May 2017

Editor’s note: May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This article is the second in a series exploring how research into adverse childhood experiences – or ACEs – is helping researchers, therapists, parents, educators and the medical community better understand the lasting effects of trauma on mental health. Childhood trauma can have lifelong health, social and behavioral consequences. Research shows that different forms of abuse, neglect and related household stressors are unfortunately...

If you suffer from chronic pain, you've probably wished you could enter an alternate universe. Now, thanks to virtual-reality technology, you can, at least temporarily—and the result is an enormous reduction in physical suffering. That's the finding of a study published in the online journal PLoS One that featured 30 participants with various medical conditions causing chronic pain, most involving the spine or hips. Using an Oculus Rift headset, all spent five minutes exploring a 360-degree...

AS OF 2014, U.S. PUBLIC SCHOOLS REACHED A MAJOR MILESTONE: More than half (51%) of public school students were children of color and/or came from low-income families (qualify for a reduced or free school lunch). That shift represented a clear turning point toward greater diversity in America’s public schools and the need for a corresponding diversity of approaches in the nation’s classrooms. What is at stake if that need is left unmet? For one, resources: Students of color are more likely to...

In the eyes of the state of Maine, Laurie Kane is an able-bodied adult without dependents, and thus ineligible for most forms of government support. In her own eyes, it is hard to see how she is going to find housing, work, and stability without help. Kane is struggling to put her life back together amid a spell of homelessness that has lasted for three years. She has a severe anxiety condition, along with other health problems, and had suffered a panic attack on the day I met her. But she...

TCPR: Dr. Skovholt, you’ve done plenty of research and writing on clinician burnout and how to avoid it. What are some of the key concepts that you think psychiatrists should understand? Dr. Skovholt: One of the great challenges of being a therapist is that we have to form attachments to many clients, and then eventually those relationships often end for various reasons, perhaps because the patient no longer needs treatment or just drops out of treatment. We don’t want to become overly...

Childhood trauma can have lifelong health, social and behavioral consequences. Research shows that different forms of abuse, neglect and related household stressors are unfortunately common among children. These experiences often do not occur as single events, and the risk for long-term outcomes worsens as the number of adversities increase. These experiences can also increase the risk of multiple health problems throughout the lifespan and hinder healthy brain development in children.

The Ventura County Whole Person Care (WPC) Pilot program coordinates health, behavioral health, and social services in order to improve the health outcomes of eligible Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are high utilizers of multiple systems. Through collaboration and coordination among county agencies, health plans, providers and other entities, WPC designs and develops the infrastructure and processes to integrate and improve care for vulnerable populations. The Clinical Nurse Manager - Whole...

Violence is common in pregnancy, with mothers-to-be in the United States at greater risk for assault-related injuries and death than women who aren't expecting, a new study finds. "The striking results of our study suggest that widespread screening for violence and trauma during pregnancy may provide an opportunity to identify women at risk for death during pregnancy," said lead author Dr. Neha Deshpande of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Such screening for assault and...

We are so excited to host Dr. Robert Anda and Father Gregory Boyle on September 8, 2017, in Hagerstown, MD. Dr. Anda will also lead a panel of regional leaders to explore successes and challenges when responding to community needs. More information at www.besterhope.org

Around 1 in 10 children have a diagnosable mental health disorder according to the Young Minds charity - staggeringly, that’s the equivalent of around 3 children in every classroom nationally. There’s a national campaign currently in full swing to lift the veil on mental health, and great emphasis is being placed on the importance of spotting the early signs that suggest a child might be struggling emotionally. With children and young people spending so much time in school, there is a...

The Jesuit St. Francis Mission announced that it is relinquishing 525 acres of unused land within the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The federal land grant to the mission, made when the tribal reservation was established in the late 1880s, was intended to support the mission’s educational activities serving the Sicangu Lakota people living on the reservation. The St. Francis Mission will continue to hold land on the reservation where it has active operations. Indian Country...

The state attorney general’s office is looking into hundreds of dubious arrests at California’s shelters for abused and neglected children that were detailed last week in a San Francisco Chronicle investigative report . The attorney general’s response comes amid calls from judges, state lawmakers and youth lawyers to consider shutting down shelters where children as young as 8 have been funneled into the criminal justice system for minor incidents. Meanwhile, the director of Mary Graham...