Can government policy end, or significantly decrease, childhood trauma?
- By BradStevens
- The Water Cooler
- 70 Replies
Childhood trauma damages society – why aren’t our leaders recognising it?
Prioritising child protection is both the right and smart thing to do.
I agree with a lot of this article. I think significantly reducing childhood trauma would lead to a host of better societal outcomes. I just don't know how, or if, it can be done, or if it could be, whether enough people would buy in.
From the article:
**the CDC study concluded that childhood violence is the most costly public health issue in the US, calculating that the overall costs exceeded those of cancer or heart disease. It estimated that eradicating childhood violence in the US would reduce the overall rate of depression by more than half, alcoholism by two-thirds, and suicide, serious drug abuse, and domestic violence by three-quarters. Moreover, preventing exposure to violence and abuse would significantly affect job performance, and vastly decrease the need for incarceration. In fact, about 95 percent of violent inmates suffer from childhood experiences with violence and abuse. That, of course, is not limited to the US, but is relevant to children around the world.
**Compared with girls of the same age, race and social conditions, sexually abused girls suffer from a range of profoundly negative effects: difficulties learning, depression, troubled sexual development, high rates of obesity and self-mutilation. They dropped out of school at much higher rates and had more serious medical illnesses. This study, and numerous others like it, underscore the reality that supporting high-quality early caregiving is critically important in preventing physical, social and mental health problems, regardless of traumas that occur outside the family.
**John Heckman, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Economics, has shown that quality early childhood programmes that involve parents and promote basic skills in disadvantaged children more than pay for themselves in improved outcomes. Economists have calculated that every dollar invested in high-quality home visiting, daycare, and preschool programmes results in $7 in savings on welfare payments, healthcare costs, substance abuse treatment, and incarceration, plus higher tax revenues due to better-paying jobs.
