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If you live with anxiety , you might be familiar with some of the seemingly “harmless” but incredibly hurtful things people often say to those struggling with it. Sometimes these “harmless” comments come in the form of a question. ( Have you tried meditating? ) Sometimes they come with a “solution” via personal anecdote. ( Becky used to get panic attacks, and once she started exercising again, her anxiety totally went away. ) Most often, they come from a place of misunderstanding mental...

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Authorities in San Diego have confiscated twelve guns from campuses across the county since the anonymous hotline “Students Speaking Out” was implemented in 1999. That’s according to Dep. Adriana Uribe with the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, who helps manage the county’s anonymous tip hotlines. “That’s twelve potential school shootings that didn’t happen because somebody said something,” said Uribe. To read more of Matt Boone's article and to watch the accompanying video,...

So much of our nation's history – and our present – is rooted in the institution of slavery. Yet, America's schools are woefully unprepared to teach children about American slavery and all of the history related to it. That's what the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance project discovered after a yearlong investigation that included surveys of more than 1,000 high school seniors, an examination of state standards and textbooks, and questionnaires to more than 1,700 social...

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) — Transgender foster children would be guaranteed access to health care specific to their unique needs under a bill announced Monday by San Diego Assemblyman Todd Gloria. The Democrat’s bill would amend the list of foster youth rights to include “access to gender-affirming health care and gender-affirming behavioral health services,” such as counseling to cope with gender identity issues or gender confirmation surgery. That list includes such freedoms as accessing the...

Mission: Promoting trauma-informed services in the San Diego region through collaboration, advocacy, and education. I. Noon Networking II. Introductions (Name and Organization) III. Trauma-Informed Journey Presentation a. NAMI, Linda Ketterer IV. ACEs Connection Network a. Using ACEs Connection to connect to the power of transformation in the ACEs Science movement V. Committee Report Out a. Membership Committee – Stephen Carroll/Linda Ketterer b. Training Committee – Craig Beswick/Melissa...

Working on improving police-community relations requires specific knowledge and skills which may or may not have been part of one’s religious training. The approaches in the Building Trust Partnership Handbook and website require religious leaders to know certain information, to think differently, and to carry out a variety of actions. Convening a community dialogue requires facilitation skills. Asking the police to deliver a presentation on the criminal justice system requires knowledge...

Barry Pollard told the San Diego Trauma-Informed Guide Team (SD-TIGT) how a small group of exasperated residents had rattled the corporate gates and won. During the “trauma-informed journey” portion of January’s SD-TIGT meeting—a regular feature in which a member or guest shares challenges, triumphs and lessons learned in the course of implementing trauma-informed practices—Pollard, founder of San Diego’s three-year-old Urban Collaborative Project (UCP), told how residents in Southeast San...

For the first time ever, KPBS teams up with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to compare American privatized medicine with government funded, universal health care in Canada. In the end, which system would make us healthier? In which country would we live longer? And is basic health care a right or a privilege? To watch the KPBS News video, please click here.

Economic inequality is an epidemic in the United States. The disparities in opportunity, resources, and wealth in our country are evident, however, this article supplies data that exemplifies these trends. To address economic inequality is to address the adverse outcomes it creates. To read more of Zaid Jilani's article, please click here.

Gov. Jerry Brown may not want to discuss his legacy just yet, but he is a visionary on criminal justice reform as he used his State of the State speech this week to underscore. He is the first California governor to realize the self-defeating folly of governments routinely ruining the salvageable lives of so many people by locking them up for so long. Brown noted that the state incarcerates nearly three times as many people per capita now than it did in 1970 — while spending nearly three...

A hug may be comforting to many children, but for a child who has experienced trauma it may not feel safe. That’s an example used by Julie Kurtz, co-director of trauma informed practices in early childhood education at the WestEd Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS), as she begins a trauma training session. Her audience, preschool teachers and staff of the San Francisco-based Wu Yee Children’s Services at San Francisco’s Women’s Building, listen attentively.

At age 88, Korean War veteran Stan Levin has earned the right to spend all his evenings in the warm comfort of his Serra Mesa home. But several nights a month for the past six years, Levin has patrolled the streets of downtown San Diego, handing out free sleeping bags, socks and snacks to homeless men and women he finds sleeping on the sidewalks. Levin, who makes all his street runs with fellow veteran Gilbert Field, is the No. 1 delivery man for San Diego Veterans for Peace’s Compassion...