adverse childhood experiences

Two out of three ain’t bad….

                    UVM Medical Center                                   … Read More

Preventing chronic toxic stress in our communities

Life is stressful. No amount of wealth or privilege protects us from stress. In fact, there’s reason to believe that privilege, insofar as it isolates us from a shared humanity,… Read More

A New “Women’s Prison”… or a humane reentry facility?

Chittenden Regional Correction Facility (CRCF) One of the benefits of age is the realization that there are few absolutes and that being “right” is often relative. When I was young,… Read More

Our Young People and the Imperative of Social-Emotional Learning

   Courtesy Penn Live Our public schools have become the focus of our efforts to support youth mental health. Many parents are stressed beyond imagination because of the pandemic, flooding, and… Read More

The Moral Determinants of Learning

Photo By Glenn Russell of VTDigger.org Dr. Donald Berwick’s Moral Determinants of Health, presents the fundamental tenets of sound healthcare policy. It looks beyond healthcare infrastructure, such as providers, clinics… Read More

We are letting our children down.

Photo courtesy Adam Swancor   We are letting our children down. They’re our future and they may be the parents of our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, if we’re lucky. Signs of… Read More

My New Year’s Wish for Vermont

I don’t want any one thing in the New Year but rather a new way of understanding leadership and governing from our executive, legislative, and judiciary branches. I don’t have… Read More

Complex Systems(II), Simple Solutions

Elmore Community School In an earlier column, I looked at the difficulty of addressing Vermont’s complex systems with our limited leadership and dated governance tools. As technology and information systems further complicate our… Read More

Connecting the Dots: Leadership, Vision & Courage

It helps to understand emergency rooms and prisons as the end-game of bad policy decisions. Vermonters can’t afford to keep spending money patching up the accelerating dysfunction absent a clear… Read More

Let’s Start the Dialogue About a Vision for Vermont Healthcare

It will take vision, leadership, and courage to rebuild Vermont’s healthcare system for the next decade. I can offer neither leadership nor courage, but can, with the help of wiser… Read More

Childhood Trauma Leads to Lifelong Chronic Illness — So Why Isn’t the Medical Community Helping Patients?

When physicians help patients come to the profound revelation that childhood adversity plays a role in the chronic illnesses they face now, they help them to heal physically and emotionally… Read More

Healthcare: A Lucrative Business or a Definable Right?

In healthcare, as in hunger and housing, we face a moral choice. Is Mammon or caritas – profit or wellbeing – the best driver of community health initiatives? In his… Read More