Report: Migrant Children Coming To The U.S. Were Traumatized After Family Separation

“They say that there’s not enough clinical staff for the number of kids, and not just the number of kids, but the kinds of problems that the children appear with.”

By Syeda HasanSeptember 16, 2019 1:29 pm, , ,

From KERA:

Physical pain, post-traumatic stress and inconsolable crying are just some of the experiences of migrant children highlighted in a report out this month from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.

Last August and September, investigators visited 45 facilities funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, including 20 facilities in Texas. They interviewed about 100 mental health clinicians who worked with the children detained there.

“Facility staff reported that longer lengths of stay led to deteriorating mental health for children and increased demands on staff,” says Ann Maxwell, assistant inspector general with the Office of Evaluation and Inspections. “Facilities reported that addressing the needs of separated children was particularly challenging because these children exhibited more fear, feelings of abandonment and post-traumatic stress than did children who were not separated.”

At the height of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy in 2018, the ORR saw a sharp increase in the number of children 12 and under in its care, and clinicians say they felt unprepared to address the children’s mental health needs.

“In the report, they say that there’s not enough clinical staff for the number of kids, and not just the number of kids, but the kinds of problems that the children appear with,” says Luis Zayas, dean of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin.

Zayas has researched the mental health impacts of family separation. After the “zero tolerance” policy was implemented, he warned the practice could do long-term psychological damage. Zayas says ideally, children facing such intense trauma would be treated in smaller settings.

ORR guidelines call for having one mental health clinician for every 12 children at a facility, but the OIG report shows some clinicians found themselves treating as many as 25 children. That meant less time for counseling and less individual attention, which could make it even harder to establish trust, Zayas says.

“Children in detention centers will be meeting new staff with every shift,” Zayas says, “and they may not distinguish between clinical staff and the guards and the officials from the government.”

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