July 2016

It was a particularly cold day in Macon, Georgia. I prepared myself for the long wait to get into Central State Prison to visit my son. Wearing my “prison uniform” and donning a men’s coat that would keep me warm enough I stepped out of my vehicle — quarters, check; driver’s license, check; patience, check. The line was long today. What many people don’t realize is that most prisons don’t have interior areas to wait to get through security. We have a sidewalk with a small metal cover as wide...

One of the hardest parts of being a farmer is the lack of control over things like weather and international markets. A world-first online mental health program is hoping to give farmers similar skills to cancer patients, who also have to deal with uncertainty and unexpected developments. Lead researcher and developer Kate Fennell said the website would not only help farmers who lived with a mental illness, but could also be used to prevent problems in the first place. [For more of this...

A new online knowledge center offers expert information on supporting the mental health and emotional well-being of students of color. It was created by the Steve Fund, a nonprofit focused on student of color mental health issues and is available free of charge. “Our goal is to provide carefully vetted information on how to better support the mental health and emotional well-being of students of color,” says Evan Rose, president of the Steve Fund, adding: “We are thrilled to launch this new...

Victor Pierce has worked on the assembly line of a Daimler Trucks North America plant here since 1994. But he says that in recent years he’s experienced things that seem straight out of another time. White co-workers have challenged him to fights, mounted “hangman’s nooses” around the factory, referred to him as “boy” on a daily basis, sabotaged his work station by hiding his tools, carved swastikas in the bathroom, and written the word “nigger” on walls in the factory, according to...

When it comes to the emotional well-being of children, we tend to think of girls and boys as more alike than they are different — they need the same kind of nurturing. But girls develop differently from boys, especially after they reach puberty, and they experience different pressures. That makes them vulnerable to some different emotional and behavioral challenges. - See full article posted on Children's Mental Health Network from Child Mind where they explore issues that affect girls more...

In the last two years, the director of an Islamic funeral home in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, buried six young men. Heart attacks, some neighbors said, but the whispers and witnesses said something else: heroin. The families of the men would not discuss the causes of death. “They tell us straight up, ‘Don’t say anything,’” the funeral director’s son, Kareem Elmatbagi, said. Drug overdose is considered suicide, a sin in Islam, and therefore a source of shame for many in the Arab-American...

Every young life starts out with promise, and the adults who love a child yearn for that child to have a bright future. But what if a simple barrier at an early age sets a child up for failure? Difficulty in reading is such a barrier. Poor reading skill is a predictor of, among other things, involvement in the juvenile justice system. “The literature shows a clear correlation between a grade-level reading problem and, later on, incarceration in the juvenile justice system,” said Ralph Smith,...

The 95-degree heat wasn’t enough to keep some of Pottstown’s best community crusaders from spreading their message. Clustered underneath the shade in Riverfront Park Saturday were members of a variety of community organizations who gathered there for the eighth annual Stop the Drugs, Stop the Violence event. Representatives from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, Women’s Center of Montgomery County, Pottstown School District and several religious organizations came together to...

Los Angeles is getting closer to prohibiting certain employers from asking about criminal histories in their hiring process. The city’s move would expand on a state law that bans such questions on applications for local- and state-government jobs by extending it to segments of the private sector. It would also bring much-needed relief to the thousands of former inmates who live in the county, many of whom have trouble finding work. In 2012, more than 14,000 Los Angeles residents were...

In the United States, local jails process over 11 million admissions in a single year. Most of those who are arrested get the option to post bail and go free until they are arraigned. But those who can’t afford bail sit in jail awaiting trial, which can hurt their ability to mount a defense. It’s harder to collect evidence. It’s harder to meet with lawyers. A defendant can’t do things that might be looked upon favorably by a judge, like entering rehab, or getting a stable job, or attending...

July is Minority Mental Health Month , a month to spread awareness about how mental illnesses specifically affects people of color, and to erase the stigma and misinformation that plagues POC when it comes to mental illness. One way to spread awareness is through dialogue. I had a candid conversation with three black women writers (Ashley Reese, Minaa B, and Angelica Bastien) who deal with mental illness about how our mental health ― including depression, ADHD and suicidal thoughts ― affects...

Activist A.J. Bohannon had organized more than 1,000 Black Lives Matters protesters to march the streets of Wichita on Sunday. But then, days before, he received a call from the new police chief with a different idea. Instead of having an event that drew a hard line between protester and police, why not bring them all together for an evening of summer revelry and open dialogue? So instead of marching, they gathered in a wooded park where the police department cooked and served up burgers.