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I’ m an “elder orphan,” a solo ager, someone who is aging alone. That may sound depressing until you learn that the American Geriatrics Society calls me and my ilk “unbefriended.” Yikes. An elder orphan is someone “of an age” who has no immediate family in their life. No parents, spouse, siblings, children, or grandchildren. They may have immediate family, but the relatives live too far away to be of assistance in times of crisis. There’s another scenario, as in my case, where my immediate...

(l to r) Kelly Hardy, Allen Mattison, Jeff Hild _____________________________________________________ The March 14 “Strategic Advocacy: Winning Policy Change without Crossing the Lobbying Line ” webinar covered the fine points of where to draw the line between lobbying and non-lobbying activities but also provided useful tips and ideas for effective advocacy—both under the arc of “being braver because our kids need us,” as framed by presenter Kelly Hardy of Children Now . Because the stakes...

The evidence base for routine enquiry into adverse childhood experiences: A scoping review. Ford K, Hughes K, Hardcastle K, Di Lemma LCG, Davies AR, Edwards S, Bellis MA. Child Abuse Negl . 2019 Mar 15;91:131-146. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.03.007. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 30884399 Similar articles Trajectories of childhood adversity and the risk of depression in young adulthood: Results from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Tracy M, Salo M, Slopen N, Udo T, Appleton...

Join the Pacific Southwest MHTTC for upcoming distance learning opportunities on key school mental health topics. Together we will advance our understanding of how to build wellness, resilience, and success for the whole school community. Upcoming Webinar: Mental Health and Student Learning Outcomes: An Introduction Mental Health & Student Learning Outcomes Series - Webinar 1 Thursday, March 21 6-7 p.m. ET / 3-4 p.m. PT / 1-2 p.m. HT / 9-10 a.m. ChT Register Are you a school...

Cissy's note: Screening is a topic frequently discussed and debated. This is another interesting read on an important topic and there are a lot of excellent links from varied viewpoints in the notes. I'm grateful to the conversations here and on Twitter which help shape, challenge, and guide my thinking. Here is a link to the entire open source article by Author links open overlay pa Kat Ford , Karen Hughes, Katie Hardcastle, Lisa C.G. Di Lemma, Alisha R. Davies, Sara Edwards, Mark A . Bellis

Join our featured guests who will be gathering for a Twitter chat event following the virtual screening of Broken Places for our members on Thursday, March 21st. Note: Find more details about the film and the registration process at the end of this post. Roger Weisberg @BrokenPlacesDoc Weisberg is the writer, producer, and director of the documentary, Broken Places. Weisberg joined public television station WNET as a staff Producer in 1976. Since 1982 when he founded an independent...

GrandMa Boom, a.k.a., Janai Mestrovich, shows vigilance to protect toddler. (Originally posted to FaceBook, March 15, 2019) My plan was to call 911 for the police. The woman told the 2 yr. old if she didn't stop running around the table she would take her out to the car and lock her in it to stay there alone. I was horrified. That is when I thought I would call the police if she actually did that. I hoped she would not follow through. Meanwhile, the little girl kept watching me and came near...

The little girl was not gaining weight. The diagnosis: failure to thrive, a term used to describe a child who isn’t growing as expected. The remedy: nutritional shakes packed with protein. That typically would be the end of the appointment, said the girl’s doctor, @Nadine Burke Harris, a 43-year-old Jamaican American raised in Palo Alto who was named California’s first surgeon general last month. But, in her new role, Burke Harris said she will push to change a profession that too...

A little-publicized legal decision was just issued by Judge Joseph C. Spero of the U.S. District Court of Northern California that anyone who plans to use their mental health insurance coverage to secure needed care will want to school themselves on. Ruling on a class action lawsuit brought against United Behavioral Health (UBH), a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, Judge Spero drew the conclusion that UBH had reneged on its fiduciary responsibility to...

Four years ago, Dorothy Gorder was living under the I-5 bridge in downtown Seattle. Addicted to meth and heroin, she lived in makeshift shelters fashioned out of cardboard boxes and pallets, draping clothing to block out the wind. Her car had been stolen. Gorder left behind a son in Montana, who was living with his grandmother. A daughter to whom she'd given birth while homeless was taken away and adopted by a foster family. Then she got pregnant again, with another son, and resolved to turn...

The persistence of high maternal and infant mortality rates among Black women is now being addressed in a very different way in New Jersey, says Ronsha Dickerson, the doula leader for the Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative’s Healthy Women, Healthy Families program. The program trains Black women to act as resources for other pregnant Black women before, during, and after birth. They are not medical professionals, but they help women get what they need in terms of information,...

After her visit at an adolescent medical clinic in Los Angeles in January, 19-year-old Serena was afraid to go home. Six days before, her boyfriend had beaten her so badly that she had to go to the emergency room. Serena’s name has been changed to protect her safety. “She was so sad and so scared,” said Monica Sifuentes, my colleague and an adolescent medicine pediatrician at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, who treated Serena. With visible sadness, she told me Serena’s story. Serena, who is...