March 2018

On the afternoon of April 13, 2014, Dontre Hamilton was lying on the ground near a bench in a Milwaukee city park. A police officer on patrol walked over to Hamilton and asked him to stand up. Their encounter would end in disaster. The officer patted Hamilton down for weapons — which the police chief later said was not in line with department policy as Hamilton posed no apparent danger — and Hamilton, who had a history of mental health issues, grabbed the officer's baton. The officer in turn...

The man was living alone with his two dogs, in a remote area outside San Antonio, when someone called the Texas state hotline to report that a supposed friend was financially exploiting him. So the state adult protective services agency sent a caseworker to the man’s home. She found an 86-year-old Vietnam veteran in a dirty, cluttered house full of empty liquor bottles. His legs swollen by chronic cellulitis, he could barely walk, so he used a scooter. He missed doctor’s appointments. He had...

Our mental health and personal well being are tied up in the quality of our personal relationships. The more closely we are connected to the people we love, the happier we feel and the more personal satisfaction we have in our lives. Most people rate moments of connection and shared enjoyment with their loved ones as their most important life experiences. These important relationships not only include family and personal friends but also the wider groups and communities we belong to. Forming...

I am in an auditorium with 200 other people, staring into a stranger’s eyes, and I am crying. As part of our Science of Mindfulness and Self-Compassion workshop , clinical psychologist Shauna Shapiro had asked participants to turn to the person next to them and imagine all her pain—her struggles and losses, her sorrows and setbacks. I’d done mindfulness and compassion practices before, of course, but this was different. This was visceral. [For more on this story by KIRA M. NEWMAN, go to...

In the aftermath of the shooting at Marshall County High School in January that claimed the lives of two students and injured many more, state Rep. Will Coursey has filed legislation that would call on all public school districts to have mental-health professionals on staff by the start of the 2018-19 school year. They would be hired to support students and school staff and to guide violence-prevention efforts. Rep. Coursey, D-Benton, said he filed House Bill 604 “because I think this is a...

This report provides a comprehensive overview of high school dropouts and completers in the United States. It draws on a wide variety of data sources to examine high school dropout and completion rates for 2014, as well as data on long-term trends. The report describes the characteristics of high school dropouts and completers, including race/ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic status, disability status, recency of immigration, and outcomes in the labor force. [To access this report, go to...

I am starting a project with the aim of developing two products, an app and companion website, for people who've experienced ACEs. The purpose of the products is to support people living their lives as positively and fruitfully as possible by enabling them to work with alleviating the effects of their ACEs on a continuous basis. The products are currently named "Hugged," as I believe that compassion and loving-kindness towards oneself can be a bearer of personal development throughout life.

When the #MeToo movement began, I watched, stunned. While in despair to learn of so many high profile predators using their power to intimidate and abuse women, I was also exhilarated; finally the world was opening its blind eye. Maybe my daughters will be able call out men who try to sexually intimidate them, and be believed. But there was also a place inside me that could not feel anything, an empty place with no words, and no sound. A place I inhabited when I was a child , alone, trapped...

A big NY Times story about a talented young woman who ended up schizophrenic and homeless. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/03/nyregion/nyc-homeless-nakesha-mental-illness.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=nytmm_FadingSlideShow_item&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news Buried in the article is that she was repeatedly sexually abused as a child. But the bulk of the article is about people trying to help her. Not much mentioned about...

What does becoming the change you want to see in the world look like? So many victims of child abuse and trauma are stuck because they don't know that things can be different. Their inner world of tension, fear, and distrust has become their outer world. They have been living this way for so long that they don't know that things can shift and they don't know how or where to start. Then one day, they realize they are stuck and they want change but how to get unstuck is unclear, since this is...

A new study showed that doctors could help reduce their patients’ stress levels, along with boosting other health benefits, simply by recommending that people spend time in nature. “What we learned is that nature can help with stress,” said Dr. Nooshin Razani, a study author and director of the Center for Nature and Health at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. The study was published this month in the journal PLOS ONE. “Forest therapy is...

The talk around the table is not what one might expect when community advocates begin a meeting with county health officials. “I went into this [work] through my own lived experience of trauma and family addiction,” said Toni DeMarco, the deputy director of children’s services for San Mateo County Health System. Rocsana Enriquez, who teaches yoga to teens in juvenile hall in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and in high schools for the Palo Alto-based Art of Yoga Project , chimed in. “I’m...