Good Article Alert: Should Child Trauma Be Treated as a Public Health Crisis

This article, Should Childhood Trauma Be Treated as a Public Health Crisis,  is definitely a must read and is based on results from a local, NC-bread study. It reviews a 22 year longitudinal study on the experiences of individuals from the Great Smoky Mountains Study, which followed over 14oo children from mostly rural parts of western North Carolina. The article discusses the uniqueness of the study in that it avoids something that many trauma critics scrutinize studies focusing on the impact of trauma for which is recall bias. Recall bias is a partiality that accompanies recalling events of the past as facts may be inaccurate based on our fading memories of them. This study uniquely avoids much of this since children in the study were interviewed annually during their childhood, then four additional times during adulthood.

What the study finds, is very similar to many of the results of most other trauma-research. Which is that childhood trauma is an extremely strong predictor of social, mental, physical, and behavioral related issues in to future. Although as with most studies this one has its limitations, Kathryn Magruder, epidemiologist and professor in psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina says,

"I think it should put to rest any kind of speculation about early childhood trauma and later life difficulties."

Later, the article discusses the importance of utilizing a public health approach to tackle trauma and how recently passed opioid legislation may be the door to which that is done. Through language used throughout the bill and subtitles such as this one and others that specifically point out the role of trauma in the SU disease cycle.

“Subtitle B--Recognizing Early Childhood Trauma Related to Substance Abuse

Recognizing Early Childhood Trauma Related to Substance Abuse Act of 2018

(Sec. 8012) HHS must provide resources to early childhood care and education providers and other professionals working with young children on ways to recognize and respond to children who may be affected by a family member's or other adult's substance abuse.”