Honorary Co-Hosts:
Senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) and Dick Durbin (D-IL)
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
9:45 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
106 Dirksen Senate Office Building
This briefing will provide an overview on the impacts of substance use, specifically the opioid crisis, on children. It will address the efforts congress should be making to support children who watch their parents or other family members fall victim to opioids and other addictive substances.
- Nadine Burke Harris, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Center for Youth Wellness, San Francisco, CA
- Renée Wilson-Simmons, DrPH, Executive Director, ACE Awareness Foundation, Memphis, TN
- Frank Kros, MSW, JD, President, The Upside Down Organization, Baltimore, MD
- Moderator: Marlo Nash, Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Mobilization, Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, Washington, DC
Background: When children experience serious traumatic events—like a parent’s substance abuse disorder—they can suffer both emotionally and biologically. Decades of research have established the link between a child’s exposure to trauma, its effect on brain development, and long-term health and societal outcomes, such as chronic disease development, mental health disorders, high school graduation, and poverty.
Children who have experienced four serious negative experiences are twice as likely not to graduate high school, ten times more likely to inject drugs, and twelve times more likely to commit suicide than children who experienced zero serious adverse experiences.
The good news is that there are approaches and interventions that can effectively prevent and mitigate the impact of trauma. Schools, health care, social services, child welfare, first responders, juvenile and family courts, and other settings must all have the tools and federal support to recognize trauma and coordinate services to address the effects of trauma on children.
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