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On 5 July this year my world was turned upside down. Until then I was an average 28-year-old, married with two children and a full-time job, juggling the stresses of everyday life. But that morning I woke up to find my husband Daniel missing. He had suffered with his mental health for a long time, but I still did not expect what had happened. Daniel had taken his own life. My world was thrown into a spiral. So many questions were unanswered and an uncertain life now faced my family. Mental...

It’s a common lament of the nation’s police officers and prison wardens alike: A large proportion of the crime suspects and inmates they find themselves dealing with suffer from mental illness, substance-abuse issues, or both. Today, a coalition of organizations spanning justice and health interests are launching a new campaign to focus on what they call “behavioral health issues in the criminal justice system.” At a meeting in Washington, D.C., the groups are issuing what they termed...

For teens, depression can affect more than their relationships and educational achievement -- it can harm their future prospects. But a new study suggests that many of these young people could reap long-term benefits from psychological counseling. "Depression can seriously impair people's lives, and in many cases begins during their teenage years," said Ian Goodyer, a professor at the department of psychiatry at the University of Cambridge in England. "If we can tackle it early on, evidence...

Recognizing the impact of trauma on health and patient engagement is a critical step that health care organizations can take in pursuit of achieving better outcomes. This new blog post and fact sheet explore the impact of trauma on health and health care, and outlines ways that health care providers can start helping their patients heal from trauma. Both of these resources are products of Advancing Trauma-Informed Care , a national initiative aimed at understanding how trauma-informed...

When I was a sophomore in college, our campus looked like a prison. My classmates and I walked to class between eight-foot tall chain-linked fences. Security guards patrolled bridges around the Ivy League school. It was 2010 and, in the last academic year, six students had killed themselves at Cornell University . Two jumped off bridges into the Ithaca gorges on consecutive days in March. Classmates anxiously checked in on one another. Parents panicked. The administration scrambled to...

North Coast state Sen. Mike McGuire and First 5 Humboldt County, the Humboldt County Children and Families Commission, are set to host a Eureka town hall meeting Thursday to discuss childhood poverty and adverse experiences. “It’s going to take all of us working together to solve this crisis happening in our community,” McGuire (D-Healdsburg) said in a statement this week. “This is an important first step and we’re honored to work together in the weeks and months to come for the well-being...

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can affect everyone. ACEs are traumatic events that can dramatically upset a child’s sense of safety and well-being. Traumatic events that occur in a child’s life are linked with a higher risk of experiencing medical, psychiatric and social issues into adulthood. This affects the child, family, school and community. Through treatment and compassion, we can lessen the impact of ACEs on everyone! Discussions on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) are being...

How does living in subsidized housing change the academic forecast for low-income kids? Previous research suggests: not much at all. But a new study published in the American Journal of Community Psychology presents a new and nuanced answer.The effect of living in subsidized housing isn’t the same for all kids: Those who are already flourishing at school benefit, while the ones who’re struggling actually do worse compared to peers from similarly low-income families without housing...

Despite a sprawling and varied financial industry, more than one-quarter of Americans don’t have adequate access to basic banking tools, such as checking accounts, credit cards, or loans for instance. That group—known as the underbanked—is made up of those who suffer the most from growing inequality and systemic marginalization: Americans with low incomes, those with less than a college degree, and minorities. There are signs of improvement: A recent study from the FDIC found that the share...

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has awarded up to a total of $278 million over the next five years for programs that help people and communities recover from, and build resiliency from trauma. “Trauma, whether from exposure to child abuse, community violence, or natural disaster can have a devastating effect on people,” said SAMHSA Principal Deputy Administrator Kana Enomoto. “We must help people in every segment of our community -- especially youth and...

Efforts to strengthen the country’s tattered mental health system, and help millions of Americans suffering from mental illness, got a big boost Wednesday thanks to a massive health care package approved by the House of Representatives. The 21st Century Cures Act, which provides funding for biomedical research and aims to speed up drug development, was approved by a vote of 392-26. Republican leaders added a number of other health-related items to the act, including the text of a mental...

“I didn’t know how to be a mom,” Lisa Galvan said. “I was used to being by myself. It was really hard for me to adjust and even for the kids to adjust because I never was around. So when I came back out [of rehab] they gave them back to me, and within a month I started using again.” By the time Galvan was 20, she had three children and had been using meth for seven years. She had been a drug addict for far longer than she’d been a mother, and when she tried to get sober, she found out she...