-sponsored Initiative (JDAI), with some 900 registrants attending the three-day event. The JDAI has been instrumental in cutting the juvenile...

In 2015, the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative strategically held five screenings of the movie Paper Tigers—James Redford’s documentary about the dramatic reboot of a local alternative school after its principal became an advocate of trauma-informed care. Each screening was standing-room only.

The sight of a police officer interacting with a member of the public causes a significant if unknown number of Americans to reach for their cell phones and start recording, just in case. It isn’t that they believe all cops to be abusive or dishonest––just enough to warrant vigilance. “Take your phone out, take your phone out!” a Georgia resident told a companion as they watched Sergeant Michael Bongiovanni of Gwinnett County Police Department. He was standing by a sedan during a traffic...

Religious groups across the USA have long helped recovering addicts through 12-step programs and nonprofits that hire recovering addicts. But now, many are turning their sights on the opioid crisis gripping the nation, and experts say they can do more to fight the epidemic. Shining a spotlight on addiction educates congregants about the problem among family and friends and also helps reduce stigma, said Monty Burks, director of the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse...

This post is part of a CityLab series on o pen secrets —stories about what’s hiding in plain sight. An empty trestle bridge spans a grey river. White-washed doors lean on the side of a barn. Telephone poles and a tin shed frame a half-mowed ravine. Unseen in these otherwise mundane images of the American South: visual evidence for the acts of racial terror that once unfolded there. “It seems that many Americans, especially white Americans, either don't know much about lynchings or are...

Every day in this country students come to school without a way to pay for lunch. Right now it's up to the school to decide what happens next. Since new legislation out of New Mexico on so-called lunch shaming made headlines , we've heard a lot about how schools react. Some provide kids an alternative lunch, like a cold cheese sandwich. Other schools sometimes will provide hot lunch, but require students do chores, have their hand stamped or wear a wristband showing they're behind in...