June 2017

“Grief, when it comes, is nothing like we expect it to be,” Joan Didion observed in her classic meditation on loss . Abraham Lincoln, in his moving letter of consolation to a grief-stricken young woman , wrote of how time transmutes grief into “a sad sweet feeling in your heart.” But what, exactly, is the mechanism of that transmutation and how do we master it before it masters us when grief descends in one of its unforeseeable guises? [For more of this story, written by Maria Popova, go to ...

Preventing the diseases we fear most as we age is rarely a sure or simple matter. But for those determined to slow mental decline and drive down the likelihood of developing dementia , researchers have reached a rare consensus around a trio of straightforward strategies: Engage your brain (but choose wisely), control high blood pressure (and start doing so early), and exercise regularly (just do it, already). [For more of this story, written by Melissa Healy, go to ...

States across the U.S. are taking more seriously the importance of early childhood education and ramping up their offerings, but compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. has a long way to go. While enrollment rates for children under age three hover just below 30 percent – the middle of the pack compared to other countries – the U.S. falls significantly behind when it comes to enrollment rates of 3- and 4-year-olds, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation...

My family jokes: "We put the 'fun' in dysFUNctional." We are a gang of PTSD-ridden alcoholics and traumatized individuals with high ACE scores. Some of us are in 12-step programs, some of us are not. Looking forward to the occasion of our eldest grandson's high school graduation is a cause of stress for me. Some of us have the tendency to say hurtful and intentionally divisive things to each other behind everyone's backs. This is led and egged-on by my spouse's ex, the other grandparent of...

It’s a rainy weekday morning in North Philadelphia, and once again, as I have been doing for the last 15 years, I sign on to our electronic health-records database and prepare for the 26 young patients, ages 1 month to 20 years, on my schedule. It’s a few days after the White House’s 2018 budget proposal, “A New Foundation for American Greatness,” was released last month. [For more of this story, written by Daniel R. Taylor, go to ...

Further understanding how early life stress leads to epigenetic changes making it more likely for those subject to subsequent stress to suffer from depression -- article available!

An animated short film released in 2016 that is 68 minutes in length and deals with childhood trauma. The main character, Icare (French for Icarus), who is nicknamed Zucchini by his single, alcoholic, abusive mother, accidentally causes her death and becomes an orphan who is sent to live in a foster home with other troubled children. The movie allows these children to express their feelings of pure loss and trauma, their loneliness and isolation from their families, and their attempts to...

Last week Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and first lady Cathy Malloy hosted a two-day conference called “Reimagining Justice” that invited people from around the country to explore the impact of crime and mass incarceration. As someone who works on juvenile justice reform in Connecticut, I was delighted to see the Malloys’ leadership on these issues. But I was also torn. As the conference started there was a March for Justice in Hartford, just a short way from the convention center where all...

The 2017 Resilience Summit is available. View it HERE Student Resilience Track Highlights: • Promoting Resilience in Children in the Aftermath of School Crisis • Trauma Informed Strategies for ACE’s • Strategies to Integrate and Align Systems of Care to Promote Child Wellbeing • Supporting the holistic behavioral and mental health needs of students • Response and Recovery from Community Tragedy • A Systems Approach for School-Based Trauma Interventions • Genetic and Environmental Resilience...

For the last four years I’ve been teaching in what the Post-Dispatch recently called one of Missouri’s “worst-performing schools.” Mike Petrilli from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute was quoted as saying that “if you have schools that are broken forever or are dysfunctional, or are part of a dysfunctional school system, I’m just skeptical that sending a little money is going to bring the kind of change states need.” I disagree. Anyone can see that public allocations combined with private...

Not every child looks forward to summer vacation the same way that their peers do. Not every child counts down those last few minutes until the final school bell rings for the year. While the majority of their peers are looking forward to a summer of grilling out, family vacations, and lazy afternoons by the pool – the abused child leaves school knowing that the next three months of their life are going to be anything but fun and relaxing. [For more of this story, written by Sarah Burleton,...

Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams wants to be her state’s first Democratic governor in over a decade. Thus far, the gubernatorial candidate, who moonlights as a romance novelist, has dedicated her time in political office to increasing voter turnout in the state. Abrams created the voter-registration nonprofit New Georgia Project . (In 2014, the organization faced allegations of voter fraud leveled by Abrams’ opponent. The investigation technically remains open but has not resulted...