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By Cara Anthony, Kaiser Health News, April 6, 2020 That was before the coronavirus pandemic. Wilma Walker’s now nonagenarian mom moved into her daughter and son-in-law’s home about 15 years ago. Their party of three turned into a household of six when the Walkers’ now 30-year-old daughter, Andre’a Walker-Nimrod, moved back in with her young son and a daughter on the way. Their living arrangement — four generations together under one roof — has its advantages: financial support, shared meals...

Judge Steven Leifman has led the fight in Miami-Dade, Florida's Eleventh Judicial Circuit to keep individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) out of the criminal justice system. How? By helping them treat their mental illness. Listening to NPR's Scott Simon's interview with Judge Leifman about the upcoming PBS documentary, "The Definition of Insanity," featuring Judge Leifman's work, I was struck by the following key points (please know some of these are not exact quotes -- listen to the...

By Enzo Dimatteo, Now, April 8, 2020 Back in the day, one of my beats was covering what others might varyingly describe as cults. And so I’ve had occasion to find myself in some mind-bending situations – est group therapy sessions, getting hooked up to an E-meter. But this coronavirus is a whole other level of mindfuck. After three weeks of venturing out only occasionally for necessities, I’ve noticed synapses firing in my brain (or is that popping?) that I never thought I had before. It’s...

By Angelina Jolie, Time, April 9, 2020 Of the many ways that the pandemic is making us rethink our humanity, none is more important, or urgent, than the overall protection of children. They may not be as susceptible to the virus as other groups, but they are especially vulnerable to so many of the secondary impacts of the pandemic on society. The economic fallout of COVID-19 has been swift and brutal. Lockdowns and stay at home orders have resulted in job losses and economic insecurity,...

Brett Loftis has a passion for protecting the most vulnerable children that is apparent from the moment he says hello. As the Chief Executive Officer of Crossnore School & Children’s Home, Brett leads an organization that is dedicated to growing healthy futures for children and families.

You are extraordinary. Writing this post feels like I have come full circle. In April of 2019, Alfred White reached out to me on ACEs Connection. Shortly after, we spoke at length about the plans he had to create a place of healing and hope in Federal Way and King County, Washington, specifically for individuals with a history of trauma and who were now impacted with symptoms such as addiction and homelessness. I recall sharing with Alfred that there was such a need for this in that...

By Blake Farmer, Kaiser Health News, April 6, 2020 The new coronavirus doesn’t discriminate. But physicians in public health and on the front lines said they already can see the emergence of familiar patterns of racial and economic bias in the response to the pandemic. In one analysis, it appears doctors may be less likely to refer African Americans for testing when they show up for care with signs of infection. The biotech data firm Rubix Life Sciences, based in Lawrence, Massachusetts,...

By Louis Freedberg, EdSource, April 10, 2020 This “spring break” is like no other for California. Even as public schools are making a big push to ramp up their “distance learning” curriculum, millions of students, along with their teachers, are out on spring break this week. A worrisome question is whether spring break at this crucial time will slow the implementation of distance learning, or whether it has given teachers much-needed breathing space to gear up for a more intensive online...

By Jan Hoffman, The New York Times, March 26, 2020 On March 13, a dozen people gathered at a Cleveland outpatient clinic for their daily therapy group. They represented a patchwork of addictions: to alcohol, crack cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, heroin. They were freshly out of jail, out of marriages, out of work. The newest member had enrolled just a week earlier. The three-hour morning session that Friday, reinforced with continually brewing coffee and snacks everyone brought to share...

By Jonathan Kanter and Katherine Manbeck, Business Insider, April 8, 2020 Isolation, social distancing, and extreme changes in daily life are hard now, but the United States also needs to be prepared for what may be an epidemic of clinical depression because of COVID-19. We are clinical psychological scientists at the University of Washington's Center for the Science of Social Connection . We study human relationships, how to improve them, and how to help people with clinical depression,...

By Luke Smillie and Nick Haslam, The Conversation, April 8, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has caused tens of thousands of deaths around the world and pushed major economies into a tailspin. Beyond those impacts, almost all of us will face psychological challenges – trying to maintain a responsible social distancing regimen without sliding into psychological isolation and loneliness . At least we’re all in the same boat, and misery loves company, right? Actually, we’re not all in the same...

The Trauma Resources Institute (TRI), a nonprofit organization devoted to cultivating trauma-informed and resiliency-focused individuals and communities throughout the world, is offering parents and other caregivers a series of Community Resiliency Model-based parenting webinars to help enhance resiliency during these challenging times. This webinar series is a four-module online parenting program which will help you learn the skills of the Community Resiliency Model®. Each module will be...