Childhood trauma found in the histories of a large percentage of those perpetrating violence, involved in criminal activity, and experiencing suicidality.
There are 3 effective ways to bring down to cost of healthcare without reducing quality or outcomes. These include prevention, early treatment and integrated care.
About 13% of US children have mental health and/or substance abuse problems. Prevention and treatment must consider child maltreatment as a possible factor to address.
Reducing the unacceptably high number of mass murders and other types of violence in the US will require multiple methods. Prevention through Behavioral Health methods is one.
The simpler life of decades and centuries past has much to endear it to our hearts and much that is best left in the past causing us to both dream and cringe.
Radicalization is a growing and terriffying problem from Paris to Canada and around the world. The radicalization process has been well studied by scholars and much is known about it. Publicising what is known can help us put prevention strategies in place. Risk reduction is found in interventions in violent homes and communities, reaching out to disinfranchised youth.
Restricting guns and increasing access to mental health treatment is only part of the answer to violence in the US. We need to look at the role of substance abuse and family violence that surrounds children with violence. There is a need to examine our cultural tolerance of substance abuse and guns as a rite of passage and family violence as nobody else's business.
Should school resource officers be handcuffing children? Most certainly it will be needed until there are sufficient behavoral health services in schools for children with special needs to provide intensive daily services for the most at risk youth and include families in the intervention.
Assessment and therapy to reduce risk of excessive use of force by some law enforcement officers can weed out applicants not suited for the job and change the behaviors of others
New details are still emerging about the Germanwings plane crash in the Alps in March of this year. Many are focused on the fact that co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, had been diagnosed with a mental illness as being his major risk factor for suicide and mass murder. Mental illness alone is NOT a risk factor for violence or mass murder.
ISIS and other terrorist groups enraged the world with their actions. Fighting terrorists with lethal weapons will be part of, but not the entire answer. Examining the roots of terrorism will lead the world to ideas about prevention.
The question we must ask ourselves is what can we do to reduce the risk of violent acts carried out by lone-wolf terrorists? The answer to this question is not simply better intelligence or a more effective police force.
Law enforcement, military, and correctional personnel face dangerous situations daily. They may have to take actions extremely quickly. At the same time there may be changing standards of conduct. Training, supervision, oversite and clarity of communication are essential for the standards to be followed effectively and support those that must make such decisions.
Racial unrest in the US has resurfaced in Ferguson, MO with a fury that is familiar to those of us that grew up during the civil rights movement of the 1960's. The story is not one of blame but of social evolution and development toward greater globalization and mutual benefit.
While the murder rate in the U.S. is down as a whole, the mass murder rate has been rising. Many have been broadcasting the fact that we are seeing an overall decline in the murder rate in this country but the U.S. still has the highest violence and incarceration rates of all advanced nations in the world.
There are many different levels of social development that can be prominent in different parts of the world. ISIS is at a pre-modern level of social development where power over others is the main goal. Much of the rest of the world is at the level of resource sharing. These levels are incompatable and will be nearly impossible to solve by traditional means.
In the United States, we have our own humanitarian crisis with 52,000 unaccompanied children, and an unknown number of families and adults, at our borders seeking refuge from the murder, rape and violence of their native countries.
In the U.S. we lock up more of our citizens than any other country. If we do not reform our prison system in a meaningful progressive way, our situation will continue to worsen from a psychological, economic and cultural standpoint.
Ivan Lopez killed three people and injured many others before turning the gun on himself. Is there some way that we could have known that this storm was brewing? Could we have provided better treatment? Prevented this attack? For all of the above, I believe the answer is “yes."
Bullying often ranges from a moderate problem to small growing pains. But what happens when students or youth go too far and display extreme abusive behavior? A recent story in Maryland shocked the country with its gruesome details. How can we prevent this type of violence from occurring in other schools?
Predicting and preventing youth and family violence
Kathryn Seifert, Ph.D., is the author of the Child & Adolescent Risk Evaluation screening tool.
About Stop The Cycle
Violence is often a response from unresolved adverse childhood experiences. It can cycle from one generation to the next. The prevention of violence can be found in helping children that have had negative childhood experiences develop and grow in a healthy way in a healthy environment.
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