While I was teaching a literacy class inside the male prison in the Cayman Islands one of the men asked to speak. His voice was steady, but his words carried the weight of a story that had waited a long time to be heard. He did not begin with crime. He began with childhood. As a boy, he often went to school hungry. Some mornings there was nothing to eat.
Every working adult was once a playing child. Coping mechanisms and how one adapts to employment can be traced back to early experiences. Yet, recent cuts in hundreds of billions of dollars to Medicaid put access to mental health care for children at risk. Cuts to Medicaid, the largest payer for children's mental health services, are harmful to implement at a time of crisis for youth mental health. They can also adversely affect the future workforce.
As outlined in the recently published, NHS-England commissioned, Independent ADHD Taskforce Report, there is robust evidence that unsupported ADHD can lead to multiple adverse outcomes. 2 I was Chair of this Taskforce, but this work is now completed, so these blog posts are independent of that position. Despite the risk of adverse outcomes, we know that people with ADHD can and do thrive if they are offered early support and intervention.
The mistaken belief that people with substance use disorders (SUDs) must "hit rock bottom" has shaped addiction care for decades. This model contrasts with how medicine manages chronic illnesses, where early detection and proactive treatment are normal. The "bottom" in addiction is a moment of maximum despair and hopelessness. It also may be a life-changing event like getting fired, losing a relationship, or facing legal charges.
"Federal law says children with developmental delays, including newborns with significant likelihood of a delay, can get early intervention from birth to age 3. States design their own programs and set their own funding levels, however. They also set some of the criteria for which newborns are automatically eligible, typically relying on qualifying conditions like Down syndrome or cerebral palsy, extreme prematurity or low birthweight. Nationally, far fewer infants and toddlers receive the therapies than should. The stats are particularly bleak for babies under the age of 1: Just 1 percent of these infants get help. Yet an estimated 13 percent of infants and toddlers likely qualify."
Meningitis B isn't very common but it can be deadly and university students are one of the groups most at risk. Many of us within the general population will be carrying the bacteria that can cause meningitis and we'll be carrying it harmlessly at the back of our nose and throats. It's about one in 10 of the population, but actually once you get students coming together from all over the country congregating in campuses, living together in halls of
