Blog

Why are we talking about trauma? Is that the right word? First, let’s acknowledge that the word “trauma” is often overused. During our STAR trainings we mostly use the word “harm,” and it’s also important to name why we will be referencing the “t” word. Many traumagenic systems, situations and events are routinely minimized, though they generate frustration, pain and profound bodily impacts in everyday life – and affect different bodies in different ways. Below we name a few of these...

At Ballad Health, we are committed to thinking outside traditional boxes to address social determinants leading to addiction throughout the Appalachian Highlands region of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. The scientific findings of the Adverse Childhood Experiences study identify experiencing childhood adversity without a support system as a major risk factor of addiction. With that in mind, Ballad Health has issued a call to action to regional professionals and is equipping many...

"When we take the time to step in the patient’s shoes, we have a better chance of understanding what is driving health outcomes – and how to intervene. After all, the patients are the experts of their own lives!"

By Traci Pedersen, PsychCentral, October 9, 2019 Exposure to community and police violence can negatively impact a person’s physical and psychosocial health, according to new research published in the journal Health Affairs. The research involved two studies based on in-person surveys of more than 500 adults living in Chicago neighborhoods with high rates of violent crime, and mostly comprising racial and ethnic minority groups. Of the study participants, 77% were age 50 and up. Elizabeth L.

By Tristan Baurick (The Times-Picayune, The Advocate), Lylla Younes (ProPublica), and Joan Meiners (The Times-Picayune, The Advocate), October 30, 2019 Over a half-century, Hazel Schexnayder saw this riverside hamlet transformed from a collection of old plantations, tin-roofed shacks and verdant cornfields into an industrial juggernaut. By the early 1990s, she’d had enough of the towering chemical plants and their mysterious white plumes, the roadside ditches oozing with blue fluid, the air...

By Heather M. Francis, Richard J. Stevenson, Jaime R. Chambers, et al., Plos One, October 9, 2019 Abstract There is strong epidemiological evidence that poor diet is associated with depression. The reverse has also been shown, namely that eating a healthy diet rich in fruit, vegetables, fish and lean meat, is associated with reduced risk of depression. To date, only one randomised controlled trial (RCT) has been conducted with elevated depression symptoms being an inclusion criterion, with...

By Cat Wise and Jason Kane, Public Broadcast Service, October 30 ,2019 U.S. racial and ethnic diversity is ever increasing, but the medical representation of minority groups is not. A recent review of government-funded cancer research studies found that participants were disproportionately white, and fewer than 2 percent of these clinical trials focused on minorities specifically. Special correspondent Cat Wise reports on the problem and efforts to correct it. Judy Woodruff: The country's...

By Sam Levin, The Guardian, October 29, 2019 Tom K Wong’s world shattered at age 16 in 1998 when his parents told him he was undocumented. The Riverside, California, teenager thought his life was over. Now 37, Wong is one of the prominent scholars in the US on immigration, most recently uncovering abuses inside detention centers in his latest University of California, San Diego research. The political science professor, whose family migrated from Hong Kong when he was two and overstayed...

By Paulina Villegas, The New York Times, October 29, 2019 The United States has detained more children trying to cross the nation’s southwest border on their own over the last year than during any other period on record, surpassing the surge of unaccompanied minors that set off a crisis during the Obama administration, according to new figures released Tuesday. American immigration authorities apprehended 76,020 minors, most of them from Central America, traveling without their parents in...

By Catherine Voss, Theresa M. Ollmann, Marcel Miche, et al., JAMA Psychiatry, October 30, 2019 Question How frequently and when do suicidal ideation, plan, and attempt emerge in adolescence and young adulthood? Findings In a cross-sectional, epidemiological study of 1180 adolescents and young adults from a random community sample in Germany, 10.7%, 5.0%, and 3.4% of participants reported lifetime suicidal ideation, plan, and attempt, respectively. The cumulative incidence of suicidal...

Trauma has a uncanny way of negatively impacting people’s lives. Even after you believe you have dealt with or forgotten about a traumatic event, you may find yourself years later suffering from mental, emotional, and physical distress that severely disrupts your life. When you are sincere about your desire to confront your past and move on with your life, you may need to rely on trained medical professionals to assist you. You could find the healing and rehabilitation you need by seeking...

The Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) is excited to share the fifth episode of In the Arena with NOW , a podcast series that lifts up the voices of community leaders who are “in the arena” -- in classrooms, playgrounds, Congressional halls, hospitals, and neighborhood streets -- working to make sure that all children and families can live healthy, thriving lives. In our fifth episode, Honoring Culture, Language, and Family: Stories from the Navajo Nation , we speak with...