November 2016

In one of President Obama’s last major health care initiatives, the administration is stepping up enforcement of laws that require equal insurance coverage for mental and physical illnesses, a move officials say will help combat an opioid overdose epidemic. A White House task force on Oct. 27 said insurers needed to understand that coverage for the treatment of drug addiction must be comparable to that for other conditions like depression, schizophrenia, cancer and heart disease. As an...

My family is no stranger to suicide and suicide attempts, and we are not alone. To recount just two instances: A 20-year-old nephew, after receiving a very caring letter from his sister-in-law explaining why she could not be his lover, went to his room, shot himself in the head and died. A beloved uncle, who had been plagued for years by bouts of severe depression that alternated with mild mania, was seen at a major hospital psychiatric clinic on a Friday and told to come back on Monday.

Being a parent is hard, even if you have a partner and a steady income (or two). Now, imagine doing that job solo. It's a trend that's risen steadily in the past few decades. In 1968, 85 percent of children were raised in two-parent families, according to U.S. Census data. By 2015, the share of U.S. kids in families with one parent had more than doubled, to 27 percent. In many two-parent (and two-income) families, the cost of day care is a heavy burden, creating anxiety for parents as they...

In a new study published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Professor Sam Porter and co-authors, present the results of a music therapy intervention on social skills, self-esteem, depressive symptoms, as well as family and social functioning. The researchers, based in the United Kingdom, found that the results of the intervention showed the benefits of integrating music therapy into clinical practice. Ciara Reilly, the director of one of the study’s organizational partners,...

The 10,000 children and young people a year who go into care should have their mental health assessed so they can be helped to recover from childhood trauma and abuse, ministers are being urged. Claire Tyler, a Liberal Democrat peer, will on Tuesday lead a parliamentary effort to persuade the government to agree the change through an amendment to the children and social work bill. Children’s campaigners believe that a mandatory assessment of the mental health of every infant or youngster...

“Racism is (whites') massive experience of cognitive dissonance.” -Dr. Joy deGruy Social Identity Threat. check. White Supremacy. check. Social Devaluation of People of Color. check. Everyone I know and love faces an amplified threat with Trump. We are people of color, immigrants, variably abled, queer, poor/working class/barely faking it. This is distress, trauma, harm. This is historical, structural, political. We need to Race ACEs. Now now now.

One out of five California adults with children living in their homes were beaten, kicked or physically abused when they were children, and one in ten were sexually abused, according to data released recently by a children’s health foundation “I think it’s probably a low estimate,” said Cassandra Joubert, director of the Central California Children’s Institute at California State University, Fresno. “I think these kinds of events within families are hush-hush, swept under the rug, not really...

Optimism is “not something you do, but rather a spirit you bring to everything you do,” keynote speaker Steve Gross, a clinical social worker and founder of the Life is Good Kids Foundation, told ULI members at a 2016 ULI Fall Meeting general session. Gross, the foundation’s “chief playmaker,” shared his thoughts on optimism and offered practical advice for cultivating an optimistic and playful spirit, based on his work with children who have experienced traumas including violence, poverty,...

Prevention and treatment of adverse childhood experiences and peer support for people experiencing mental illness or substance abuse received major investments in the latest round of Community Health Endowment grants. The endowment's board trustees approved grants totaling $652,456 for one year and $1,142,347 over three years. The new grants will: * Support and expand the Healthy Families America program which provides home visitation and other services for parents of children under age 3 at...

A few weeks ago, I scrambled to evacuate my area with the only five items I could grab—my phone, passport, water, money, and medicine—in the 30 seconds before I had to flee. Many of the roughly 65 million refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced people around the world today have had to make panicked choices like these; more than 4,000 have died at sea in overcrowded boats and rafts attempting to reach Europe from the Middle East. On Thursday last week, more than 200 additional...

As classrooms across the United States become more diverse, schools are working to hire more teachers of color, particularly black teachers. Some have actually done a reasonable job of bringing more African American educators in the door. Yet the vast majority of teachers remain white women, in part because many black teachers leave just a few years into the job. Federal data suggests that in 2012-13, nearly 22 percent of black public-school teachers moved schools or left the profession...

Many caregivers of older adults express satisfaction with their labors of love. But they often face challenges, especially when caring for people with chronic diseases such as dementia, diabetes, or heart failure. The day-to-day tasks may seem endless: arranging doctor’s appointments and transportation, moving the person safely around, ensuring proper nutrition, and much more. Difficult situations, such as hospitalization and making decisions about long-term care, also arise. The National...