A Children's Crisis Care Center
6115 Olivet Ave., Elyria, Ohio 44035
Phone: 440-240-1851
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Laurie Conrad talking about Children and the Pandemic
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Governor DeWine on Pediatric Trauma
Laurie Conrad, our Child Advocate, recently attended a pediatric mental health summit in Dayton organized by Governor Mike DeWine's office. Over 800 people from across the state came together to hear more about this important issue. We are encouraged by the attention being given to the impact of trauma on children and we continue to focus on improving outcomes for our own children who have experienced trauma.
For more information about the summit, from ideastream.org. -
Oprah talks about Childhood Trauma on 60 Minutes
Oprah Winfrey is shifting her perspective on how childhood trauma impacts people's lives. For Sunday's "60 Minutes," Winfrey traveled to Milwaukee, where she grew up, to learn about a revolutionary approach in the city to early trauma. She spoke to Dr. Bruce Perry, a world-renowned expert in the field who has treated survivors of high-profile events like the Columbine shooting. He said a child's brain gets wired "differently" when they're raised in a chaotic or violent environment."If you have developmental trauma, the truth is you're going to be at risk for almost any kind of physical health, mental health, social health problem that you can think of," Perry told Winfrey.
Winfrey said she believes the conversation could be a "game changer."
"What I recognize is is that a lot of NGOs, a lot of people working in philanthropic world, who are trying to help disadvantaged, challenged people from backgrounds that have been disenfranchised, are working on the wrong thing," Winfrey added.
While there have been plenty of job and training programs to help the disadvantaged, Winfrey said, "If you don't fix the hole in the soul, the thing that is where the wounds started, you're working at the wrong thing."
The shift in perspective comes down to what Winfrey calls a "life-changing question."
"See, we go through life and we see kids who are misbehaving. 'You juvenile delinquents,' we label them. And really the question that we should be asking is not 'what's wrong with that child' but 'what happened to that child?' And then having the resources to be able to address what happened to you. The most important question you can ask of anybody which is what I now say even for the Parkland [school] shooting – instead of what's the matter with that kid, I say what happened to that child?"
As a result of her reporting, she said she went back to her school board and said, "Hey, we've been doing it all wrong. We need to be a trauma-informed care institution."
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Resisting violence in children
Follow this link to a newsletter from Kenneth A. De Luca, Ph.D. & Associates, Inc. This newsletter contains execellent information about what families can do to address violence in their children. (Published by Emotional Wellness Matters)
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Childhood trauma
The word trauma is used to describe an emotionally painful event that can overwhelm a person’s ability to cope. The types of events that may cause trauma include natural disasters, accidents and violence. For children, they also can include physical or sex abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, divorced or separated parents, living with parents involved in substance abuse, living in a home where there is domestic violence, having a family member incarcerated and/or living with a family member with mental illness.
Children who experience trauma suffer effects that may last a lifetime. The more traumatic events they experience, the greater the chances they will suffer emotionally, mentally and/or physically.
Children exposed to trauma often experience feelings of anxiety, worry, shame, guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, grief, sadness and anger.
Children who have survived abuse or trauma as children have been linked with higher rates of anxiety, depression, suicide and self-harm, PTSD, drug and alcohol misuse and relationship difficulties.
Children who have been exposed to trauma may have difficulty regulating their emotions which can lead to sleep difficulties, lower immune function and increase the risk of a number of physical illnesses through adulthood.
(Taken from International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies – www.istss.org)
Children that come to Blessing House have experienced childhood trauma. For some of them, they have had to deal with multiple traumatic events in their early years. Some have had the resilience to cope on their own, but many are struggling to find ways to process and deal with these adverse circumstances.
Children who have experienced trauma often exhibit challenging behaviors. They are not sure how to express their feelings and their fears, so they may use words and actions of defiance and anger as a way of coping with what they have experienced.
At Blessing House, we understand that children who come to us need help to deal with their adverse childhood experiences, often referred to as ACE experiences. Our staff is trained to connect with each child individually and consider possible situations that may have led to challenging behaviors. We emphasize compassionate care that reinforces the child’s sense of safety.
Laurie Conrad, Blessing House’s Child Advocate, is a Level I Trauma Specialist, trained and certified through the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children. Laurie uses a variety of sensory experiences including art and sand tray therapy to help children process their experiences and develop ways they can deal with them.
Treating children’s trauma while they are still young can have a significant impact on their lives. This is a video of a TED talk by Dr. Nadine Burke that illustrates how childhood trauma can affect a person’s health across a lifetime.
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