Child abuse prevention experts in South Dakota and elsewhere say a new study underscores the need to protect children from traumatic situations to avoid long-term physical health problems. International researchers have found a 14% increase in heart failure in adults who have experienced some form of childhood abuse.
Those with three to five types of maltreatment had a 43% increased risk.
Brooke Jones, a child abuse pediatrician based in Sioux Falls, said these events place stressors on the body.
“If you’ve heard of the term ‘fight or flight’ – if you faced constant adversity as a child, you might be in a constant flight phase, which means you have no downregulation or lack of control. you’re not getting out of this environment of constant stress,” Jones said.
And this constant stress can leave its mark in multiple ways, including cardiovascular disease, as these children transition into adulthood. Jones said parents or caregivers can lessen the impact by providing a nurturing environment as the child grows.
She said that can involve simple things like reading to them or finding ways to let them know they’re in a safe space.
Shakira Suglia, director of epidemiology at Emory University, chaired a 2017 report by the American Heart Association that linked negative childhood experiences to adult health risks, including heart disease. She said the new study adds to the evidence that the effect on mental and physical health go hand in hand when the layers of trauma are peeled away.
“There could be a development of depression or anxiety disorders that could make a person more prone to coping with substances,” she said. “For example, smoking is also another thing that people tend to use to deal with stress.”
Suglia echoed calls for policymakers and community organizations to do everything that fosters stronger family relationships, especially in situations where trauma has surfaced in a household. She said outside the home, schools and care centers can be on high alert for children who have experienced trauma and should try to emphasize a welcoming environment in these settings.
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Ohio’s child welfare system is plagued by a shortage of mental health professionals. Experts said constant access to therapists, counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists could change the trajectory of children who would otherwise be placed in institutions, increasingly lacking space for them.
Theresa Lampl, CEO of the Ohio Council of Behavioral Health and Family Services Providers, said that to offset the community consequences of lack of access to care, mental health should be viewed as a persistent health issue and treated like heart health, diabetes or other chronic diseases. She said it requires creating value to attract more people to the profession.
“Really creating incentives for people to come, because these jobs have relatively low salaries, but in many cases require a bachelor’s or master’s degree, in order to provide services,” Lampl said.
She said the state could implement tuition reimbursement programs, paid internships, and loan forgiveness opportunities to jump-start the behavioral health workforce pipeline. According to state data, more than 2 million Ohioans live in communities without enough behavioral health professionals.
Melissa Flick, protective services manager for South Central Ohio Job and Family Services, said rural parts of the state lack intensive behavioral health services that are more readily available in cities. She gave the example of a 12-year-old girl with a long history of trauma and was hospitalized for several weeks.
“She self-harms by ingesting different objects,” Flick said, “so anything she can get her hands on, she will try to ingest to harm herself. acute care. These types of facilities are meant to be very short term.”
The agency has exhausted all state resources, and these facilities are either completely full or unable to meet its specific needs. Flick thinks better resources early on might have dealt with the trauma to put the child on the path to recovery.
Nationally, mental health crises in young children are on the rise. According to the CDC, mental health-related ER visits jumped 24% for children ages 5 to 11 and 31% for ages 12 to 17 in 2020, compared to the previous year.
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Families in Ohio are experiencing greater mental health challenges as a result of the pandemic, and social service workers have pointed out that placing children who need help in appropriate facilities is more difficult.
According to a report released earlier this year by the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, 89% of counties had placements of young people whose needs were primarily related to behavioral health.
Deanna Nichols-Stika, executive director of Wayne County Children’s Services, explained that social workers have residential placement options and can select the provider that best meets a child’s needs ten years ago. year. Now, she noted, it is now rare to find housing and basic long-term care.
“It’s not uncommon for us to make 40-plus phone calls to different providers across the state of Ohio, just looking for an available bed,” Nichols-Stika pointed out. “Without even having the possibility of really looking at the services available corresponding to the needs of the child.
According to a report by the Ohio Council of Behavioral Health and Family Services Providers, demand for behavioral health treatment in the state increased 353% between 2013 and 2019, likely compounded by the pandemic. The agencies said the increased demand for youth mental health services, in particular, is having a substantial impact on wait times.
Scott Boone, director of Knox County Job and Family Services, said families are grappling with increasingly complex and interconnected issues compared to previous generations. As a result, children face trauma and the resulting behavioral and mental health issues that traditional foster homes and even therapeutic foster homes are not equipped to handle.
“We find that a lot of kids develop these types of behaviors where they self-harm and run away,” Boone observed. “They were exposed to all kinds of abuse you can think of.”
Boone cited a recent example of an attempted placement of a teenage girl who had been in a detention center. He recalled that staff had worked desperately with the local probation service and statewide contacts for nearly three months to try and secure a placement.
“And we got turned down by over 100 vendors until we finally found a location in Cincinnati,” Boone recounted. “You can imagine the cost of that is around $400 a day.”
Nichols-Stika added that despite the challenges, there is a spirit of collaboration among people working to stabilize and care for children emerging from the worst of circumstances.
“There’s such a passion for this, people in this profession, in child protection, in behavioral health, in mental health, to help people,” Nichols-Stika explained. “That’s why we got into this profession. We just need more resources to help us do better.”
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The flu, COVID and RSV are spreading rapidly in Kentucky, and health experts say it’s a problem for hospitals, schools and vulnerable residents in the state.
So far, more than 20 school districts temporarily halted classes due to RSV. At Norton Children’s Hospital, pediatrician Dr Robert Blair said respiratory viruses are mainly spread through airborne droplets from coughs and sneezes. He explained that premature babies and young children with congenital heart disease, reactive airway disease or asthma are particularly susceptible to RSV. They may end up in hospital on a ventilator, so he encouraged families to do all they can to stop the spread of the virus.
“We need to pay attention to sick people, isolate and support them, and encourage them to mask up and take care of themselves, and seek treatment,” he said. “And these little babies who are very, very high risk should not be exposed to people with colds.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics and Children’s Hospital Association has asked President Joe Biden to declare a federal emergency to provide more support to combat the national spike in pediatric hospitalizations caused by RSV and influenza.
Blair said normally the immune system of newborns comes into contact with RSV, but he pointed out that babies born during pandemic shutdowns did not have this exposure.
“And so here they are, two or two and a half or three years old, and they get these viral infections for the very first time,” he said, “and their immune system hasn’t really kicked off. “
Kelly Taulbee, director of communications and development at Kentucky Voices for Health, added that COVID precautions can help stop the spread of all viruses.
“The focus is on washing your hands, social distancing, covering your cough. Stay home when you’re sick, even if it feels like mild cold symptoms,” she said. “As we’ve seen a lot of those precautions expire — those public health policies that were in place during the pandemic, early on — we’ve seen a resurgence of all of those diseases, and RSV is one of them.”
There is currently no Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccine for RSV, although clinical trials are underway. However, Taulbee said flu vaccines are readily available in all counties and are effective in preventing illness, especially in young children, people 65 and older, or those at risk of serious complications.
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