Blog

Last year, my previous employer threw a very thoughtful, generous appreciation dinner for our creative leadership team. The dinner was scheduled for 6:30pm on a weeknight. I’m a single mom living in downtown Boston, which meant that I’d have to arrange for a sitter from about 6pm-midnight at $20/hour. Add in some Tasty Burger for my son and the sitter, her tip and Uber home, and this appreciation dinner was going to end up costing me about $200. So when I received the invite, I couldn’t just...

Seanna Crosbie, chair of the Trauma-Informed Care Consortium of Central Texas (TICC) , laments that Texas is too often in the national spotlight for less than positive reasons—one example being its ranking next to the bottom among in states in spending on mental health services—and not often enough for its achievements. As she leads the TICC, she envisions a statewide collaboration across diverse sectors—including health, education, law enforcement—that turns around some of the most...

Eight years ago I wrote a brief review of The Whole Parent: How to be a Good Parent Even if You Didn't Have One by Debra Wesselmann. It was, and still is one of the few titles on this important topic. While the article is older, and geared towards adoptive parents, the content is still useful and this book can help any of us who are Parenting with ACEs. Here's an excerpt: This book is fantastic because it manages to be non-shaming about our weak spots while stressing the importance of...

When Lindsay Abt was pregnant with her first child, she remembers reading a book for expectant mothers that cautioned against making too many big life changes at once. She went ahead and made three anyway. “I broke all of the rules,” she said. Not only did she take on a job with greater responsibility — she is a partner at the accounting firm Ernst & Young — she had to move her family to Florida from New York to do it. She moved in July 2014 while her husband stayed behind to sell their...

July 12 marked one month since the horrific mass shooting that claimed the lives of 49 LGBTQ people and allies at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Most were young and Latinx. Those who lost loved ones are just beginning to try and make sense of the senseless and start the healing process. While the initial shock experienced so acutely by LGBTQ people and people of color may have started the process of grief, the collective trauma lives on. The need for inclusive LGBTQ-specific health centers...

Doyou believe that positive thinking can help you achieve your goals? Many people today do. Pop psychology and the $12 billion self-help industry reinforce a widespread belief that positive thinking can improve our moods and lead to beneficial life changes. In her book The Secret Daily Teachings(2008), the self-help author Rhonda Byrne suggested that: ‘Whatever big thing you are asking for, consider having the celebration now as though you have received it.’ Yet research in psychology...

LooLoo Amante had nowhere to live after her freshman year of college, so she bought a Scion with tinted windows and, at just 19 years old, slept in the driver's seat. She had little money for food, let alone a costly meal plan, so she sometimes asked friends to grab her a banana or apple from the dining hall. Even some of her closest friends had no idea that homelessness was part of the college experience for Amante, an advertising major who ran on the cross-country team and served as San...

The USA ranks ninth among the world’s 19 wealthiest nations in terms of overall child well-being - despite having the world’s largest economy, according to a Save the Children report released Friday. The Child Prosperity Index looks at indicators in eight areas affecting children around the world, including health, education, income, safety, employment, gender equality, infrastructure and the environment. The report is being released ahead of the G20 Summit in China this September. G20 is a...

A large majority of American adults thinks it's OK for doctors to discuss gun safety with their patients, a new study reveals. The online survey included more than 3,900 respondents. The researchers found that 66 percent said it was at least sometimes appropriate for doctors to talk about guns with patients. Twenty-three percent said it was always appropriate for doctors to talk to patients about guns, 14 percent said it was usually appropriate, and 30 percent said it was sometimes...

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...