On any given night, nearly 170 children call Washington State’s Echo Glen home. Echo Glen juvenile prison houses many young offenders who also suffer from a host of mental conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, and general anxiety disorder and poly-substance abuse. Many of these juveniles have a long history of criminal offenses, but increasingly juvenile offenders are finding their way to facilities such as Echo Glen on their first offense (Ellis, 2007). In what is becoming a familiar scenario, sentencing counties with limited or no access to mental health care providers are sending first-time offenders to a rehabilitation facility such as Echo Glen where they will get the mental health support they need. But is this really the best that society can do for these children? The current cycle not only deprives a child from getting adequate help to address their mental health needs in the present, it also robs society of one less productive individual for the future.
After reviewing 272 case files at Echo Glen, a common theme arises: many of these young lives were fractured long before they passed through the juvenile justice system (Ellis, 2007). The common thread of early childhood traumas including physical, verbal and substance abuse can be found in many case histories. In cases where the child was not the direct victim of abuse, they were witness to mental, physical or sexual abuse from an early age. The result of exposure to excessive stress at an early age is many times reflected in the long list of psychiatric diagnoses as well as a host of physical ailments such as Type-II diabetes, addiction and even hypertension seen in children as young as eleven years old. These observations are in concordance with a growing body of research that finds a powerful relationship between early emotional experiences and our physical and mental well being as adults, as well as linking these experiences to contributing factors in the leading causes of adult mortality in the United States (Anda, 2006). The children at Echo Glen are an indication that we do not have to wait decades to see the impact of early stressors on mental and physical health; the effects are being expressed in a relatively short amount of time.
These observations are also in line with longitudinal studies of adults who suffer a host of chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, addiction and depression. A number of these individuals also report a history of early childhood traumas like those seen in the case files at Echo Glen (Dube, 2004). In the cases of both children and adults, early intervention was never in place or failed. Instead these individuals were trapped in a system of “after the fact” measures including extended prison sentences that shuffle the responsibility of care to an already overburdened public health care system.
Because victims of early childhood traumas many times go on to suffer chronic mental and physical health conditions that in themselves are the leading causes of adult mortality in the United States, the issue becomes one of preventive health care. Adverse childhood trauma is more common than recognized or acknowledged and has a direct relation to chronic conditions such as depression, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, mental health disorders and addictions later in life (Felliti, 1998). In addition, the economic costs and health risks associated with the use of psychotropic medications for the treatment of resultant psychiatric disorders provide enough incentive to reduce the high rate of early childhood traumas (Gerra, 2008).
Early childhood traumas create physiological changes in the minds and bodies of victims. Current public policy traps American society in a cycle that perpetuates the problem by opting to pay the financial as well as emotional toll of trying to heal fractured lives and bodies after the damage is done. The social and economic costs associated with the care and rehabilitation of victims of childhood traumas suggest that early intervention programs should be strengthened in our communities. It is during that window of time that we have the best opportunity to change the course of young lives and prevent later healthcare and criminal justice costs associated with the long-lasting effects of traumatic childhood experiences.
These aren't just platitudes folks, I do have a framework in mind on how we can make this work.
Stay tuned.
Wendy
