Blog

My dear friend Kendall Evans lived the later part of her life as an openly transwoman. One of Kendall’s favorite stories was about when she decided to present herself as a woman to the men in domestic violence intervention groups she facilitated. On that day, Kendall put on one of her favorite dresses. It covered the fact she felt apprehensive, anxious, and afraid, yet she generated the courage it took to walk into a room full of men. As she stood before these men, in a sense naked and...

Robin is a brilliant, passionate, and vocal school nurse with almost two decades of experience as a New Jersey school nurse in the Camden City School District. She is the Legislative Co-Chair for the New Jersey State School Nurses Association and she joined us last week for A Better Normal community discussion about back-to-school (or not) plans families are facing this school year. Robin serves as faculty in the School Nurse Certificate Program at Rutgers University-Camden School of Nursing...

If you missed The League of Extraordinary People's first Town Hall, or would like to watch it again, it is available here ! Health and Wellness Town Hall: Adverse Childhood Experiences 101 Class How ACEs Impact the Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other Communities of Color This event will be led by Alfred White. Alfred is the founder of The League of Extraordinary People. After nearly 40 years experiencing homelessness, Alfred swallowed a 1/4 ounce of crack cocaine in 2004 and nearly died. He...

As a former La Leche League Leader I became familiar with the teachings of Gary Ezzo (“Raising Kids God’s Way,” "On Becoming Babywise") in the early 1990’s. Leaders in my area began getting a lot of phone calls on our warm line that followed the same basic story: a baby not thriving and a case of very low milk supply despite the Mom’s exclusive breastfeeding and a strong desire to breastfeed. It gradually emerged that a local church had begun promoting a rigid rules-based practice of baby...

The Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement ™ launched a free social-emotional wellness program to support educators and students as they navigate the start of the 2020/21 school year. This special reentry unit, “Choosing Love in Our Brave New World,” is designed to help transition students back to class or to support them during distance learning. The Choose Love Movement honors six-year-old Jesse Lewis who was killed in the Sandy Hook, CT elementary school tragedy. “Choosing Love in Our Brave New...

By Donald Shaw, Too Much Information, August 12, 2020 One of the most powerful health care industry lobbying groups has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaign to reelect Democratic Rep. Richard Neal as he blocks legislation to crack down on “surprise medical bills” and thwarts the push for Medicare for All. The American Hospital Association’s (AHA) political action committee has spent more than $200,000 on digital ads to boost Neal’s reelection campaign as he faces a...

By Dan Weissmann, Kaiser Health News, August 10, 2020 When you need medical care, it can be a lot like entering a casino — playing for your financial life with the deck stacked against you. But in this episode, reporter Celia Llopis-Jepsen offers insight and tips no dealer will divulge. She got a health care executive to talk honestly — maybe more honestly than he realized — about how his company and others are playing the game when they send patients huge bills. When she investigated one...

By Jordyn Brown, The Register-Guard, August 5, 2020 Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden introduced a new national bill Wednesday that would emphasize a health care response, instead of law enforcement, to mental health and substance abuse calls. The mental health care and public safety proposal the Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets (CAHOOTS) Act is being put forth by Wyden and Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto. It’s modeled and named after Eugene’s decades-long program and would provide...

By Maggie Koerth and Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, FiveThirtyEight, August 3, 2020 Will you get robbed this year? How would you rate your chances? Over 10 years, from 1994 to 2004, the national Survey of Economic Expectations asked respondents to do just that. People estimated their risks for a whole host of bad-news life events — robbery, burglary, job loss and losing their health insurance. But the survey didn’t just ask respondents to rate their chances: It also asked whether those things had...

What can we, as a community of concerned citizens - not just parents, teachers, counsellors and pediatricians - envision, innovate and create so that children are still able to interact, up close, in safe ways?

SAVE THE DATE - AUGUST WEBINAR "Regulating the Stress Response for Kids: Practical Tips for Primary Care Providers" Wednesday, August 26, 2020 Noon – 1 p.m. Register for the Webinar This webinar will offer practical tips and examples on how providers can incorporate stress regulation strategies into their treatment planning for pediatric patients. Presenters will: Share definitions, research, and the clinical response to address toxic stress through stress regulation strategies. Review the...

How did the U.S. rank so well in pandemic preparedness but have such major problems in its overall response to COVID-19? While it's worth looking at the actions of individual elected and appointed officials, a crucial part of the story is the history and current state of our public health system.