There has been a great deal of attention in the media lately
on Colorado’s child protection system and its failure to effectively carry out its
charged responsibilities. In the worst cases reported, children who were known
to the system were left unprotected and died due to abuse and neglect. Although
the Department of Human Service became the focal point of the media attention,
similar neglect of children and adolescents has occurred for many years in the mental
health system. Children and adolescents who have been victimized or who have
suffered from mental illness have been a low priority. With a growing awareness
of the long term impact of early childhood and adolescent experiences on the
developing brain, these practices are beginning to be challenged.
David Finkelhor
(2008) states that, “children are the most criminally victimized people in our
society.” Children’s level of dependency and their inability to make
independent decisions about the people with whom they will associate increases
their risk for victimization. A child who is victimized might be at as much as
60 percent greater risk for future victimizations.
Childhood is a
developmentally dynamic period of time when the brain is exceptionally
sensitive, both positively and negatively, to environmental stimulation. In
fact, as a species our brains are pre-programmed to change in response to
experience. The human brain is immature at birth but develops rapidly during
the first five years of life. At birth the brain is only 25 percent of the weight
and size of an adult brain, seventy percent by age three, and ninety five
percent compared to an adult by the time a child is ready for kindergarten. The
brain’s plasticity – its ability to change in response to environmental
stimulation – allows us to adapt to our environment in order to survive and
grow. A child’s 100 billion neurons, each with 15,000 synaptic connections,
three times as many as an adult, are just waiting for experiences that will
mold the structures and organization of his or her brain, enhancing or
inhibiting functional capabilities.
Early social interactions appear to turn on the infant’s incredible
capacity to learn and explore the environment.
Active social engagement with a responsive caregiver activates the
mechanisms that begin to install the wiring that will allow a child to carry
out more complex functions, speaking, reading , writing and relating effectively. The quality and quantity of
positive, engaging, stimulating and soothing relational interactions creates a
growth producing environment that will facilitate the expression of the child’s
potential.
The same neural flexibility that allows a child to learn how
to walk, talk and play also makes him or her vulnerable to the long term impact
of negative experiences. Exposure to physical, sexual and emotional abuse,
neglect, and violence during sensitive early developmental periods, adverse
experiences which can be further complicated by a lack of caregiver support to buffer
the impact of associated stress, interferes with a child’s developing brain.
Those neural systems associated with a stress response are activated frequently,
get strengthened, and become sensitized. Because the higher, more complex
regions of the cortex associated with affect and arousal regulation, fear
modulation, empathy, insight, response inhibition, problem solving, and
decision making are undeveloped, these children are prone toward avoidance
rather than an approach mindset when faced with life’s challenges. They also have
a tendency to see life’s demands not as opportunities to explore but threats to
defend against. As a result, children exposed to negative experiences and
diminished caregiver support early in life often struggle with peer
relationships, academic challenges and making healthy life choices.
Many of the social problems we face today – school drop
outs, substance abuse, aggression, child abuse and poor physical health – are strongly
correlated with exposure to early childhood adversity. Programs that focus on
the prevention of these events are extremely important. However, effective early
interventions are as important because the more negative repetitions the brain
receives, the more these experiences get wired into a person’s neurobiology.
Highly threatening events, such as physical or sexual abuse
in a child’s life, create high arousal affective physiological states. Due to
actual threats from the perpetrator, a perceived risk of loss of the love a
parenting figure, or fear of bodily harm, many children begin to physically or
psychologically isolate and experience prolonged shame, self-blame and despair.
These negative affect states generate powerful hormones and neurochemicals that
alter the developmental trajectory of the evolving neural networks in the
brain. When an individual is exposed to an adverse event an internal negative
emotional state is created. If that emotional state is prolonged that state can
becomes a more enduring personality trait.
One of the goals of Denver Children’s Advocacy Center (DCAC) is
to improve the child protection system’s response to children who have been allegedly
victimized and to reduce the negative long term impact of exposure to terrible
life events. We do this by coordinating law enforcement, child protection,
medical and mental health treatment, and even educational services to facilitate
an effective response to children and families while increasing community
safety. Rapid, 24 hour a day access to a trained forensic interviewer, who
conducts sensitive interviews in a non institutional setting, reduces the
threat to the family and child, increases the potential for a disclosure, and lessons
the likelihood that multiple interviews with an assortment of child protection
system partners will be necessary. Research has shown that when children and family
have to repeat their painful, humiliating stories over and over again there are
profound negative effects on their recovery.
At DCAC, victim advocates are available to support the child
and family and to help them navigate the system to access necessary resources.
Coordination with both internal and external service providers increases the
potential for smooth transitions to trained service providers in the community.
Our goal is to have the child’s and family’s needs at the center of the process
and to have child protection professionals work together in one setting for the
benefit of the child. Getting the right intervention, at the right time, with
the right professional increases the potential for the right outcomes for the
child, family and community.
Denver Children’s Advocacy Center strives to be a
trauma-informed organization that provides services in a developmentally
sensitive, culturally responsive manner. The work that is carried out at DCAC
is the result of a collaborative effort of caring child protection professionals
to improve the lives of children and families in our community. With all the focus in the media on what has not been working, it is important to note
the successes that take place every day in the two Victorian houses on the
corner of 22nd and Federal Boulevard.
*Finkelhor,D. (2008). Childhood Victimization: Violence, Crime and Abuse in the lives of
Young People. New York: Oxford University Press
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Your comments and questions are welcome.
Please feel free to post below or to contact me directly at jerry@denvercac.org
