Johns Hopkins University issued the following announcement on June 22.
The federal policy of separating children and parents caught illegally crossing the southern border of the United States, an approach that has faced intense criticism over the past several days, could have profound and long-lasting effects on the mental health of the children in involved, Johns Hopkins University expert Paul Spiegel said in a Q+A published byNewsweek on Wednesday.
Spiegel, a physician by training, directs the Center for Humanitarian Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is internationally recognized for his research on preventing and responding to complex humanitarian emergencies. Prior to joining Hopkins in 2016, he spent 14 years at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, where served as chief of public health.
An estimated 2,300 children have been separated from their parents as a result of a recent policy shift designed to deter illegal border crossings, though an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon appeared to put an end the practice. Spiegel told Newsweek that for these immigrant children, some under the age of 1, separation from their parents and detention is a trauma that can have "very negative effects."
From Newsweek:
What do we know about how this kind of separation impacts mental health?
There are a tremendous amount of data on this, stemming primarily from the Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACE, study, conducted by the CDC from 1995 to 1998. This study found that traumatic events such as divorce, separation from parents, being put into foster homes or sexual or physical abuse have very negative effects on children. These effects are cumulative; more than one trauma—and particularly more than four—have increasing consequences. At the time, the results were surprising.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Johns Hopkins University
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