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In laymen’s terms, “kill boxes” sound like torture devices. In military jargon, they are almost incomprehensible; as defined in the Department of Defense Dictionary , they are “a three-dimensional area reference that enables timely, effective coordination and control and facilitates rapid attacks.” But despite their ominous name and complicated technical definition, kill boxes are actually relatively simple in concept: They are three-dimensional cubes of space on a battlefield in which...

Similar to the cycle of abuse, in which the abused often become abusers, individuals who grow up witnessing substance abuse are at a higher risk of imitating that dangerous behavior. In Jefferson County, children living in, or removed from, homes that have a substance abuse problem primarily are dealt with by the Jefferson County Human Services De­part­ment. All too often, the drug of choice is heroin or another type of opioid. “Unfortunately, almost all of our kids are impacted by heroin or...

I n the early 1970s, my grandmother had a disagreement with the Beatles. When she heard “All You Need is Love” play on the radio, she would reply, “All you need is inside of you.” When I was a PhD student in the early 1990s, these messages bounced around in my mind along with my epidemiology and econometrics lessons. It was then that I began amassing evidence that led me to two conclusions: First, public health, medicine and public policy needed to address long-neglected social and emotional...

“Jobs in Newark, New Jersey are as rare as dinosaurs,” says Barbara LaCue. She should know—the 51-year-old Newark resident was unemployed for more than five years after being laid off in 2008 from a steady factory job. She ended up living in a homeless shelter with her two sons. Then, last October that dinosaur showed up. It took the form of a 67,000 square foot ShopRite , the first full service supermarket to serve the 25,000 people in the city’s struggling University Heights neighborhood.

Her daughter was 4 years old when Vicky Blake learned she’d contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. It was 1994, before the advent of antiretroviral drugs that could help arrest the virus, and Blake feared she would not live to see Curtisha turn 10. [For more of this story, written by Joaquin Palomino, go to http://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/For-many-women-HIV-is-a-byproduct-of-a-lifetime-6858571.php]

Many of the advancements we see in ACE-informed programming and service delivery focus on early intervention and prevention with the purpose of altering potential long-term high-cost ACE trajectories. There seems to be less weight being placed on the development of ACE-informed programs specifically for older persons coping with the cumulative outcomes of a lifetime of adversity and trauma. Senior Hope Counseling, Inc. in Albany, New York, is one agency that has worked tirelessly to enhance...

Why abandonment is an ACE answered by the voice and face of Kelly Clarkson singing "Piece by Piece." I'm pretty sure I would have sobbed even if I couldn't relate to the words in her song about being left by her father. The song is tragic, beautiful, searingly sad and triumphant all at once. It's also a song about being a break-the-cycle parent, learning to love in partnership and healing the wounds of childhood loss carried into adulthood. Watch where it's o.k. to bawl, weep or ugly cry...

Echo's conference this year is bursting at the seams with great workshops for teachers, parents and anyone who works with children and their families. In addition to the not-to-be-missed keynotes such as Dr. Ross Greene, we are proud to present: Robbyn Peter Bennett Workshop Spotlight: Self-Regulation, Dysregulation & Co-Regulation - Neurologically Informed Teaching & Parenting You may have seen Robbyn Peters Bennett in her TEDx talk . In our conference workshop, Robbyn will discuss...

In January, a government-appointed panel recommended that all pregnant women and new mothers be screened for depression . Public health advocates rejoiced, as did untold numbers of women who had not known that maternal mental illness even existed before it hit them like a freight train. But the panel did not mention one possible consequence of a diagnosis: Life and disability insurance providers have sometimes penalized women with these mental illnesses by charging them more money, excluding...

When Dr. Etheldreda Nakimuli-Mpungu graduated from medical school, her mother told her, "OK, good. But you know it's not good to just be a doctor." Umm, what? "She, said, 'There's some doctors you go to and they don't make you better. I want you to be one of the doctors that really makes people better,' " Mpungu recalls. "And I thought, 'Oh, no. What does she mean now?' " Mpungu went on to work in a surgical ward. And then with children. She was helping people — but couldn't say she was...

With the opioid epidemic reaching into every corner of the U.S., more people are talking about addiction as a chronic disease rather than a moral failing. For researcher A. Thomas McLellan, who has spent his entire career studying substance abuse, the shift is a welcome one, though it has come frustratingly late. McLellan is co-founder of the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia and former deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. His work has focused...

Despite the housing bust and its lasting implications, owning a home nevertheless remains one of the most common ways for American families to build wealthwhite families, predominantly. The homeownership rates of black and Hispanic Americans lag dramatically behind that of white Americans. These minority groups are much less likely to purchase a home, and if they do, they are less likely to have homes that appreciate in value. Theyre also more likely to lose their homes through foreclosure.