Children are the promise of tomorrow but are incredibly vulnerable to the caretakers they depend upon today. When children are at risk, it’s a risk we all share. Without intervention, the damage of early childhood abuse can last a lifetime.
On any given day, there are more than 400,000 abused or neglected children in our nation’s foster-care system — and more than 1,500 in our tri-county area alone. Removing children from abusive environments is an absolute imperative.
But it’s not enough.
According to the latest brain science, if left untreated, early childhood trauma can have an irreversible lifetime impact. This translates into a host of life-long impairments to a child’s emotional, mental and physical development. Hurt children often go on to hurt their children. Unless the cycle is broken, the damage can extend across generations.
[For more of this story written by Graci and Dennis McGillicuddy, go to http://www.heraldtribune.com/o...and-heal-child-abuse]
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