Publications - Trauma and Resiliency
Justice Department warns of dramatic increase in ‘sextortion’ schemes targeting boys, by Holmes Lybrand, CNN, Dec 19 2022.
“At least 3,000 minors, mostly boys, have been targeted by financial “sextortion” schemes this year, a dramatic increase from previous years, the Justice Department announced in a public safety alert on Monday. Using social media platforms, predators will, in some cases, start communicating with the targeted minor before moving the conversation to a different platform that primarily uses direct messaging, according to the department. Victims are tricked into providing explicit material, and then the perpetrators will demand money – sometimes thousands of dollars – threatening to release the images to family members and friends of the victim, the department says. “The FBI has seen a horrific increase in reports of financial sextortion schemes targeting minor boys — and the fact is that the many victims who are afraid to come forward are not even included in those numbers,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. At least a dozen victims have died by suicide as a result of these crimes, according to the department. The schemes, which have primarily targeted boys ages 14 to 17 – though some as young as 10 – largely originated from West African countries, including Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, according to the department. It’s unclear if these cells of perpetrators are connected. Wray said that the FBI needs “parents and caregivers to work with us to prevent this crime before it happens and help children come forward if it does.” “Victims may feel like there is no way out – it is up to all of us to reassure them that they are not in trouble, there is hope, and they are not alone,” the director said. ”
Teen brains aged faster than normal from pandemic stress, study says, by Katherine Lewis Reynolds, The Washington Post, Dec 1 2022.
“The stress of pandemic lockdowns prematurely aged the brains of teenagers by at least three years and in ways similar to changes observed in children who have faced chronic stress and adversity, a study has found. The study, published Thursday in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science, was the first to compare scans of the physical structures of teenagers’ brains from before and after the pandemic started, and to document significant differences, said Ian Gotlib, lead author on the paper and a psychology professor at Stanford University. Researchers knew teens had higher “levels of depression, anxiety and fearfulness” than “before the pandemic. But we knew nothing about the effects on their brains,” said Gotlib, who is director of the Stanford Neurodevelopment, Affect, and Psychopathology Laboratory. “We thought there might be effects similar to what you would find with early adversity; we just didn’t realize how strong they’d be.” Premature aging of children’s brains isn’t a positive development. Before the pandemic, it was observed in cases of chronic childhood stress, trauma, abuse and neglect. These adverse childhood experiences not only make people more vulnerable to depression, anxiety, addiction and other mental illnesses, they can raise the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other long-term negative outcomes. ”
How some therapists are helping patients heal by tackling structural racism, by Lauren Beard, NPR, Nov 25 2022.
“Many of the founding ideas, techniques and schools of practice of therapy were developed by white scholars or practitioners. As a result, the field has marginalized the experiences of people of color, therapists and patients say. Microaggressions are also pervasive in psychological practice, researchers note, and many immigrants report not attending therapy because of language barriers, a lack of insurance and high costs. That's why Teng wanted to take a new approach. For her, that meant joining a growing movement of other counselors hoping to transform the practice of therapy, to make it more accessible and relevant to people of color and — ultimately — to help them find healing. Teng was initially inspired by people like Dr. Jennifer Mullan, who refer to this work as "decolonizing therapy," a process of addressing the structural racism and other forms of oppression that keep therapy from serving many marginalized communities. ”
10 ways to get mental health help during a therapist shortage, by Lindsey Bever, The Washington Post, Oct 29 2022.
“Anxiety and depression have been on the rise in the United States since the start of the pandemic. This has led to a crisis in mental health that has been worsened by the shortage of mental health counselors. A significant number of mental health professionals are not accepting new clients. Others have long waiting lists. The Washington Post asked mental health professionals what advice they would give people who are struggling to find a therapist. About 300 experts from across the country responded with advice on getting an appointment — and tips on what people can do in the meantime to try to help themselves. Here are their recommendations. ”
519 US service members died by suicide in 2021, Pentagon says, by Ellie Kaufman and Paul LeBlanc, CNN, Oct 20 2022.
“A new report from the Pentagon found that 519 US service members died by suicide in 2021, a decrease from the 582 cases in 2020. The 519 deaths last year involved active-duty, reserve, and National Guard members. The largest decrease in suicides among service members occurred among active-duty service members, the data showed. In 2021, 328 active-duty service members died by suicide compared to 384 active-duty service members in 2020. There was less of a decrease among reserve and National Guard service members. Seventy-four reserve members died by suicide in 2021 compared to 77 in 2020.According to the data, 117 National Guard members died by suicide in 2021 compared to 121 in 2020. While 2020 saw the suicide rate for active-duty service members increase by 9.1%, the 2021 rate was similar to 2019, the report said. Still, despite the decrease from 2020 to 2021, the overall suicide rate per 100,000 active-duty service members has slowly increased from 2011 to 2021, the report said. ”
4 emotional workouts to help you feel empowered and promote resilience, by Juli Fraga, The Washington Post, Sep 28 2022.
“Self-care tools can be helpful, especially when barriers such as high-deductible insurance plans, high co-pays and living in remote areas can make mental health care difficult to afford or access. And while the pandemic isn’t solely to blame for the lack of therapists, it’s certainly made things worse, says Vaile Wright, the senior director of health-care innovation at the American Psychological Association. With too few mental health resources, we need innovative ways to make psychological care more accessible, she says. If you’re waiting to see a therapist, can’t afford mental health care or have recently finished therapy, emotional exercises are one way to strengthen your psychological muscles. While these workouts aren’t meant to replace individual or group therapy, Anhalt says they can promote resilience and help you feel empowered. ”
As school starts, teachers add a mental-health check-in to their lesson plans, by Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR, Sep 2 2022.
“As the new school year begins, teachers at many schools across the country are adding a new component to their routines: a mental health check-in with their students. The idea is to open up conversations around how kids are feeling emotionally, and to connect them to help before issues escalate to a crisis. [...] The new approach comes after two and a half rocky years of pandemic, with kids' lives disrupted by bouts of remote schooling and many families in economic stress, which worsened the already shaky state of children's mental health in the U.S. In 2020, the CDC reported a greater proportion of kids showing up at emergency rooms in a mental health crises: serious suicide attempts, eating disorders, aggressive behaviors. "The thing that's most concerned us was really the number of significant self-harm and suicidal ideation that we've seen in an emergency room," says Dr. Smriti Khare, pediatrician and the chief mental and behavioral health office at Children's Wisconsin, in Milwaukee, which saw a 40% rise in visits to the ER after the start of the pandemic in 2020 compared to the year before. ”
Confronting Health Worker Burnout and Well-Being, by Vivek H. Murthy, M.D., M.B.A., New England Journal of Medicine, Aug 18 2022.
“Expressions of gratitude have too often been replaced by hostility, anger, and even death threats toward health workers, as health misinformation has exploded, eroding trust in science and public health experts. Yet doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, respiratory therapists, hospital security officers, and staff members of health care and public health organizations continue showing up to battle the pandemic and its sequelae — long Covid, mental health strain, widening health disparities, and 2 years’ worth of deferred care for myriad conditions. The toll on our health workers is alarming. Thousands of them have died from Covid. More than half of health workers report symptoms of burnout,1 and many are contending with insomnia, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, or other mental health challenges.2 ”
How the U.S. Can Solve a Shortage of Mental-Health Professionals, by Lisa Ward, The Wall Street Journal, Aug 14 2022.
“Many sufferers of mental-health issues can’t find the help they need. Often there just aren’t enough providers. More than a third of the U.S. population, about 130 million people, live in areas that have a dearth of mental-health workers. Residents of underserved areas have roughly a quarter of the providers they need, in aggregate, the Kaiser Family Foundation says. The shortage is even more acute in rural areas. About 80% of rural counties lack access to a single psychiatrist, according to a report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, citing data from the Health Resources and Services Administration. The pandemic brought the shortage of mental-health services into sharp focus as more adults sought help to deal with the stress and disruption of their daily lives. Children suffered immensely, too, as prolonged school closures weren’t only psychologically damaging, but also caused many children’s mental-health conditions to go unnoticed because teachers and school psychologists are a primary source of referrals. ”
More states are allowing students to take mental health days off, by Giles Bruce, NPR, Jun 10 2022.
“The state allows K-12 students in public schools to have five excused absences per school year for mental health reasons, another example of the growing acknowledgment among lawmakers that emotional and physical health are intertwined. The new policy, which went into effect at the beginning of 2022, passed both chambers of the state legislature unanimously. But such novel policies are, in many ways, a half-step toward addressing the crisis of teenage mental health that has been highlighted and exacerbated by the educational interruptions caused by the pandemic. Many parts of the country are woefully short of therapists who can work with students to address mental health problems. Seventy percent of schools that responded to a federal survey in April said more students had sought mental health services since the pandemic started. The National Center for Education Statistics' polling also showed that only 56% of schools said they effectively provide mental health services to all students in need and just 41% reported hiring new staff members to help address students' mental health needs. Nearly half the nation lives in a designated mental health worker shortage area, according to government data, and an estimated 7,550 new professionals are needed to fill that void nationwide. Even in places where mental health professionals are more plentiful, they often do not accept public insurance, making them inaccessible to many kids. ”
Schools are struggling to meet rising mental health needs, data shows, by Laura Meckler, The Washington Post, May 31 2022.
“A survey released Tuesday documents the toll the pandemic has taken on students’ mental health, with 7 in 10 public schools seeing a rise in the number of children seeking services. Even more, 76 percent, said faculty and staff members have expressed concerns about depression, anxiety and trauma in students since the start of the pandemic. Yet only about half of all schools said they were able to effectively provide needed services. The results come as an enormously stressful school year draws to a close. They add to the evidence that the pandemic is leaving this generation of students with significant mental health challenges. Anecdotally, teachers report that students’ emotional growth was stunted during months or longer of remote schooling, and that many returned to the classroom without coping skills that would be typical for their ages. ”
Can Monitoring Brain Waves Boost Mental Health?, by David Dodge, New York Times, Feb 1 2022.
“The treatment is known as neurofeedback, a therapy some say can improve our attention, moods, sleeping habits and even our athletic ability by measuring brain activity and showing it to us — either on a screen or through headphones — in real time. A practitioner places electrodes on a patient’s head that detects (but does not stimulate) brain activity. This is then analyzed by a computer that sends it back to the patient as images or sounds. As the patient completes tasks, the computer encourages healthy patterns of brain activity. ”
Black Kids In California More Likely To Be Hospitalized For Police-Related Injuries, by Deepa Shivaram, NPR, Sep 9 2021.
“A new study out of California shows that Black boys and girls are hospitalized from police violence at a rate far higher than their white peers. The researchers from the University of California, Berkeley looked into injuries of children and teens caused by law enforcement between 2005-2017. They used data from emergency department visits and inpatients hospitalizations in the state of California. Black boys ages 15-19 had the highest rate of hospitalization due to police violence, but the widest racial gap existed in the 10-14 age group. Black boys and girls ages 10-14 are injured at 5.3 and 6.7 times, respectively, the rate for white boys and girls, the study says. "These findings suggest that the protections of childhood are not afforded to all children and contribute to evidence on policing as a pathway through which structural racism operates in young people's lives," said Kriszta Farkas, one of the researchers. ”
Children's Day: Disparities among children of color, by Kristen Rogers, CNN, Nov 20 2020.
“The concept of institutional racism is the systematic distribution of “resources, power and opportunity in our society to the benefit of people who are White and the exclusion of people of color,” according to Solid Ground, a social justice organization in Washington state. Institutional racism has been blamed for the higher likelihood of poverty, food insecurity, poor overall health, environmental injustice and incarceration among Native Americans in the United States and among Black, Latinx and Asian people in both the US and the United Kingdom. ”
Stress disorders tied to risk for life-threatening infections, by Lisa Rapaport , Reuters, Oct 31 2019.
“People who have stress disorders like PTSD may be more vulnerable to potentially life-threatening infections, especially if they are diagnosed at younger ages or dealing with other psychiatric issues, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined data on 144,919 people diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), adjustment disorders common after a major life change like a death or move, and other stress-related conditions. They also looked at data for 184,612 siblings of these subjects who didn’t have a stress disorder, along with more than 1.4 million unrelated individuals without these disorders. After an average follow-up of eight years, the annual incidence of life-threatening infections – including infections of the nervous system or heart - was 2.9 in every 1,000 people with stress disorders, compared with 1.7 in every 1,000 siblings and 1.3 in every 1,000 unrelated individuals. ”
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