April 2018

Lucas Johnson’s résumé is characteristic of any high-achieving high school senior. There’s the raft of Advanced Placement classes, a dozen during his four years at Monticello High School in Virginia’s Albemarle County. There are the extracurriculars — tutoring and Model United Nations and student council and cross-country. During his junior year, there was the stress that accompanied all of it — stress that, at times, made him ask: “What is the point of all of this?” The 18-year-old...

This is a story about love and sacrifice in the shining city on a hill. It is about the wildest, blindest love story in America, the story of the devotion immigrants have for a country that wants to expel them . This love perseveres past heartbreak; past giving your body, mind, and youth to a country you risked your life to get to, then seeing your own tax money pay for immigration officials to pursue an ambulance carrying a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy on the way to emergency...

People who are 30 pounds or more overweight may want to slim down a bit even if they don't have high blood pressure or any other heart disease risk, according to scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. In a study published in the May issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the researchers found that slightly less than half of the people who were considered obese -- 30 pounds or more overweight -- developed metabolic syndrome within 10 years, putting them at a...

This story was co-published with ProPublica . Doctors would see new mothers sooner and more frequently, and insurers would cover the increased visits, under sweeping new recommendations from the organization that sets standards of care for obstetrician-gynecologists in the U.S. The 11-page "committee opinion" on " Optimizing Postpartum Care ," released Monday by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists , represents a fundamental re-imagining of how providers, insurers and...

In 2012, following more than a decade of significant decline, the number of American children in foster care began rising. Between 2012 and 2016, the number of children in foster care nationally has increased by more than 10 percent. There is broad agreement that the ongoing opioid epidemic has been a primary contributor to those increases. Now, a recent research brief issued by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and...

“In Kenya they have a greeting , and that greeting is, ‘How are the children?’’’ said Pastor Patricia Sealy during a panel on day one of the inaugural National Children of Incarcerated Parents conference in Phoenix. If the children are well, then all is well, Seely explained. For those at the conference, the concern is that the children could be well if the American criminal justice system made efforts to be family focused. Attracting around 300 attendees from all over the U.S. and a handful...

Would you describe yourself as a compassionate person? Even if you don’t necessarily see yourself that way, I bet you’re compassionate at least some of the time (e.g., when you’re well-rested and not in a hurry), or with certain people in your life (e.g., with your closest friends). Compassion can be thought of as a mental state or an orientation towards suffering (your own or others’) that includes four components : Bringing attention or awareness to recognizing that there is suffering...

Sound, music and guided imagery have played an important role in my healing. I honestly don’t think healing would have happened in the absence of sound therapy. I have been taking doses of healing sounds in the morning, afternoon, evening and night.

For many children, the transition to a traditional elementary school setting, whether it be from home or a pre-school environment, represents a radical discontinuity - not just in terms of their physical environment, but on multiple levels, including values, behavioral and learning expectations, teacher attitudes, emotional support, etc. What if, in line with the latest neuroscientific discoveries about brain maturation, we were to re-envision early childhood education as commencing at birth...

Register Today! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/trauma-informed-schools-mini-conference-20-things-kids-with-trauma-wish-their-teachers-knew-tickets-45485378993 A full program description with registration link is attached. :)Melissa

When Paul Kugelman was a kid, he had no shortage of friends. But as he grew older and entered middle age, his social world narrowed. "It was a very lonely time. I did go to work and I did have interactions at work, and I cherished those," he says. "But you know, at the end of the day it was just me." Kugelman's story isn't unusual: researchers say it can be difficult for men to hold on to friendships as they age. And the problem may begin in adolescence. New York University psychology...

The Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee unanimously approved The Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018 Act on April 24. Significant provisions were included from the Heitkamp-Durbin Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act (S. 774), including creation of a task force on trauma, and grants for trauma-informed schools.