It's not just in your head...or what you eat!

On April 7th, a Globe article “Data Tie Stress of Poverty to Brain” talked about a new study which links chronic stress from growing up in poverty to a weakened memory and corresponding developmental delays in children's brains. The article was the most recent occurence of many - in only a handful of days (see Wired , Washington Post) where the connection of economic stressors and its impact on individuals, families and communities was front and center - at home and at work - with family, friends, and colleagues.   What was most striking to me - and gratefully - was the importance of communal responsibility (for good and for naught), in addition to the individual responsibility (for good and for naught) for our overall common good as a people.  What do you think?

Although this article leans toward description and treatment of people, and particularly children, who have endured the stress of poverty, I saw this article as one step closer to prevention and systemic change.  An invitation to take our communal responsibility for poverty more seriously, and actively, for our common good - strengthening families and communities.

Last weekend, a friend (who works at the graduate school of social work where I studied) and I were discussing the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders(DSM) - a book that clinicians use to assess and treat people who are struggling.    My friend, a clinical social worker and me, a macro/community social worker, get into these conversations!  The DSM has received praise as well as criticism, but in any case, it is the established guide book for the social work and counselling field.

My friend told me that the newest version of the DSM may include a diagnosis related to the layering and accumulated, external stressors - like poverty, living in communities with high crime rates, etc.   The research that is highlighted in the Globe article, and similar research that has come before it, is making its way into the established guide book.  That is, of course, bad news that it even needs to be there.  But, also good news - naming something brings a power.  And, hopefully, that power will be change for the common good.