Raising awareness about the impact of child traumatic stress and what parents and caregivers can do to help children recover and thrive is the focus of a new public education campaign launched today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and its National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative (NCTSI). The campaign, titled “Helping Kids Recover and Thrive” includes new public service announcements (PSAs) in English and Spanish, as well as a website.
“Too many children and youth experience traumatic events, from serious injuries and illnesses to interpersonal violence, abuse, and neglect to natural or human-caused disasters. With support, children can recover from traumatic stress through a supportive caregiving system, access to effective treatments, and service systems that are trauma-informed,” says Paolo del Vecchio, director of SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services. “Our job is to improve the quality of community-based trauma treatment and services and increase access to effective trauma-focused interventions so that children and their families can get the help they need.”
Forty-one percent of children and youth experienced a physical assault in the last year, and 1 in 10 experienced an assault-related injury. More than 1 in 10 experienced maltreatment by a caregiver. According to the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study adverse childhood experiences increases the likelihood of adult strokes, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, early death – and lowered job performance and employment levels. Over half of the more than 17,000 participants in the study had been exposed to at least one adverse childhood experience such as abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction. Adults who had six or more adverse experiences were likely to die 20 years sooner than those with none.
[For more of this story go to http://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom...cements/201506150900]
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