In my work as a public health researcher, I am reminded every day that the health risks of childhood aren’t limited to communicable diseases, playground falls, and sports-related bumps and bruises. Youths in America far too often suffer intentional injuries inflicted by assaults from peers, strangers, and even caregivers in the course of seemingly routine activities of adolescence — going to school, shopping with friends, or playing outside their homes.
While our medical system can usually fix the physical trauma, it is largely unprepared to address the emotional trauma that follows being a victim of an assault. Young patients are often discharged back into the same environment in which the injury occurred, with an ongoing risk for retaliation, re-injury, and sometimes even death.
Boys and young men of color experience a disproportionate burden of assaults. It’s easy to imagine that they would be unwilling to seek support for mental health concerns after these injuries. But when my colleagues and I at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia explored that idea, we were surprised by our results. In a recent paper in the Journal of Adolescent Health, we discovered the range of needs that adolescent boys express following violent injury. Nearly all of the young men ages 12 to 17 who were participating in a voluntary post-injury case management program wanted access to mental health care, and identified diverse other goals for their recovery.
[For more on this story by RACHEL K. MYERS, go to https://www.statnews.com/2017/...ts-emotional-trauma/]
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