Trump Officials Claim to Be Unaware of the Psychological Trauma of Family Separation [psmag.com]

This policy is heartbreaking!  Family separations are preventable ACEs!  As a child I experienced parental abduction for several months. It was confusing and traumatic - and I was with my siblings and a parent. I cannot imagine what it might have been like to be in a cage without the buffering effect of siblings or a parent. 

Grateful to champions such as Karen Johnson who articulate the consequences of family separation.  Copied from a linked source: 

Karen Johnson, senior director of trauma-informed services at the National Council for Behavioral Health, says that what we're likely seeing in these children's responses is a protective numbing or disassociating. Weeks- to months-long separations have an impact on a child's brain, Johnson says, "which speaks to the urgency to make sure that children do not spend one hour longer than they need to separated from their parents."

Johnson is concerned that children's stress responses are being turned on indefinitely in these scenarios, which directly affects the neural pathways in the brain and the immune system.

"The release of stress hormones, such as cortisol, happens when a child experiences something that is terrifying to them or scary, and the way to buffer that or to help a child move through that or to biologically turn off that hormone is through a nurturing, caring relationship," Johnson says. But in cases where children have gone without interaction with their caregiver, the stress response in a child's system remains on for however long they've been separated. When the stress response does not get shut off, the neurons in the brain change. And those changes can have consequences.

This is just stunning. We have a LOT of work to do!