ADHD drugs could help ice addicts kick the habit

The anti-violence program at a YMCA in Chicago has war veterans mentoring young gang members as a treatment for the mental and physical wounds of violence. The gang members have healthy role models and the veterans a new sense of purpose.

Connecting to peers makes coping with emotional distress easier for youth. Youthline, a youth suicide crisis intervention service operated by Lines for Life puts those struggling in touch with volunteers their own age via call, text, or email. The youth volunteers are supervised by a clinician and are trained in SafeTALK and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST).

Building connections and learning to cope can help to break the inter-generational cycle of addiction. The nonprofit Eluna operates a camp in Dayton, Ohio, for children whose families have been ravaged by addiction. In addition to receiving the support of adult mentors, the children also engage in activities designed to teach them skills to manage their emotions. With funding from government subventions and private donations, Eluna plans to open several more camps nationwide.

New Mexico has been fighting the rise of the opioid epidemic for decades, so when medical professionals noticed an increase in opioid-dependent mothers giving birth, one doctor started a new program to address this. This program uses both medication-assisted substance abuse treatment and behavioral therapy, and has resulted in a decrease in overdose deaths.

To help those struggling with opioid addictions, an apprentice program in Kentucky uses art and music taught by local artisans to provide participants with a path forward. After learning various skills as part of the program, a local instrument company also considers the new apprentices for hire as part of a “recovery-friendly” employment movement.

Las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte is a group of about 200 members, mostly mothers whose children are among the more than 73,000 people who have disappeared and presumably were murdered in Mexico's long drug war. Las Rastreadoras search the countryside for the unmarked graves of the missing, hoping to find their own children, often finding others'. In six years, they have found 198 bodies, 120 of whom were identified. What began spontaneously as one woman's search, then a group effort, has become a way to heal from the pain of what a psychologist calls "ambiguous loss" as well as an act of political activism.

An organization founded in Oakland, CA is bringing non-partisan abortion counseling to those who feel isolated by platforms that are designated as either pro-life or pro-choice. The goal of the organization, which is staffed with trained volunteers from across the country, is to help "people process their experiences around abortion without any preconceived notions about what that should look like."

Refugees and survivors of the 1947 India-Pakistan partition reconnect to their homes through virtual reality footage of their homes and villages. The initiative, Project Dastaan, seeks to provide emotional closure to people who had to flee their homes in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It also allows the children and grandchildren of survivors to gain a better understanding of their own histories and the trauma experienced by their loved ones. The digital experiences aim to raise awareness of the impact of the conflict and promote peace between the countries.

The MYENJAY Hope and Healing Foundation provides mental health awareness and sensitization efforts regarding substance use among young students. Volunteers from the program visit schools to talk to students, providing interventions and educational resources to help them understand the dangers of drug use. School officials say that since the program began talking with students, they have seen a significant increase in good behavior and a reduction in substance use.

The Stress Resilience Center provides critical workers — like doctors and law enforcement — opportunities to learn psychological self-help skills. The goal is to equip the public with psychological wellness skills to prevent the number of people who need to seek psychological help from getting too high. Amidst the war, the Center also provides individual and family therapy for those experiencing loss, burnout and those with loved ones in the military.