Treating trauma

Long before a child is able to speak up for himself, he can suffer damage that will affect his entire future, his whole lifetime.

Child physical and sexual abuse have been widely publicized in recent years, but many people do not realize the impact neglect has daily on children across this area, across Oklahoma, across the nation. Merely living in poverty, even with hard-working parents, puts a child at risk.

If the turnout at Wednesday’s Children in Trauma seminar – sponsored by Court Appointed Special Advocates of Cherokee Country – was any indication, the need to help these children is great. CASA Director Jo Prout had hoped the event would attract 50 people, but 180 pre-registered, and more than 100 had showed up before the first speaker began.

Attending were local CASA volunteers and representatives of other CASAs around the state; Indian Child Welfare workers; Department of Human Services staff; people from the Office of Juvenile Affairs; educators and others.

“We have all disciplines that work with children,” Prout said as she welcomed them. “You’ll need to talk to each other and get to know each other.”

She called the presenters a “star-studded agenda.”

Keynote speaker was Dr. Diane J. Willis of Norman, professor emeritus in the Department of Pediatrics, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

She took early retirement to help Oklahoma tribes establish their Early Head Start programs, which she strongly advocates. Willis comes from a well-known local family, as she is the daughter of former longtime Oklahoma House Speaker Bill Willis of Tahlequah.

Other presenters were Dr. Joanne L. Davis of Tulsa, associate professor of clinical psychology and co-director of the Tulsa Institute of Trauma, Abuse and Neglect at the University of Tulsa; and Dr. Laurna J. Champ, clinical director and owner of Calming Connections, a behavioral health agency with five offices, including in Cherokee County, who has been a child and family therapist for more than 30 years and a faculty member at several universities, including Northeastern State University.

Willis said the number of children living in poverty — and hence at risk for reduced potential of mental and physical development — is appalling in the United States.

She quoted figures from studies showing fewer than 3 and fewer than 4 percent of children in Norway and Denmark live in poverty. But in America, 21.3 percent of children exist in poverty.

“We’re supposed to be the richest country in the world. Where is all that — on Wall Street?” she asked.

This could be prevented.

“If you can start with a pregnant mother and get her eating well, taking care of herself, you’re going to get babies in a lot greater shape,” she said. “A lot of things are 100 percent preventable – for example, fetal alcohol syndrome.”

Willis presented the results of numerous studies on brain development, and the effects of malnutrition, stress and abuse on youngsters.

She said the baby’s brain begins its greatest development during the second month of pregnancy, and while brain cell formation is virtually complete at birth, other types of brain development are just beginning.

“The brain development that takes place before age 1 is much more rapid and extensive than we have ever known,” she said. “Good nutrition, free of drugs and alcohol, is excessively important.”

She recalled the days when pregnant women avoided contracting German measles, for fear of possible birth defects. Earlier in her career, she saw children who had resulted from mothers who became infected.

“They came in wheelchairs, they came in deaf and blind, they came in disabled in a lot of ways,” she said.

Poor maternal and child nutrition may not be as dramatic, but it is pervasive in many households and just as devastating.

“Extremely poor nutrition can affect the central nervous system and brain growth,” Willis said.

She talked of poor nutrition many children received in some of the Indian Country sites she had worked with.

“I couldn’t cry when I was there, but I cried after I left, and afterward I couldn’t talk about it, because of the hunger in that program — and this is America,” she said. “I can go out to a preschool program and I can point out the children who have been neglected, and you can, too. They are different.”

A physically or sexu\ally abused child receives a horrible message from adults, but so does the neglected child. It may be more subtle, but it is always there.

“I don’t give diddly-squat about you,” is the message the adult conveys, Willis said. “It’s pervasive, lack of care, love, maintenance.”

On one reservation where she worked, the median income was $2,900 per year, she said. How can a parent be expected to provide housing, clothing, food, on that meager amount?

“Brain development is so much more susceptible to environmental influences than we’ve ever suspected,” Willis said.

Poor nutrition and neglect can lead to limited intelligence, limited language skills, and academic underachievement.

“If you’ve got a speech/language problem, you’re not going to be able to learn to read, you’re not going to be able to learn to write, you’re not going to do well at school,” Willis said.

A baby’s greatest vision development is between 2 and 4 months, peaking at 8 months, she said. Infants should be stimulated, whether through mobiles over their cribs, through other playthings, or through attention from the parent, including talking, caressing and stroking.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re impoverished. You can stimulate your children. You talk to them, you cuddle them, you nurture them. Of course, you’ve got to feed them, too,” she said.

Responding to a social worker’s question, she said children who have been removed from neglectful homes can make dramatic progress in behavior, given proper care and stimulation. However, those who have been removed at later ages may suffer intellectually because of years of neglect.

Willis said 38.2 million American families live in “hungry households,” and 38.2 percent of these people are children. Between 85 and 91 percent of low-income children have parents who work but don’t make enough to feed their families properly.

“We’ve got a lot of people who work full time, but can’t make ends meet,” she said.

A minimum wage worker would have to put in 50 to 60 hours a week just to meet minimum needs of an apartment, clothing, transportation and food, she said. And that’s not including health care, another area in which the United States ranks low — 37th, according to the World Health Organization.

When a child is subjected to stress in the home, such as when there is domestic abuse, alcohol or drug abuse, the child suffers, even if it’s just an infant in a crib, Willis said. Maternal depression also affects the children.

“Parents are the brain’s first and most important teachers. We want to strengthen parents,” she said. “Most parents really love their children. They maybe didn’t get that kind of love when they were growing up, and there are many things they have to learn. But you can teach them.”

Among the solutions Willis suggested are:

• Training sessions about these issues at state and national levels.

• An increase in quality mental and behavioral resources for prevention and intervention. (This is at a time when community facilities such as the local Bill Willis Center are being forced to reduce their services.)

• Increasing clinical intervention and research for abused and neglected children and their families.

• Recognizing child abuse and neglect as a public health problem, rather than a social issue.

• Making jobs pay enough to support families.

• Increasing early childhood care and learning experiences, such as Early Head Start.

• Setting clear local, state and national antipoverty goals.

Willis urged her audience to get involved with these issues and become even more active advocates for children.

http://tahlequahdailypress.com/features/x1004922920/Treating-trauma