July 2017

To date, over 80 copies of the curriculum Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks: a six week study of trauma-informed ministry and compassionate care for children from hard places and situations have gone out around the country. Released this past spring, most have ordered it to preview the materials prior to utilization this coming fall. So, while feedback has been positive, there have been few users with specific comments related to how their teaching experience has gone (because, well... they...

Here is a piece I just wrote on an incident described by Marcus Johnson, the famous jazz musician in DC. I am still haunted; worse yet, I do not have an answer. Do you? Here is a link to the piece. Thoughts welcomed and needed: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/marcus-johnson-blues-alley-education-karen-gross?published=t

When seeking therapy or counseling , you're likely to envision laying on a couch or sitting in a chair, face to face with one trained professional who will listen, ask questions and offer feedback. Indeed, this is a common and often effective way to address problems in living. Less often considered, though, is group psychotherapy . Group therapy typically involves one or two trained therapists and several people working through similar problems. People go to group therapy for help with a...

Essential health benefits (EHBs) targeted for cuts in reform debate represent a small share of total monthly premiums. The Issue Analysis shows the EHBs covered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and targeted for cuts in repeal and replace legislation, represent less than 10 percent of total monthly premiums. Conclusion The per-person costs of insuring EHBs are reasonably low, and account for small percentages of the overall premium when the costs are spread broadly across a large...

While treating children in an underserved neighborhood in San Francisco, pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris noticed a disturbing trend: many of the kids who came to see her had experienced childhood trauma and it was impacting their health. In response, she founded the Center for Youth Wellness , which she now heads as the CEO. Today, Dr. Nadine’s health-care practice focuses on trauma, and how this little-understood, yet too-common factor in childhood can profoundly impact adult-onset...

Lancaster County is doing particularly well on an effort to keep people with complicated medical conditions from racking up big hospital bills, according to a new report from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. It shows that the county has Pennsylvania’s second-lowest rate of “super-utilizers,” with only 11 out of every 10,000 residents landing in the hospital at least five times a year. That rate’s down from 11.7 in 2014, and it trails only Pike County, which stands at 6.

When Dannel Malloy, the Democratic governor of Connecticut, entered Germany’s Heidering Prison two years ago this summer, he saw something more akin to an American college dormitory than a detention center. Heidering rejects the idea that prisons should aim to punish, and permits even convicted murderers to cook their own food, lock their own cells, and leave to see their families on weekends. Germany “can actually call their [prisons] a corrections system as opposed to our penal system,”...

Epidemics are hard to cover. Navigating the gaps between the private, personal, and societal and managing to be relatable while also true to science is a tough part of health reporting, generally. Doing those things in the middle of public panic—and its attendant misinformation—requires deftness. And performing them while also minding the social issues that accompany every epidemic means reporters have to dig deep, both into multiple disciplines and into ethics. With multiple competing...

Harsh life experiences appear to leave African-Americans vulnerable to Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, researchers reported Sunday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in London. Several teams presented evidence that poverty, disadvantage and stressful life events are strongly associated with cognitive problems in middle age and dementia later in life among African-Americans. The findings could help explain why African-Americans are twice as likely as white...

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/07/16/536935957/stress-and-poverty-may-explain-high-rates-of-dementia-in-african-americans

"You are absolutely not doomed from having ACEs."

A bipartisan resolution “Recognizing the importance and effectiveness of trauma-informed care” ( H. Res. 443 ) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on July 13 by Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and co-sponsor Danny K. Davis (D-IL). The impetus for the resolution resides with the First Lady of Wisconsin, Tonette Tonette Walker Walker, who has taken a strong leadership role in advancing trauma-informed policy and practice statewide through Fostering Futures and of late with the new...