Blog

By Jayne O'Donnell, USA Today, February 7, 2020 Health care is one of the most divisive issues of the 2020 presidential campaign, with candidates disparaging insurers and polarizing labels creating deep divisions even among Democrats. But remove the buzzwords from the policies, and voters who will decide the election aren't so far apart in their own positions, new research shows. Regardless of party affiliation, nearly everyone wants to see the nation's health care system improved, and a...

By NationSwell Team, NationSwell, February 7, 2020 Growing up in Mexico, Pancho learned to see his identity woven with that of his community. He found his own dignity depended on seeing the dignity in others. He helped communities in Mexico and Nicaragua tap their strengths to improve the lives of everyone there — work that required years of building trust. When he followed his American girlfriend, now wife, to the United States, he had to start over. In Houston, Pancho met immigrants with...

By Rick Nauert, PsychCentral, January 31, 2020 New research finds that children are more likely to control their immediate impulses when they and a peer rely on each other to get a reward than when they’re left to their own willpower. Investigators say their experiments are the first to show that children are more willing to delay gratification for cooperative reasons than for individual goals. In the study, researchers used a modified version of the “marshmallow test,” a classic...

By Anne Harding, Medscape, February 6, 2020 Spending time in the neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) is associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence, according to a new population-based study. "In childhood, the risks of separation anxiety, specific phobia, oppositional defiant disorder and ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) were particularly pronounced while adolescents tended to struggle more with oppositional defiant disorder," Dr.

By Kizuki M, Fujiwara T, and Shinozaki T, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, February 2020 Objectives To examine the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), workplace bullying victimisation and bullying behaviours to subordinates among Japanese workers. Methods We conducted an internet-based cross-sectional survey among workers who had enacted 0, 1 and ≥2 types of bullying behaviours that had been directed towards subordinates in the past 3 years (n=309 for each...

By Presbyterian News Service, February 7, 2020 Although Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) members and leaders desire to address mental health issues in their communities and churches, many feel unprepared to do so. That’s according to a churchwide study recently conducted on behalf of the leadership staff of the Presbyterian Mental Health Initiative called for by the 2018 General Assembly. The study was commissioned by the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Compassion, Peace & Justice Ministry,...

By David Waters, Daily Memphian, February 9, 2020 A landmark Memphis clinical trial of neurofeedback therapy shows promising results for adolescents struggling to overcome chronic childhood trauma. In the 2019 trial, scientists measured, recorded and trained the brain waves of nearly three dozen adolescents at Compass Intervention Center in southeast Memphis. The non-invasive therapy, which has been used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in war veterans, was used to treat developmental...

From Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, University of Texas, February 2020 Note: An additional RFP for the Mental Health Peer Policy Fellow Program is being released simultaneously with this RFP. Eligible organizations are allowed to submit proposals for one or both of these policy fellow grants. The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health invites eligible organizations in Texas to respond to this request for proposals (RFP) to fund policy fellow positions. The goal of this program is to promote...

Understand that as ACAs, ever the good little, loyal soldiers, we spent our childhoods trying to manage the unmanageable disease of addiction. That means we were trying to manage a drug addict, but they still more or less look like Dad or Mom. So we don’t know that this isn’t normal; we don’t see the illness. Our parent simply keeps acting in strange and frightening or “fun” or smarmy ways. But we keep thinking it’s our parent, and our parent keeps using our name and wearing the same clothes...

The Importance of Practicing Self-Care When You’re Recovering from Addiction When you’re recovering from addiction , self-care is vital to your physical, mental, and emotional health—and to the success of your continued sobriety. In fact, the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine says that practicing good self-care during recovery is key to developing coping skills and preventing relapse from happening. The more time you spend caring for yourself and paying close attention to your mind and...

By Marynia Kolak, Jay Bhatt, Yoon Hong Park, et al., January 29, 2020 Key Points Question How do social determinants of health vary across multiple dimensions and geographic space? Findings In this cross-sectional study of 71 901 census tracts with approximately 312 million persons across the continental United States, multivariate social determinants of health measures were reduced to 4 indices reflecting advantage, isolation, opportunity, and mixed immigrant cohesion and accessibility and...

By Kavitha Cardoza, National Public Radio, February 6, 2020 What can you do if you're a teacher, a neighbor, a churchgoer, a coach ... and you suspect a child is being impacted by a parent's addiction? Maybe you're thinking, "I'd love to help but it's not my business." Or "I want to reach out but I don't know much about addiction." Remember that episode of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, where he tells children to "look for the helpers"? You can be that helper simply by being present for the...