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Approximately one in five youths ages 13-18 experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. For children ages 8-15, the number is 13%. The AAP Arizona, California 3, Florida, New Jersey and Virginia chapters received Healthy People 2020 grants to develop programs to empower families, the media and/or communities to address the mental health crisis in children and youths. Following is an overview of each chapter’s...

States have never found so many homeless students in public schools before. The next challenge will be finding ways to keep those students in school long enough to earn a diploma. Nearly 1.36 million children—more than all the students in New York City—went to school in 2017 without knowing where they would sleep at night, finds a new report by the national campaign Education Leads Home , which looked at new national data as well as graduation rates for homeless students in 26 states. That's...

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. After mass shootings, like the ones at Newtown and Parkland, we ask, how can this happen? How do we carry on in the aftermath of such violence? My guest, journalist Alex Kotlowitz, says those are the right questions, but we don't ask the same questions when it comes to the children and teenagers in our city's poorest and most violent neighborhoods, like Chicago's South and West Sides, who are watching their friends and family members get shot. Kotlowitz...

In sixth grade, I went on a field trip to jail. Picture us: a bunch of Latino and African American kids sitting in a prison cell. I’ve never been able to shake the memory. Here I was, an 11-year-old Latina from Jersey City, and our teachers were telling us, dead straight: This could be your future. I certainly got the message. What haunts me is how easily everyone could picture us behind bars. We could picture it, too. When it came time for high school, my dad made the decision to move us to...

This is a tough subject…but one worthy of discussion. Grass-roots movements tackling social issues have gained national momentum. Time’s Up, one widely embraced movement, has taken on the challenge of confronting sexual harassment, intimidation, inequity in the workplace and gender bias. Time’s Up Healthcare is an affiliate group with a laser focus on the healthcare workplace. When we share our stories of experiences with sexual harassment and intimidation, we participate in ending the shame...

The Public Health Institute’s Population Health Innovation Lab has started a pilot mulit-sector collaborative focused on developing policies and system’s change related to domestic violence under the ACEs spectrum. The five pilot counties are Butte, Glenn, Shasta, Tehama and Trinity.

Susan Cole, director of the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative at Harvard Law School and Massachusetts Advocates for Children, believes the most effective school settings weave trauma sensitivity into other affairs of the school day. The principal of a small elementary school in central Massachusetts was approached by his staff with a request. They asked about their school becoming more responsive to trauma owing to the number of children in their classrooms who seemed to be facing...

By P. Berman, K. Hecht, & A. Hosack Did anyone see anything? The police go systematically through the restaurant, talking to people who are still eating and talking to the staff. Several people come forward. The waitress was about to go over to their table and witnessed Larry reach towards Claire and punch her in the face. The couple sitting at the next table hadn’t seen the punch but were shocked as they watched Larry drag Claire out of the restaurant. The woman sitting directly behind...

The first three years of a child’s life are the most critical for brain development, yet Mississippi has done too little to support this cognitive evolution. The state needs to improve its policies to ensure children are in good health, have stable homes and have access to early learning opportunities. Those are the findings of a new report, the State of Babies Yearbook 2019 , released by the nonprofits Zero to Three and ChildTrends. The authors of the report analyzed state policies and...

RIO RANCHO, N.M. — Talking about trauma is important to start healing, according to a local mental-health professional. “Most people coming back from war have some sort of post-traumatic stress,” said social worker and therapist Tatiana Percival. “It’s really all about taking that first step to get help.” Percival said in her experience, many people with symptoms of PTSD think they can handle it on their own or feel isolated with their experience. [For more on this story by STEPHEN MONTOYA,...

As explored in JPMorgan Chase is Done With Private Prisons , hundreds of #FamiliesBelongTogether activists and grassroots organizations in cities across the country took to the streets — or rather, the banks — this past Valentine’s Day to let banks profiting from mass incarceration and immigrant detention know that it’s time to “break up” with the private prison industry and “show love” to communities instead. JPMorgan’s announcement last week to stop funding was indeed a taste of victory...

Editorial note: This is a moving account by Jennifer Gonnerman of triumph over trauma in a just minutes-long election night speech by Jumaane Williams, recently elected Public Advocate for New York City. The video does not include his remarks about being in therapy for three years (important for many to hear) so please read Gonnerman's outstanding report. I was moved by the entire account—his demonstrative affection for his mother and sister and his tribute to his fifth-grade teacher, Ms.