Mental health services vital to heal children traumatized by violence

Recent suicides by students who survived the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High reveal how trauma induced by violence, especially gun violence, extends long after the event and well beyond a shooting’s direct victims.

Children, in particular, bear the consequences of violence-induced trauma. Without timely and effective intervention, the brains of children exposed to violence, especially if that exposure is sustained, will never develop as biologically destined.

This revelation has profound implications for public safety, public health, our economy and more. While the challenge is enormous, state leaders now are poised to grapple with it.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has appointed California’s first surgeon general, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, who is an expert on these issues. And for the first time in state history, the governor’s budget contains funding to address what are called “adverse childhood events,” or ACES.

The science around childhood exposure to violence and the trauma associated with it is clear. Frequently overstimulating parts of the brain that play key roles in grappling with stress, including the amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, can lead to chemical imbalance and abnormal neurological development.

The negative impact on the brain systems that regulate stress and executive functions, including impulse control, planning, memory, focus and decision making, can last a lifetime. Children may become hypervigilant – never letting their guards down – leading to violent reactions to a world their minds interpret as profoundly unsafe.

Adversely affected kids may have trouble developing relationships of trust with peers and adults because their brains have warned them to trust no one. They may also have difficulty focusing on basic tasks. These effects linger as children grow, because their brain chemistry has been profoundly altered.

Their symptoms most closely approximate the post-traumatic stress disorder endured by many combat veterans.

This is an emerging public health emergency, requiring us to go beyond traditional roles. For example, while prosecutors, like myself, train our staff to avoid retraumatizing children who’ve witnessed violence as they proceed through the judicial process, the scope and severity of this crisis demand much more. This is especially true given the fact that more than 3 million children in America are exposed to gun violence every year, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

In Los Angeles, my office has begun to tackle this issue with a project which, while only in early stages, shows promise.

We’re starting in the Watts neighborhood – a 2.2 square mile area where there were 93 “shots fired” calls in 2018 alone. Here, we’ve established a partnership with the non-profit Children’s Institute, the Los Angeles Police Department, neighborhood schools and area activists.

Now, whenever there is a shots fired call, a team – including LAPD, a Children’s Institute therapist and a community advocate – roll out to the scene. When they encounter kids who are aware of the shots, they offer immediate therapy and a series of follow-up sessions, all free.

The team returns the next day, canvassing the neighborhood to locate other children who might need help. The goal is to connect kids with these interventions within 24 hours of a shot being fired.

The team also performs community outreach, educating parents, teachers, community activists and others on the impact of violence-induced trauma on kids’ brains. It teaches them how to recognize signs that children may be suffering from trauma.

We’re only beginning to formulate an approach to measure whether these interventions will interrupt trauma’s impact. But many in Watts are embracing the effort. One initially reluctant parent whose child is now in therapy told us, “I wish [this team] had been around when I was growing up ... I could have used them.”

California now has the opportunity to build on experiments like ours – as well as other projects with similar goals across the nation, including the Hartford Crisis Response Team and West Virginia’s Handle With Care program – and serve as an incubator for innovative, timely intervention and prevention strategies.

After all, we know the impact of violence on developing minds. But we’ve got to have the will to give our most vulnerable kids a chance at the lives they deserve.