Blog

By Marie Tae McDermott, The New York Times, June 5, 2020 The protests in response to the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor have elicited questions from children of all ages, and many parents are left wondering how to respond. Children are like sponges. They soak up news headlines and images of unrest on TV and social media. They may also be keenly attuned to conversations about current events happening at home. Parents and educators alike (and those of us now wearing...

By Jack P. Shonkoff, Center on the Developing Child Harvard University, June 5, 2020 The recent, brutal killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and the broad civic unrest they have fueled, are focusing a bright light, yet again, on the deep structural inequities and systemic racism that continue to plague our country. Is it possible that one more brutality piled on so many before it was finally too much? Is it possible that this is a turning point in understanding and...

By Matthew G. Biel, Michael H. Tang, Barry Zuckerman, JAMA Pediatrics, April 6, 2020 Pediatric mental health (MH) concerns, including depression, anxiety, loneliness and social isolation, and suicide, have increased markedly in the last decade and are critical factors associated with population health. While effective interventions for these conditions have been developed and pediatric health care professionals increasingly address MH concerns as a central component of clinical practice, our...

By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, June 5, 2020 One result of shelter-in-place orders during the coronavirus pandemic is to confine some household members with others who abuse them. By most indications, domestic violence has become more frequent and more violent. Police chiefs nationwide reported increases of 10% to 30% in domestic assaults in the first two weeks after a national emergency was declared in March, according to a USA Today survey. On April 6, United Nations Secretary...

By Sydney Page, The Washington Post, June 3, 2020 Shawn Dromgoole is a 29-year-old black man who has lived in the same Nashville neighborhood his entire life. His family has been in the neighborhood, known as 12 South, for 54 years. But Dromgoole said that since he was a child, he felt an unease in his hometown, acutely aware that few people looked like him. “Growing up in my neighborhood, I could always feel the eyes, the looks and the cars slowing down as they passed by me,” said...

Wondering what your church can do in response to the unrest, riots, and disharmony we see? Perhaps this is the time to invest in becoming trauma-informed using "Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks," a study where sound biblical principles intersect with the science of adversity and trauma. Order on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/ Bruised-Reeds-Smoldering-Wi cks-trauma-informed/dp/ 1733812318 Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks is a study on the intersections between the science of adversity...

Much gratitude goes out to Karin Hill, Neuro-Linguistics Programming practitioner and mind coach, for joining Teri Wellbrock on The Healing Place Podcast

Society has stereotypically viewed eating disorders as only affecting teenage girls and women. However, one in three people who form an eating disorder (ED) is boys or men. This article will examine how EDs affect male victims and how they can defeat these life-threatening disorders. The Problem There are at least 30 million people who live with an eating disorder in the United States alone. Indeed, 10 million males will experience an ED at some point in their lives, but because of the...

This survey is to find out more about Coronavirus 19 (COVID-19), how it spreads, as well as your personal experience and opinions related to the pandemic. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5VJ2WSF

By The National Center for Complex Health & Social Needs, June 2020 Human complexity and context Delivering effective complex care requires an understanding that the human experience is complicated; poor health and inadequate living conditions have multiple causes including an interplay of physical and behavioral health, structural and social conditions, and bias. [ Please click here to read more .]

By Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, June 3, 2020 In 2013, the community organizers Opal Tometi, Patrisse Cullors, and Alicia Garza started the Black Lives Matter movement. What began as a hashtag in response to Trayvon Martin’s death became a nationwide phenomenon, with protests in response to the killings of African-Americans and chapters across the country. Now, after the death of George Floyd, at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, and a week of nationwide protests to an extent...

By Tonya Russell, The Washington Post, June 3, 2020 If you turn to any major news station, you’ll get a visual reminder that the United States isn’t okay. Black families are shocked but not surprised by George Floyd’s death. Minority parents, like my own, have been paying close attention for years and having these uncomfortable conversations with their children. By the time we reach school, children are braced for what cruelty may await them. That’s because black families can’t afford to...