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It was a hospital — but to psychologist Inka Weissbecker it looked more like a prison. She had come to South Sudan to check out the country's only health facility for treating patients with mental illness. "There was a hallway leading past these cells with bars on them," she recalls. "Behind one set of bars I saw a mattress covered in plastic. And on it was urine and feces — and this woman lying with her face to the wall. I don't know if she was dead or just sleeping. Nobody seemed to care."...

Let's begin with a choice. Say there's a check in the mail. It's meant to help you run your household. You can use it to keep the lights on, the water running and food on the table. Would you rather that check be for $9,794 or $28,639? It's not a trick question. It's the story of America's schools in two numbers. That $9,794 is how much money the Chicago Ridge School District in Illinois spent per child in 2013 (the number has been adjusted by Education Week to account for regional cost...

California’s economy is the seventh-largest in the world, and home to global industries that have revolutionized our way of life. Yet when it comes to caring for our children, we are failing to provide the essential services they need to thrive and succeed. The facts are disturbing and unacceptable. California ranks 49th among the states for standard of living for kids; roughly half of children are in families in or near poverty; nearly three-fourths of our youngest kids don’t receive health...

It’s true that poverty affects people of all races, genders, and nationalities, but it’s also true that poverty—especially deep, persistent, intergenerational poverty—plagues some groups more than others. That’s because poverty isn’t just a matter of making too little money to pay the bills or living in a bad neighborhood—it’s about a series of circumstances and challenges that build upon each other, making it difficult to create stability and build wealth. My colleague Derek Thompson wrote...

In her large, bright, pre-K classroom, the teacher turned to the group of 4-year-olds learning how to give a baby a bath. She sat on the carpet and cradled a doll carefully as eager students strained their necks to watch. “How am I holding the baby?” the teacher, Alina Kaye, asked, and then answered her own question: “Nice and calm.” She held up a small, empty plastic bottle and mimed squirting shampoo onto the baby’s head. The kids edged closer. Meghan Sanchez, a 23-year-old teacher in...

In recent years, low-wage workers and labor groups have agitated for higher wages, paid sick days, and other rights and protections that typically aren’t afforded to those working in industries such as fast food, big-box retail, and janitorial services. In Seattle particularly, this labor movement has had a great deal of success in generating not just public support, but legislation. In 2012, the city enacted an ordinance mandating sick leave for all workers. More controversially, the city...

Firearm homicide rates are nearly 20 times higher in the United States than other high-income countries, and the annual costs of gun violence top $100 billion by some estimates. But in one of the largest studies of gun carrying behavior in the U.S. to date, researchers have found that historically low numbers of adolescents are carrying weapons today. Rates of handgun carrying among white Americans, however, are rising. In the new study , researchers used data collected between 2002 and 2013...

New Orleans public defender Dylan Duffey is facing trial on April 15 for the offense of advocating too hard for his client, a homeless man arrested on simple cocaine possession charges. According to a release from the Orleans Public Defenders office, Duffey asked Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell to reduce his client’s $5,000 bond, arguing that the defendant was not a flight risk and deserved to enter a substance abuse treatment program rather than jail. Duffey was even able to secure spots in...

If a seventh-grade boy gets shoved by a classmate in the hall every day, he might opt to take a more circuitous route to class or make sure he keeps in sight of teachers. He also might lie awake at night worrying about the classmate’s threats, develop abdominal pain and headaches from the stress, and beg to stay home every morning. When such social and emotional issues manifest as medical symptoms in kids, doctors are teaming up with families, behavioral health consultants and teachers to...

Hi guys, As some of you may know, I am working on the development of the ACE Toolkit for professionals, which is a technology toolkit supporting professionals in their work with clients with ACEs (especially screening for ACEs is the current focus). I've also started work on two ACEs apps for people suffering from ACEs, with the goal of enabling children and grownups alike to get in-situ, context-relevant psychoeducational materials, screenings, interventions, peer-support, and mentoring for...

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) clinicians have designed a new program to help returning veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or mild traumatic brain injury. The program uses a holistic approach and includes four main components: evidence-based treatment for psychological health, healing arts, wellness, and community engagement. Called Operation Mend, it is designed to heal the hidden, yet lingering, wounds of war. The expanded offerings are part of a new national...

The video should not have come as a shock to this audience. If anyone is sensitive to the subject matter — how race and racial bias subtly and expressly influence people’s decision-making — it is this group of probation officers, administrators and experts gathered at a symposium on probation reform hosted by the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps in Boston. They had gathered to listen to a workshop wonkily entitled: “Balancing the Scales: Effective Strategies for Addressing Racial...