Page 107 - Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality

Psychological trauma can result from a wide range of conditions and factors under which children live, including the effects of growing up in poverty and neighborhoods with high incidents of crime, parental loss and abuse, neglect, alcoholic parents, and forms of harassment .41 There are between 78,000 and 80,000 homeless school-age children in New York City . They sleep in New York City streets, the subway system, public spaces, and the municipal shelter systems, where they face these kinds of psychological triggers .42 Resulting trauma from these life circumstances can affect the child’s brain development .
The results of trauma may be extreme . In the immediate, children encounter difficulty processing information, understanding how to approach threatening situations, moderating their emotions, and trusting adults . Many children feel helpless and overwhelmed .43 Post-trauma diagnoses can range from attention-deficit-hyperactive disorder, anxiety, oppositional defiant disorder, and depression, among others .44 Children may exhibit behaviors of being withdrawn, defiant, impulsive, reactive, and aggressive . In the longer term, children who are exposed to trauma are linked with a higher rate of chronic diseases as adults .45
Trauma-informed care is generally defined as a systematic way of responding to individuals who have a history of trauma, and recognizing the role, presence, and effect from that trauma that is pervasive in the individual’s life .46 As a model of care, it addresses the effects of this trauma and aims to be collaborative, supportive, and skill-based .47
There are three factors that improve the ability of traumatized children to function . These are (1) increasing the strength of parent-child/ surrogate caregiver relationships, (2) providing and improving cognitive skills, and (3) giving children the ability to self-regulate their attention, emotion, and behavior .48 Attention to each of these factors is important in considering how to best assist children in school and to implement trauma-informed care processes .
41 Ashlee Loughan and Robert Perna, Neurocognitive Impacts for Children of Poverty and Neglect, american psychological associaTion (July 2012), http://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2012/07/neurocognitive- impacts.aspx
42 The Institute for Children, Poverty & Homeless determined that there were 77,915 homeless students in the New York City school districts. on The map, supra note 20, at 8. See also Andrea Elliott and Rebecca R. Ruiz, New York is Removing Over 400 Children from 2 Homeless Shelters, n.y. Times Feb. 21, 2014, http://www.nytimes. com/2014/02/21/nyregion/new-york-is-removing-over-400-children-from-2-homeless-shelters.html, coaliTion for The homeless, http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/basic-facts-about-homelessness-new-york-city/.
43 hTcl, supra note 38, at 55-56.
44 Id. at 21. Other diagnoses include ADD, conduct disorders, phobias, and borderline personality disorders. Id.
45 Jane Ellen Stevens, Massachusetts, Washington State Lead U.S. Trauma-sensitive School Movement, aces Too high news, May 31, 2012, http://acestoohigh.com/2012/05/31/massachusetts-washington-state-lead-u-s- trauma-sensitive-school-movement/ (citing Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, cenTers for disease conTrol and prevenTion (May 13, 2014), http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/. The chronic diseases included heart diseases, lung cancer, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, depression, violence, being a victim of violence, and suicide.
46 connecTicuT dep’T of children and families: Trauma-informed care pracTice guide (Sept. 2012), available at http://www. ct.gov/dcf/lib/dcf/trauma-informed_care/pdf/trauma-informed_care_-_policy__september_2012.pdf.
47 ann Jennings, models for developing Trauma-informed Behavioral healTh sysTems and Trauma-specific services (2004), available at http://www.theannainstitute.org/MDT.pdf.
48 HTCL, supra note 38, at 43 (citing child psychologists Marsten and Coastworth).
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