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On Monday, four hospitals and a school in Syria were bombed . The United Nations and various countries have described the attacks as flagrant violations of international law that could jeopardize the fragile temporary ceasefire scheduled to begin in the country later this week. The incidents mark the latest in a string of attacks on the country's health infrastructurePhysicians for Human Rights says there have been 336 attacks on medical sites in Syria, resulting in the deaths of 697...

We all have those times when stress, anxiety, depression or life circumstances lead us into a difficult or dark place. During those times, we often withdraw and take less action. These periods can be isolating and it can be hard to figure out what to do to ease the psychic discomfort that has begun to set in. In this blog, I will share some of the suggestions that I give to my patients and that I use myself to help during dark days. One thing that psychologists understand about how to help...

As an adult psychiatrist, I spend a lot of time thinking and talking about childhood, and there's a good reason for this. It's become abundantly clear over the past 20-plus years of doing psychotherapy that childhood experiences are at the root of adult problems. Every person who's walked through my office door suffering from depression, anxiety, relationship or work problems, low self-esteem or addiction has a history of some type of adversity in their childhood. It's become clear to me by...

A growing body of evidence highlights the connection between adverse childhood experiences and academic problems . The effects of trauma can impair a childs cognitive ability, while the stress of a dysfunctional or unstable home life can make children act out or shut down in the classroom, according to recent child-development research. While such findings are increasingly acknowledged, however, they have yet to broadly inform classroom practices or school-improvement initiatives, says Susan...

Hi guys, I'm a big fan of visual storytelling, as a story told well can touch both the hearts and minds of those learning about it, and telling stories visually, e.g. through movies or interactive graphics, can engage people in ways that writing cannot (and especially children and young adults, which are important demographics). I made a crude prototype of a scribe-based visual storytelling about the ACE Toolkit (that will go though a number of iterations before it's anywhere complete, but...

Those of us who get the trauma-informed movement understand how to put the dots together when were interviewing a new client. Our ear hears the pertinent details: the ACES, the Big Ts, the little ts and all the complexities as they tell us their story. We sit, knowing the many tools we can offer to help this hurting person cope, heal and recover. We validate, affirm and offer hope for a better future. We know we can help. We have gold to give them. But, not all who have suffered what we...

Hi guys, Just wanted to let you know that I got an early prototype of the ACE Toolkit (with very limited screening and reporting functionality) up on http://resixorg.github.io/ace-toolkit/ and ready for some initial feedback. It's been designed in a responsive way, which means that it should display well on smartphones, tablets, and ordinary PCs/Macs. So try and enter the address into your smartphone and see what happens. :-) It being an early prototype means that I have a lot of future...

On a Tuesday afternoon in December, Richard Walker stood on the corner outside the citys social services building and hollered. Hey! Im helping people whove got a felony conviction like me get their rights back. You know anybody like that? Walker, 57, called out to office workers in suits, the women in line for cheap cell phones and the young man pushing a baby stroller down East Marshall Street. He jogged alongside people hurrying toward a line of purple city buses who wanted to know more...

Millions of family and friends who help older, disabled adults manage medications and navigate the health system may be sacrificing their own well-being, a new study suggests. Caregivers who provided "substantial help" with health care in these settings were roughly twice as likely to experience physical, financial and emotional difficulties as those who did not provide that help, the study found. Such caregivers, if they worked for a living, were three times more likely to be less...

Texas prisons are filling up with the old and the ill at enormous expense. Benito Alonzo is a short, 140-pound 80-year-old. His quiet-spoken manner, drooping jowls and gray hair, trimmed in a buzz, give him the appearance of a benevolent grandfather, and indeed, he is a grandfather. In thick-framed black eyeglasses, he bears a resemblance to the defanged and aging Henry Kissinger. But Alonzo is neither a celebrity nor a statesman. Hes a convict who has lately grown infirm. He says hes been...

Dr. Seth Ammerman listens intently to his new, 21-year-old patient. Ernesto, who does not want his last name disclosed, is homeless. He is earning a high school degree and working part time, but at night, he and his brother share a tent that they set up on the streets of San Jose, Calif. The daily stress of being homeless is wearing Ernesto out, and making him light up too many cigarettes. "I just want to cut down on my smoking," says Ernesto, in a tentative, soft voice. "I've been on the...

Children of alcoholics and other parents dealing with a substance use disorder are often struggling with a multitude of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): early substance use, neglect, family violence and emotional, physical and even sexual abuse. Commonly there is parental separation or divorce, and often one or both parents are dealing with mental illness and incarceration as well as a substance use disorder. The children and teens are among those at highest risk for future physical and...