February 2017

Teenage suicides are unspeakable tragedies, and they’re far from uncommon. According to government statistics , suicide is the second most common cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds. While psychologists and other counselors have done invaluable work to reduce this risk, new research finds a different group of professionals has had an enormous positive impact: state legislators. It reports the suicide rate among high school students decreases significantly after a state law legalizing...

Researchers, students, mental health professionals and religious leaders will gather at the East Lansing Marriott at University Place, April 13-14 to attend the ninth annual Muslim Mental Health Conference. The conference was created to promote awareness and acceptance of mental illnesses, fight stigma and improve access to treatment for members of the Muslim community. Farha Abbasi, assistant professor of psychiatry and founding director of the conference, says that because of the vital...

This post was authored by guest blogger, Wendy Ellis, DrPH (c), MPH , Project Director at Building Community Resilience (BCR) and Co-Principal Investigator with Dr. William Dietz on the BCR project. Mark and Diane* once had thriving jobs in an Ohio manufacturing plant until a car accident left them with severe back injuries and unable to work. Ineligible to receive workman’s compensation, the couple and their young children, Emma (5), Ava (7) and Lucas (10), quickly lost their livelihood,...

Judges have been meditating before taking the bench, and opening their courtroom with a moment of meditative silence. Lawyers in tense divorce negotiations have been more effective by maintaining a perspective of mindful reflection throughout the process. Courses offered at a dozen law schools have given law students an introduction to meditation—an effort to help them sharpen their legal skills and make them more effective trial lawyers, negotiators, and mediators. All these steps are part...

Kim Smith has been dancing since she was 2 years old and teaching dance for decades. So it broke her heart when her youngest daughter Ragan never quite fit in in the classes she tried. “I was trying to find a program for Ragan, but she is autistic and has a short attention span,” Smith tells PEOPLE. So Smith, 50, created a class for Ragan, 7, and other kids with special needs like her in Charlotte, North Carolina. This spring, 10 of the kids will compete in a traditional dance competition.

A New Report—and a Landmark for the SEL Field Working in close collaboration with the faculty of education at the University of British Columbia (UBC), in February 2017 CASEL announced the publication of a new report titled To Reach the Students, Teach the Teachers: A National Scan of Teacher Preparation and Social & Emotional Learning . CASEL funded the research for the report, the first-ever scan of teacher preparation related to SEL, as part of a grant from NoVo Foundation. Retrieved...

If children live with parents who are high, They learn that people are unpredictable and unreliable. If children live with denial, They learn to mistrust what they feel and sense.

She definitely had his back. A 56-year-old Louisiana woman came to the rescue of a cop being beaten on the side of a road by leaping on the back of his assailant, authorities said.

The impact of gentrification—especially the displacement of lower-income residents—remains a topic of enormous debate in urbanism circles. Most research on the subject finds the extent of displacement to be statistically rather small; in fact, the leading student of the subject, Lance Freeman of Columbia University, argues that widespread displacement caused by gentrification is largely a myth . But that doesn’t mean that existing residents don’t feel other effects. One new study , by...

On the way to her first therapy appointment on a November morning in Lafayette, Louisiana, Windy Maitreme listened to her latest podcast obsession, My Favorite Murder. Maitreme works as an administrative assistant and struggles with anxiety and depression. Podcasts distract her from her fears. “If I don’t really focus on something, I worry about everything,” Maitreme says. She arrived 35 minutes early, and finished listening to the episode to calm her nerves. It was a memorable one, a rare...

We’re sitting in Rosie Palfy’s living room, outside of Cleveland, in a house she’s just been able to purchase after VA finally settled her disability claim, after almost nine years of delays and detours. I’m having her read through the almost 400 comments women veterans left in response to my original survey about housing issues after military service, a survey that was completed in 2015 and has since been analyzed. The comments are a striking collection of profound, succinct appraisals as...

I try to be a “glass half-full” kind of person, but there are times when parts of your world can wear you down. We all experience this to some extent, but it is how you deal with these situations that determines the outcome and impact on your own life and those around you. Far too many children in Oklahoma experience negative circumstances, which can change the course of their entire lives. The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy asked Dr. Jennifer Hays-Grudo serve as the keynote speaker...