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In 2016, Spirit of Children, a program that donates toys, costumes, and gaming systems for patients, funded a Child Life Fellowship position at Loma Linda University Children's Health.

The year 2020 has been full of challenges that have stretched us and encouraged greater collaboration between the University and the Hospital. When COVID-19 hit, we jointly watched as our students were pulled from their clinical placements and the Loma Linda University Children's Health Child Life Department experienced the loss of volunteers and intermittent furloughs.

As a Child Life Specialist, I'm always prepared to explain my role and rationalize the need for Child Life interventions in the medical journeys of pediatric patients. Our role is not always easily understood. In fact, Child Life services remain widely unknown around the globe. Awareness of the psychosocial needs of pediatric patients continues to increase, and active areas for growth and use of the field include Asia and the Middle East.

Tuition for all degree and certificate programs in the School of Behavioral Health will be held steady at current rates for the 2021-22 academic year. The decision to hold tuition steady is in direct response to the economic challenges that individuals and families are experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than ever before, people all over the world are becoming aware of the importance of mental health as an essential part of wellness.

We have all been navigating loss, disrupted rhythms, and uncertainty in 2020. At the start of shelter-in-place, I cancelled travel plans to be a bridesmaid in a close friend's wedding and attended my first wedding via Zoom instead. That same week, I found out that LLU was going entirely online. This was only the beginning of a new normal. In this space, many of us find ourselves searching for home base. My spring break exchanges with Dr.

The Loma Linda University School of Behavioral Health Spiritual Life and Wholeness Committee is announcing a Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Research Conference on November 13 (Friday), from 8:30am-12:00pm! Watch Replay The entire conference will be held online using Zoom. The schedule includes a presentation on the SBH philosophy of integrating spirituality and religion with the social sciences in both theoretical and clinical practice, followed by a panel discussion.

In the USA, there is a well-established correlation between low literacy level and poor health outcomes. Independent predictors of low literacy include poverty and being African-American or Hispanic/Latinx. This, in part, helps to explain the disproportionately high number of chronic conditions and mortality among these groups. To address these persistent health disparities many prevention and lifestyle programs have been developed but often suffer from poor engagement and outcomes among these target groups.

The Department of Psychology has recently approved a new professional concentration in the psychology of religion, which will provide interested students with further knowledge of the theory and literature in this area from the perspectives of both psychology and religion. The department has added an elective course, Psychology of Religion, which will be the foundation of the concentration. This course examines religion, spirituality, and faith using the empirical methods of psychology; attention is given to all five major world religions and atheism.

Latino immigrants experience disproportionate health disparities, are less likely to participate in lifestyle-related interventions and are less likely to succeed when they do. For the undocumented, these disparities are amplified by less use of healthcare and social services, more social isolation, poor mental health, and increased substance use.

Collective Trauma Collectively we have been experiencing trauma. Coronavirus has shifted us away from our norms, and the way things used to be are no more. Sitting at home beginning in March we all felt that we had a common enemy, defeating this virus and slogans like “we are in this together” truly felt like the fight was a collective fight. Then the names begin to ring out—Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd—and reality begins to hit the Black community again, maybe the “we” isn’t collective.