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Denise Berry remembers the day a mortar blew up part of the hospital in Iraq where she was working as a U.S. Army combat medic. The explosion claimed a person in a portable toilet next to her, blew up her truck, and made the ambulance she was working underneath, doing a maintenance check, bounce on top of her.

“I am lucky to be alive,” Berry said. She woke up a while later, unsure how long she’d been unconscious. Berry suffered memory loss related to traumatic brain injury, and later, symptoms of PTSD.

After demobilizing and leaving the service, Berry waited. Despite worsening mental health effects from the bombing and her time working in the high-stress environments of emergency rooms and prisons in Iraq, she hesitated to reach out.

“The resources didn’t come to you. So if you weren’t a very proactive person, you weren’t going to get any help,” she said. “And I would have to say that’s for most veterans coming back.”

The same thing that made her successful on deployment — the strength to keep it together and handle any obstacle that came her way — motivated Berry try to tough out the disturbing dreams and anxiety alone. She also wondered why her difficulties deserved attention ahead of scores of wounded servicemembers. Berry remembered thinking, “how could I possibly receive benefits when this person over here is dealing with the ramifications of Agent Orange, or lost a leg?”

Opening up combat jobs to women in the military is bringing a greater need for resources to treat the trauma and mental health challenges that echo after service. But the National Institutes of Health has found women veterans underutilize VA health care compared with men. It says many report delaying getting care, and that when they do receive treatment, it’s inadequate. Other women aren’t seeking help at all, according to the government researchers. 

Experts say there are many possible reasons women don’t avail themselves of veteran-specific resources. They may not think of themselves as part of a veteran community that’s dominated by men. Parenthood duties often fall to women and make it difficult to find time to reach out or travel for care. And many women have experienced sexual assault or harassment while serving, an experience that alienates them from military institutions that may have protected their assailants.

A group of nonprofits is testing a new outreach program in Los Angeles County, dubbed Women Vets on Point, which aims to specifically serve women veterans’ needs by overcoming barriers to care, and connect veterans with a range of services in their community, including mental healthcare, substance abuse treatment, childcare, professional development and educational resources. U.S.VETS and Education Development Center (EDC), a nonprofit research organization, are partnering to develop and test Women Vets on Point. 

One of the Women Vets on Point services is a U.S.VETS program called Outside the Wire, in which Snetter works with student veterans providing counseling and mental health services on college campuses in Orange County.

The biggest outreach tool will be a new website, ideally a one-stop-shop for female veterans to find resources. “To educate, to connect people, to help people choose what they want to do next in their own time, when they’re ready,” said Rebecca Stoeckle with EDC.

EDC’s research has shown peer-to-peer encouragement is an important motivator for female veterans seeking help, so they’re tapping interviews and focus groups to develop a site women will feel comfortable sharing with their social network.

With these goals in mind, Stoeckle said the biggest challenge is to restore trust in the help that’s available. Some women veterans feel the system has let them down. They weren’t taken seriously when they suffered mental health difficulties, or the effects of military sexual harassment and assault.

Read more about the pilot program at SCPR.org.

The National Council of Urban Indian Health (NCUIH) invites individuals to submit proposals for a presentation at the NCUIH Annual Leadership Conference being held in Arlington, VA, June 26-28, 2018. Proposals are due by January 22, 2018, via electronic submission.

This year’s conference theme is “20 Years: Continuing the Legacy to Build Strong, Healthy Native Communities” and will  provide key opportunities for urban and tribal leaders to learn, network, and build strategies for the benefit of Indian Country, through informative workshops, listening sessions, and expert speakers on health topics affecting the American Indian and Alaska Native community.

Presentation Topics
NCUIH offers participants an extensive program of sessions designed to provide practical, hands-on training and strategies that can be applied to the systems of care in their states, tribes, territories, and communities. As such, proposals must focus on approaches that are relevant, adaptable, and innovative in one of the following critical areas:

• Behavioral Health
• Indian Health Policy
• Public Health
• Innovation of health clinics
• Trauma-informed care
• Opioids
• Suicide Prevention
• Self-care for Healthcare professionals
• Youth Programming
• Maximizing social media
• Board training
• Health Information Technology
• Native Elder Health
• Maximizing Revenue
• Culturally competent programming
• Accreditation
• Other relevant topics in Indian Health

For questions regarding the Call for Proposals process, please contact Dr. Kimberly Fowler via email at KFowler@ncuih.org. If you experience technical challenges in submitting your proposal, please contact Kfowler@ncuih.org. You also can contact NCUIH by using the main phone line 202-544-0344.

Visit the NCUIH website to learn more about the conference and to submit a proposal.

The Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI) would like to give a shout out to all the participants in the My Sister’s Keeper (MSK) Challenge!

Judging by the response, it’s clear that young women want and need to be heard. One of the issues that everyone is talking about today is sexual harassment. But, this problem is more than just what is seen in the headlines. Protection and healing from the devastating physical, mental and emotional impact of sexual harassment is what RJ is about.

For this reason, BWHI has decided to extend the MSK Challenge competition period until January 31, 2018, to allow everyone the opportunity to submit videos that speak to this extremely important and timely subject as part of the overall RJ initiative. There are few issues that impact women of color as much as Reproductive Justice.

It’s not just the right to birth control and a safe abortion, to have children and the right not to have children, RJ is also the right to raise our children in a safe and healthy environment. And that means:

• Racial Equality
• Gender Equity
• Sexual Wellness
• Access to Affordable and Quality Healthcare
• Protection From Intimate Partner Violence

Reproductive Justice impacts every facet of women’s health and women’s lives. That’s why the Black Women’s Health Imperative invites you to become part of the sisterhood speaking out and standing up for RJ, by joining them in the My Sisters Keeper Challenge.

Go to MSKChallenge.com and send BWHI a 1-2 minute video with your story about what RJ means to women, to our world, and to you personally, and you may win a $1,000 cash prize, as well as the chance to make your video into a short film that will be featured during a national film festival.

Learn more and submit your video at MSKCallenge.com.

Thirty-six percent. That was the high school graduation rate for youth in foster care in Seattle and King County, Washington, in 2010.

“We were shocked. I mean, tears flowed,” says Janis Avery. For more than two decades, she has led a nonprofit called Treehouse, dedicated to improving the lives of foster youth. In fact, Treehouse had been pushing for the state to break out educational data about kids in foster care. And the data, when it came for the first time, was a wake-up call.

“We thought we were doing a good job,” Avery recalls. “We realized it wasn’t making a difference at a population level.”

Foster youth struggle in school for many reasons. Being removed from your family is a trauma in itself, no matter why. Most children in foster care have mental health needs; many struggle with addiction and brushes with the law.

And then there are the systemic problems.

In Seattle’s King County, 1,500 foster kids are scattered among many different schools. The average youth shifts placements three times, sometimes moving out of the school district. Avery says that meant that no one school was focused on these students’ educations, and the district wasn’t either.

Foster parents often have their hands full with the basics. The state’s child welfare system, meanwhile, prioritizes safety and health, with school farther down the list. And the state’s care ends at an age when most middle-class kids are still dependent on their parents. (Half of states, including Washington State, have extended some foster care benefits until age 21; in other states kids “age out” at 18).

Until 2010, Treehouse had been providing foster youth with extras, like backpacks, school clothes, music lessons and summer camp. But when the news came about the terrible graduation rate, the organization decided it had to step up for these kids as students, too.

“We have to negotiate and advocate for those kids in school,” says Avery.

They set an ambitious goal: Raise the high school graduation rate for foster youth to be on par with the rest of the city’s kids. Starting in 2012, they gave themselves five years to do it. They did research to figure out the best practices from other organizations around the country. This included a strategy similar to the “graduation coaches” that NPR has previously reported on.

They recruited a team of “education specialists.” These folks work on-site in high schools around the city. Each works with around 20 students. Any student who has interacted with the foster care system while in middle or high school is eligible for the program. The jobs have good benefits and are comparatively well paid, because Treehouse wants its ed specialists to stay in the positions long enough to be a consistent presence in kids’ lives.

“We wear a lot of hats,” Tajiana Ellis, a Treehouse specialist says. “We’re a little bit of a teacher, a little bit of a mentor, a little bit of a parent, a little bit of a friend.”

Tajiana sits and checks in with students, generally once a week, focusing on the ABCs of graduation: Attendance, Behavior and Course Performance. She is able to log into the schools’ online grade book to see each assignment and grade. Part of Treehouse’s philosophy is something called “student-centered planning.” That means the student sets her own goals and takes ownership of them.

One of Treehouse’s organizational values is “fierce optimism.” That comes from Avery’s personal experience. She and her wife adopted their own two children, now young adults, from foster care. “It takes a lot of persistence,” she says, and maintaining hope when few others do.

Treehouse fights for every student’s success. That doesn’t mean sugarcoating the obstacles in their way. If you ask Avery why kids end up in the child welfare system, she is blunt.

“It really is racism and poverty,” she says. “Occasionally kids get abused, but well over 80 percent is neglect. And that’s an artifact of poverty, which could be solved with resources.” Rather than automatically assume there’s something wrong with these kids or their families, she says, “the real question is, why don’t we as an American culture support these families to succeed?”

Treehouse counts five-year graduation rates because youth in foster care typically miss out on learning time. Last year, 89 percent of their students made it across that extended finish line. That includes students who completed with the help of credit recovery, alternative schools and GED programs. It beats Washington State’s overall five-year graduation rate by 7 points.

Nationwide, meanwhile, around two-thirds of all foster youth graduate high school by age 21.

Treehouse’s success thus far has been with just several hundred students in high school. They expanded into two more counties this past school year, in part to keep serving some of their students who moved out of King County. Avery says the ultimate plan is to serve every foster youth in the state, through to college or vocational training. This includes students who are eventually adopted from foster care, like Mechelle, or reunited with their birth families. Treehouse has pledged to support these students until age 26.

“When we look at the youth who have the best experiences, it has a lot to do with the quality of the people surrounding them,” Avery says. “We’d like to take some of that randomness out of youth’s experience. So the system works for them, not just spectacular individuals.”

Read more on MPRNews.org.

You’re given a choice: Would you rather spend your day feeling happy versus happy interspersed with some moments of sadness, frustration, and anxiety? Most of us would choose the first option in a heartbeat. Psychologists, too, long championed the importance of cultivating positive emotions as one path towards optimizing well being, resilience to stressors, and salutary physical health outcomes. Not surprisingly, when people are asked what emotions they want to feel, we place a heavy emphasis on wanting to feel primarily positive emotions.

However, research suggests the choice may no longer be a straightforward one. Recent work by psychologists reveals the once hidden benefits of experiencing a diversity of emotions, both positive and negative. Just as physical environments flourish through a biodiversity of flora and fauna, this new work on ‘emodiversity’ likens the human mind to an abstract and internal psychological ecosystem that may also benefit from experiencing a wide diversity of emotions. Although still a new idea, the yield of emodiversity is apparent: adults who report experiencing a greater diversity of both positive and negative emotions report fewer symptoms of depression and fewer days spent in a hospital. This is consistent with what we have long known about emotions; namely, that emotions serve as a guidepost on the map of human experience, drawing our attention to the important markers in our environments—the warning signs, or things that need to be noticed, changed, or processed and understood. So the emotional ingredients underlying well-being might be more ‘diverse’ than just feeling good or positive emotions. In addition, adults who experience a wider range of positive emotions—for example, calm, amused, excited, and proud—exhibit lower markers of inflammation, suggesting that even happiness isn’t the only positive feeling that confers well-being benefits.

If having lots of different emotions is good for our health as adults, then shouldn’t we be fostering the experience of a diverse range of emotions in young children as well? And yet the research suggests we are not fostering emotional diversity from a young age, especially when it comes to raising young boys. As early as infancy, boys’ and girls’ emotional landscape differs. One study reported that when watching an infant being startled by a jack-in-the-box toy, adults who were told the infant was a boy versus a girl were more likely to perceive the infant as experiencing anger, regardless of whether the infant was actually a boy. Gender differences in the diversity of emotion words parents use in conversations with young boys and girls also emerge. Another study examining conversations between mothers and young children, mothers interacting with daughters employ emotion vocabulary of greater density and depth, whereas conversations with sons tended to focus primarily on a single emotion—you guessed it, anger. Regardless of whether gender differences in adult behavior arise from conscious or unconscious psychological processes, one thing is clear: boys grow up in a world inhabited by a narrower range of emotions, one in which their experiences of anger are noticed, inferred, and potentially even cultivated. This leaves other emotions—particularly the more vulnerable emotions—sorely ignored or missing in their growing minds.

This is all the more concerning given that research from Harvard Medical School shows that boys are in fact more emotionally expressive than girls. This begins as early as infancy and lasts through early childhood. So it is possible that boys might actually begin with at least comparable, if not more, intensity and range of emotional expressions. This suggests that something is happening in these early years, when children are the most receptive to messages their parents give them about emotion displays, that might very well have a longer-term impact on their emotional development.

Indeed, a lack of fostering emotional diversity in youth may have long-term problematic consequences. As early as elementary school, the avoidance of strong emotions (besides anger) results in academic underperformance in boys. Psychologists have found that children who deny emotional vulnerability are also more likely to become adolescents who engage in health-risk behaviors, such as substance use. Later in development, men suppress (i.e., do not openly express) their emotions more than women; and men, in turn experience greater depressive symptoms, and resort more often to physical violence. Scientists speculate that trouble regulating emotion may explain the link between restricted emotions and aggressive behavior towards others in men. This seems likely, given that the skills to regulate emotion are gained through practice, which boys may be less likely to have if they do not have permission to experience the full range of emotions.

Unfortunately, mens’ restriction in emotion expression extends to the home—men are also less likely to share their own vulnerable emotions with partners and are less open to these experiences in their partners, a point made clear by University of Houston social work professor BrenéBrown in her qualitative research on shame. And emotion suppression can have consequences for physical, as well as psychological and relational, health—these men may be at greater risk for stress-related cardiovascular problems in the long-run. A lack of emotional diversity is not just important for young boys but continues to be so as emotionally restricted young boys mature into adult men with more rigid emotional repertoires. Experiencing the full range of emotions may not only benefit young boys’ psychological health but have far-reaching benefits for society at large.

Read more on ScientificAmerican.com.

When you lose someone to suicide, everything can feel different. Even (and maybe especially) traditions and customs you’ve learned to look forward to can feel strange and “not right” without your loved one. During the holidays, this means figuring out what kind of “new normal” works for you. Maybe you relish in these old traditions because they remind you of your loved one. Maybe doing classic holiday activities without them feels like too much, and you’d rather do something different — or not do anything at all.

However you’re choosing to spend the holidays this year after losing someone to suicide, we want you to know there is no wrong way to grieve. To get some insight from people who’ve been there, Teen Vogue asked people in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s community to share one message or piece of advice they would tell someone who’s spending the holidays without their loved ones.

“We skipped Christmas Day last year, and it was amazing. If you really think about it, it’s just another day. Not any sadder than the day before or the day after.” — Jenifer D.

“Just breathe. If you need to excuse yourself and have a few moments alone, then do it. I like to talk about my brother a lot during a holiday. I like to think about what he would be doing if he were there. It works well for me but may not work well for someone else. Do what feels right for you!” — Ronni W.

“I enjoy the family time. It’s something about the togetherness to get you through the tough time! As a suicide loss survivor, I have opened my eyes to life! Enjoy life, and love love love! My boys and I like to tell stories about their daddy, and we talk about what an amazing person he was. The first year Brandon was gone, my boys and I didn’t do the holiday thing. I know that sounds like a contradiction to what I just said, but the firsts are the hardest. It was hard to put a smile on. So we went to the cemetery and had a breakfast out there. I guess what I’m trying to say is, do what makes you feel better. What’s good for you may not be what’s good for someone else!” — Candice B.

“Don’t ever let anyone tell you how to grieve. There’s no right or wrong answer. Just human, individual responses. — Don K.

“It’s OK to be sad. It’s OK to cry. It’s OK to cry at Christmas dinner. But try to remember memories of your loved on those days. I lost my dad December 22, and that Christmas was the hardest — every holiday season is hard. But I choose to remember his impatience on opening presents and his love of deer hunting. Surround yourself with your loved ones, but don’t be afraid to take a minute or an hour or even a day to yourself.” — Vicky P.

“I lost my brother December 20, 2002, so the holidays are especially sensitive for me. What I would say to someone newly grieving is to allow themselves to feel however they feel. You don’t need to subscribe to anyone else’s timeline to appease their comfort. Take the time you need to get through the holiday. If you have young children, as I did at the time of my loss, don’t be afraid to let them see you cry, it gives them permission to cry too — and those tears carry so much healing. Sending hugs and love your way, it never goes away, but I promise it gets softer.” — Sue K.

“You do what you need to survive the holidays. Do as little or as much as you want/need to do. You don’t have to justify your actions or decisions to anybody. The first Christmas without my son (this is my 11th), I purchased all new blue and silver ornaments in honor of him. Blue is his favorite color. So every year I put up his tree.” — Tina S.

“I skipped last Christmas and went to Mexico. I brought my Matthew’s ashes with me and left a bit of him there in a special place. It’s about recognizing what you need to get through it and for me that meant separating myself from the chaos and emotion of the day. If you decide to try it, give yourself an easy out to go when you’ve had enough. My journey has been about knowing what I need, when I need it and that he’s always here with me.” — Sara B.

“I would say the most important thing is to take time out and care for yourself; eat well, get some exercise, stay hydrated, minimize alcohol use. Don’t feel obligated to attend every party and event, just do what you can. Find a local support group in your area, and attend regularly. If your spiritual and attend church, keep going and ask for any resources there that can help you. Lean on ‘safe’ people during this time, and accept help from others. Try and find a good grief counselor. Don’t be afraid to cry, cry as much as you need to. Most important — make time alone, but don’t isolate yourself.” — Jessica C.

“Set boundaries. For me, I told people don’t hug me. A hug was a sure way for me to lose it. It’s OK if you find yourself smiling or even laughing. It doesn’t mean you don’t miss your loved one. Talk about your loved one so other people will know it’s OK. Just go easy on yourself and let others know what you need and what you don’t.” — Pamela R.

Read more on TeenVogue.com.