April 2020

By Stephanie Sy, Lena L Jackson, and Casey Kuhn, PBS News Hour April 24, 2020 COVID-19 is ripping through the Navajo Nation, infecting and killing people at rates that are above U.S. averages. Located across three states, the Navajo population is already vulnerable, with a high prevalence of underlying disease, a lack of infrastructure and limited access to care and supplies. Stephanie Sy reports on how the Navajo community has taken on the challenge of caring for its own. Read the Full...

first published by The Meadows 4/15/20 Our sense of loss during the current COVID-19 crisis can trigger hidden emotions from when we experienced a sense of loss before. Whatever early losses you have had in your life — whether they be your own divorce, your parents, or both, or the abandonment of one parent, a childhood or parental illness or death, financial upheaval, constant moving around, or growing up with parental addiction or adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) — they are likely to...

By Bryan E. Robinson, Psychology Today, April 15, 2020 Although we don’t know exactly when, at some point in the future self-isolation will end, and many of us will return to offices, restaurants, and houses of worship. But what will that look like? One thing for sure, we will never return to normal; we will return to “a new normal.” And each of us will have repair work to do as we re-enter the world of physical proximity to coworkers and reconnecting with friends, neighbors, and loved ones.

By Sarah Menkedick, March 20, 2020, for Time As a new mother, I worried about mouse poop in the small cabin where I lived. About fracking chemicals in the water. About glyphosate in the oatmeal. About flame retardants in pajamas. About phthalates in toys. Although it constantly overwhelmed me, I thought my anxiety was normal, even necessary. After all, it was my job to protect my child. When I mentioned my fear at my six-week follow-up appointment after birth—the sole instance of medical...

By Robert F. Anda, Laura E. Porter, David W. Brown, et al., American Journal of Preventive Medicine, March 25, 2020 INTRODUCTION Despite its usefulness in research and surveillance studies, the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) score is a relatively crude measure of cumulative childhood stress exposure that can vary widely from person to person. Unlike recognized public health screening measures, such as blood pressure or lipid levels that use measurement reference standards and cut points...

Here's a link to the book I wrote to help kids understand social distancing and express their own emotions. This is really important or things stay bottled up inside. It is now in video version; podcast and ebook are coming. Feel free to forward to others -- kids of all ages across the nation and the globe.Reprint the link. Do an article on it. Share with friends. Circulate it. Tweet it. Free resource. Bottom line: make it viral. The cover is attached!!! I hope it helps. Navigating emotions...

By Mark Schleifstein, NOLA.com, March 30, 2020 A combination of stress, trauma and depression triggered by the coronavirus pandemic after the virus abates is likely to increase what’s already a high number of cases of post-traumatic stress disorder among Louisiana residents, who have been hammered by natural and man-made disasters in the past, according to a behavioral epidemiologist at the Louisiana State University School of Public Health. Associate professor Ariane Rung bases that...

From Race Forward, March 27, 2020 As the coronavirus spreads and a public health emergency intensifies, Race Forward calls on local and state governments and those who are doing emergency planning to pay special attention to the impact that this disease and the response to its spread may have on people and communities of color. We call for an approach that provides accurate information and advances practices and policies based in science, and that ensures compassionate and comprehensive...