October 2016

Name the disease that, by 2030, will be the costliest in the world in terms of treatment and lost income due to disability. Cancer? Nope. Heart disease? No. Diabetes? Wrong again. Mental illness. The World Health Organization marked Monday as World Mental Health Day. It's a good time to note that disorders of the brain are quickly becoming the world's most expensive in terms of treatment and lost productivity and easily among the world's most heartbreaking. [For more of this story go to ...

Today is special for me for several reasons. For starters, I will have the honor of spending much of the day in a symposium at San Quentin State Prison in California. I especially look forward to sharing time with the members of KID C.A.T. (Creating Awareness Together), a group of individuals who were sentenced to life without parole when they were children. After years of incarceration, they created their own support group with a mission to organize acts of community service and goodwill.

The Second Ward High School Alumni House and Museum is a modest institution, a little brick house along Beatties Ford Road, the main artery in what’s historically the black part of town. For decades, the house has been a repository for photos, yearbooks, bricks—the beloved remains of Second Ward High, Charlotte’s first black high school. In the 1960s, the city demolished the school and its entire neighborhood, known as Brooklyn, in the name of urban renewal. Last month, a Charlotte police...

One monday morning last fall , at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina, a 16-year-old girl refused to hand over her cellphone to her algebra teacher. After multiple requests, the teacher called an administrator, who eventually summoned a sheriff’s deputy who was stationed at the school. The deputy walked over to the girl’s desk. “Are you going to come with me,” he said, “or am I going to make you?” Niya Kenny, a student sitting nearby, did not know the name of the girl who...

During the second presidential debate, Donald Trump was asked whether he could be a president to “all the people in the United States.” He had a very specific answer: “I would be a president for all of the people, African Americans, the inner cities,” he replied. Later in the debate, he spoke again of how he was going to help “the African Americans,” who lived in “inner cities,” suffering from high poverty rates, bad educational systems, and no jobs. There might have been a time when...

As the American population has aged over the past 10 years, the home-care workforce has doubled in size , with more people now receiving long-term assistance in their homes than in nursing institutions. Of the more than 2 million American home-care workers—including nursing assistants, home health aides, and personal-care aides—nearly a quarter are living under the poverty line and more than half are reliant on public assistance. The demand for health-related services for older Americans and...

Just over ten years ago, a fascinating journal article argued that some children are like orchids – they don’t just wither in response to a harsh upbringing, they also flourish in a positive environment, unlike their “dandelion” peers who are less affected either way. Since then, research into this concept has exploded. A new meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletinusefully gathers all that we know so far about one key aspect of this – the associations between children’s temperament (the...

It's a warm June afternoon in New York City, and Brian Wilson is casually leaning back in a chair in a luxurious midtown hotel room. His arms are folded, and he occasionally looks at his watch. It's the body language of someone who's guarded, standoffish. When he speaks, however, it's a different story. RELATED Read Revealing New Excerpts From Brian Wilson's Memoir Full introduction and portions of four different chapters are previewed in Google Books version of 'I Am Brian Wilson' A few...

Through the community-based work of the 15 members of the cohort, the goal of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities Change in Mind initiative is to determine if this groundbreaking science can transform policies to move the needle on some of the most difficult social issues facing our communities. The expertise of the cohort was employed to further this goal, as well as inform the greater public with the development of Using a Brain Science-Infused Lens in Policy Development:...

A “snapshot” of current research on dual status youth, those who are in both the juvenile justice and child welfare systems, is now available on the JJIE Resource Hub. In addition to the snapshot, the JJIE has many news stories and opinion columns about dual status youth and the professionals who work with them. [Checkout the resource hub at http://jjie.org/latest-research-on-dual-status-youth-now-on-resource-hub/327720/]

Acceptance starts with an open conversation. Despite the fact that nearly one in five American adults will experience a mental health issue in a given year, there’s still a prejudicial attitude surrounding psychological disorders. That’s why awareness is so crucial. Monday marked World Mental Health Day, which sparked a global conversation on Twitter about the effects of mental illness. Many people shared personal stories, messages of hope and encouragement to seek treatment ― including...

A s The Chronicle recently reported, a number of institutions have added the topic of student mental health to an already-crowded orientation schedule, using speakers, videos, skits, and an online course to educate students about their own, and one another’s, mental-health issues and available resources. Mental-health concerns (recognizing symptoms, knowing how to get help, etc.) are sharing the lineup with alcohol policies, sexual-assault awareness, library resources, and roommate...