June 2016

A leopard-print sign hanging on Andrea Smith’s front door announces, “I am a luxury few can afford.” Three years ago there was heavy truth in that statement. Smith was bringing in about $2500 a night turning tricks. “I charged $500 for a half hour, full service — meaning blow job and sex — and $1000 for the girlfriend experience. That was the loving, the hugging, the kissing, the affection, and the holding. A lot of people wanted that because they might have a girlfriend or wife at home, but...

When you hear the phrase "digital health," you might think about a Fitbit, the healthy eating app on your smartphone, or maybe a new way to email the doctor. But Fitbits aren't particularly useful if you're homeless, and the nutrition app won't mean much to someone who struggles to pay for groceries. Same for emailing your doctor if you don't have a doctor or reliable Internet access. "There is a disconnect between the problems of those who need the most help and the tech solutions they are...

San Diego County is moving forward with a new program that will provide long-term housing and care to as many as 1,250 mentally-ill homeless people in the next two years. “These are the people who have basically lost the struggle with behavioral health issues and are about as down and out as human beings can get,” Supervisor Greg Cox said. “They have a serious illness. These lost souls share our streets, but not our sense of reality.” County government will work with 18 cities, six housing...

Most classrooms in California’s transitional kindergarten program are stand-alone classes that may better prepare children for kindergarten than classes that combine transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students, according to a report released Wednesday. Transitional kindergarten is a separate program for 4-year-olds who turn 5 between Sept. 2 and Dec. 2 and miss the cut-off date for kindergarten. However, some schools combine those 4-year-olds in classes with kindergarten students,...

School is out for the summer, and while that means fun and vacation for some families, for others it can mean losing access to important sources of nutrition. Programs like the Summer Food Service Program and the Seamless Summer Option operate during the summer to address the gap in free and reduced-price meals that some children face, but they typically serve fewer children than the National School Lunch Program does during the traditional academic year. Generally speaking, food insecurity...

Abstract Studies have found traumatic experiences in childhood to have lasting effects across the lifecourse. These adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include a variety of types of trauma, including psychological, physical or sexual abuse; living in poverty; violence in the home; living with a substance abuser; living with a mentally ill or suicidal person; or living with someone who is or has been imprisoned. Long-term effects among adults have been found in previous studies; but there is...

A few nights ago I was watching the evening news. As a self-confessed news junkie, it’s hard for me to forego my daily dose of what’s going on in the world. But that particular night I found myself struggling, and then disengaging completely. Literally switching off. The newscast consisted of nothing but journalists standing in front of assorted court houses to report on the latest atrocities: mostly people assaulting or even killing their “loved ones”. And there’s only so much of that news...

One day in February 2009, a 13-year-old boy named Sasha Egger started thinking that people were coming to hurt his family. His mother, Helen, watched with mounting panic that evening as her previously healthy son forgot the rules to Uno, his favorite card game, while playing it. She began making frantic phone calls the next morning. By then, Sasha was shuffling aimlessly around the yard, shredding paper and stuffing it in his pockets. “He looked like an old person with dementia,” Helen later...

PSI 2016 Annual Meeting - Connecting the importance of the ACEs study, trauma informed and responsive approaches in the fight to address maternal mental health.

Yoga classes will continue in the Encinitas school district for at least the next year, but the conflict over the program is likely to stretch on as the district searches for a permanent way to fund it. At a packed meeting Tuesday, the Encinitas Union School District board approved $416,000 for a health and wellness program centered on yoga practice, as part of its 2016-17 budget. That amount was scaled back from the $800,000 that Superintendent Tim Baird initially wanted to spend on...

Everything in American education is broken. Or so say the policy elites, from the online learning pioneer Sal Khan to the journalist-turned-reformer Campbell Brown . As leaders of the XQ project succinctly put it, we need to “scrap the blueprint and revolutionize this dangerously broken system.” This, they explain, is the sad truth. The educational system simply stopped working. It aged, declined, and broke. And now the nation has a mess on its hands. But there’s good news, too. As Michelle...

A nother middle-aged former NFL player committed suicide on Wednesday. His name was Lawrence Phillips, and he was found unresponsive in his cell at Kern Valley State Prison in California. He was taken to a local hospital and died soon after. It was a long way from college-football stardom and NFL dreams, and could have perhaps been prevented if only someone had taken a moment to give a damn, not only before but after his incarceration. Lawrence Phillips started his life as a target of...